Race Equity Project

Legal Services of Northern California recently unveiled the Race Equity Project.  Three years ago, through an empirically-based self-assessment, Legal Services of Northern California found marked disparities in the allocation of resources in its service area. Although the form of racial discrimination has changed, discrimination, intentional or not, continues to unfairly burden people and communities of color. The Race Equity Project seeks to address issues of race within our service area by (1) developing educational and support materials for race-based advocacy, (2) by proactively addressing issues of race in our advocacy, and (3) by connecting communities and advocates to facilitate the sharing and dissemination of race-based advocacy strategies.

The website (click here) has a ton of information about poor communities of color, including links to statistical data. Here is a recent addition:

The newest edition of the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s Out of Reach 2006 is now available. Out of Reach “is a side-by-side comparison of wages and rents in every county, Metropolitan Area (MSAs/HMFAs), combined nonmetropolitan area and state in the United States. For each jurisdiction, the report calculates the amount of money a household must earn in order to afford a rental unit at a range of sizes (0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 bedrooms) at the area’s Fair Market Rent (FMR), based on the generally accepted affordability standard of paying no more than 30% of income for housing costs.” For those of you who follow our postings with bated breadth, we have a special treat for you. KnowledgePlex is conducting an “expert chat” on the newest version of Out of Reach at 11 a.m. (PT) today.

KJ