Kellee Coleman

Closing the Homeownership Gap: A practice in designing data and community-informed solutions

Despite its ability to provide financial stability and close racial wealth gaps, the pathway to homeownership is fraught with deep-seated legacies of discrimination. This session will delve into the complexities of homeownership as a crucial wealth-building tool, particularly for households of color.

Through discussion and an activity, the speakers will share data and community-informed strategies to expand affordable and sustainable homeownership for Black, Indigenous, Latine, and Asian American communities.

Angela Gravely-Smith will share an overview of Living Cities’ Closing the Gaps Cohort’s work to close homeownership gaps by leveraging resources such as community needs assessments, data, and technical assistance.

Kellee Coleman, a cohort member from the City of Austin, will reflect on their experience engaging local residents to shape the city’s programs and policies. They will also share an overview of the City of Austin’s work with targeted financial assistance programs and community land trusts to expand BIPOC homeownership.

Participants will walk away with an expanded toolkit of ways to collaborate with residents to name and address challenges in their respective communities, as well as a case study from the City of Austin about how they are leveraging community feedback to expand BIPOC homeownership. Join us to learn practical solutions for a more equitable housing landscape, where all individuals have the opportunity to thrive and build intergenerational wealth.

Building Authentic Community Government Partnerships

GARE's focus is on normalizing conversations about race, operationalizing new behaviors and policies, and organizing to achieve racial equity. GARE is seeing more and more jurisdictions that are making a commitment to achieving racial equity, focusing on the power and influence of their own institutions, and working in partnership across sectors and with the community to maximize impact.

When government prioritizes racial equity, relationships with community shift to authentic engagement and the sharing of power. This workshop will highlight the experiences of jurisdictions that have been recipients of the Innovation and Implementation fund, working with community to eliminate structural racism.

There is an increasingly strong field of practice. We are organizing in government with the belief that the transformation of government is essential for us to advance racial equity and is critical to our success as a nation.