Louisville is running out of time to use REVERT funds allocated for redlined communities
John D. Borders
Opinion Contributor - Courier Journal
This article was originally posted on The Courier-Journal.
$8 million of the REVERT funds came from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, and those funds must be used by the middle of 2026
It has been well established that the wealth disparities in America between white and African American families have largely been created by differences in housing opportunities. Through housing segregation and discrimination, Black families historically lost an opportunity to build and then pass on generational wealth to their families. That largely explains why white wealth in America today is about ten times that of Black wealth. Other factors—discrimination in employment and education, for instance—have contributed. But if we want to start to eliminate these wealth disparities, we must start by looking at and to housing for solutions.
The Louisville Affordable Housing Trust Fund was created by Metro Council to find affordable housing solutions in our city that, in 2019, was recognized as the fourth most segregated in the nation. LAHTF makes loans and grants to for-profit and nonprofit developers and builders to build and rehabilitate affordable housing in our community. And through down payment assistance programs, LAHTF is working to help low-and moderate-income families purchase their first home. For many, it’s the first time in generations of a family that someone will own their own home.
199 loans for redlined neighborhoods still available
In December 2022, Louisville Metro provided $13 million to LAHTF to redress some of the harm done to families in historically redlined communities. Redlining began with the New Deal, where the Federal Homeowners Loan Corporation hired local realtors like Paul Semonin and John Kesselring, and appraisers like D.H. Lyon and T. R. Lindsey, to create maps that would designate white neighborhoods as “green,” or safe for investment and loans while labeling predominately Black neighborhoods (or even ones that were next to Black neighborhoods) “red,” warning lenders and developers not to invest there. Black people were systematically labeled a credit risk, and this had an immediate and lasting impact on both the neighborhoods and their residents. Looking at the map of Louisville from 1937, we can see that the neighborhoods labeled “green” are today exponentially wealthier neighborhoods than those that were labeled “red.”
REVERT—Restoring Each Viable Economically Redlined Territory—is LAHTF’s program to locate and assist people and neighborhoods that were redlined out of investment opportunities. Through REVERT, 216 families who can prove family lineage tied to a previously redlined area can receive forgivable loans to rehabilitate or update an existing home, or to build on a vacant or abandoned lot, so long as they live there as their primary residence. It’s a brilliant program because it not only provides opportunity for wealth building to families historically discriminated against, but it also creates incentives to improve the very neighborhoods that were hurt by that discrimination.
Eight million dollars of the REVERT funds came from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, and those funds must be used by the middle of 2026. REVERT has closed 17 transactions, leaving another 199 loans available to other families to be used by that deadline. To apply for a loan through REVERT, visit loutrustfund.org.
Our city has a lot of work to do to compensate for the harm done to Black families by redlining and other discriminatory housing practices. REVERT is a good start. LAHTF is a nonprofit and accepts tax-deductible donations.
John D. Borders, Jr. is a real estate attorney with Borders & Borders, PLC and serves on the board of directors for the Louisville Urban League and on the forms committee of the Greater Louisville Association of Realtors.