October 21 – November 4

Housing Equity:

1. Fayetteville City Council approves $450,000 plan for adding affordable housing in Murchison Corridor, entering next phase: The Fayetteville City Council on Monday unanimously approved an affordable housing plan for the wider Murchison neighborhood, home to Fayetteville State University. Three-quarters of city households that earn 60% or below the area median income are cost burdened, and there is a shortage of 20,000 affordable housing units in the city.
2. Widespread Racial Bias Found in Home Appraisals: Researchers found evidence of a persistent practice that gives higher value to homes when the occupants are white, and devalue them if the owners are people of color. White homeowners can expect their homes’ values to increase at twice the rate of homeowners of color, a stark confirmation of systemic racial bias in home appraisals, according to a new report.
3. More Than Just a Structure: The Myriad Impacts of Black Women’s Exclusion from Homeownership: Due to racism within the real estate market, the median value of Black real estate assets in the US is about 60 percent of the value of white real estate assets. This disparity has stripped the Black community of tremendous wealth. Brookings found the average Black home is undervalued by $48,000, adding up to an astounding $156 billion cumulatively.
4. How owner-occupancy regulations are contributing to the housing crisis: Cities and towns argue that owner-occupancy requirements ensure absentee landlords and renters do not cause blight but because renters typically have lower incomes than homeowners and are racially more diverse, owner-occupancy requirements affect the economic and demographic makeup of neighborhoods.
5. VA Reports New Data Shows 11% Decline in Veteran Homelessness Since 2020 — The Biggest Drop in More Than 5 Years: The data show on a single night in January 2022, there were 33,136 Veterans who were experiencing homelessness in the United States — down from 37,252 in 2020. Overall, this represents a 55.3% reduction in Veterans experiencing homelessness since 2010.

Health Equity:

1. Biden-Harris Administration Announces More than Half of All States Have Expanded Access to 12 Months of Medicaid and CHIP Postpartum Coverage: An estimated 418,000 Americans annually are now eligible for essential care for a full year after pregnancy under the Biden-Harris Administration’s American Rescue Plan.
2. Judge orders North Carolina to provide more at-home care to disabled people: A judge has ordered North Carolina to make it easier for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to receive care at home rather than in institutions. The order outlines several actions the state must take — including moving people with disabilities out of institutions over the next eight years and stop admitting them to institutions except for short-term stays within six years.
3. Cureatr and Unite Us Launches Health Equity Program: Cureatr and Unite Us are teaming up to launch a comprehensive health equity program to support patients experiencing transitions of care. In addition to providing services that address medication access issues, the new health equity program allows CHWs to screen patients for social determinants of health (SDoH) insecurities related to food, transportation, housing, and health literacy and connect them to community resources in their area.
4. NCDHHS Signs Health Equity Pledge to Leverage Data in Addressing Disparities, Continuing Work to Embed Equity into Programs: The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services joined approximately 40 cross-sector health care organizations committing to using and sharing high-level data about race, ethnicity, language and gender to inform best practices to promote health equity.
5. Housing and Health: Creating Solutions With Communities: The Kresge Foundation wanted to learn with grantees about work at the intersection of housing and health equity. Their takeaway: Fund community-driven solutions and community power.

Economic Development:

1. Digital Equity And The Future Of Work: How Six Governors Are Advancing Digital Skills For Equitable Economic Participation: Hawaii, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island brought together interagency teams to develop state plans to close digital skills gaps in priority industries, geographies and demographics in alignment with their Governors’ workforce and economic development priorities.
2. Why Black women are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs: Women-owned businesses overall increased 21% between 2014 and 2019, compared to 9% for all businesses. While Black women represent 14% of the female population, they account for 42% of net new women-owned businesses. As the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs, Black women say they are seeking more freedom, opportunity, fulfillment and stability.
3. Seattle startup The Ebba aims help people find and support Black-owned businesses: The Ebba (Essential Black Business App) helps users find Black-owned businesses across the U.S. in categories such as food, cosmetics, fitness, travel, hospitality, and more. The app is part of a growing effort to highlight Black businesses through filters on major platforms like Yelp or specialized apps such as the Official Black Wall Street.
4. Marking National Women’s Small Business Month: What The Data Say: According to data from the Census Bureau’s Annual Business Survey (ABS), women-owned businesses are younger and have lower entry than male-owned businesses. In its most recent Women-Owned Business study, Biz2Credit also found a widening gap among male and female-owned firms in average earnings and average loan size.
5. EDA Taps University of Michigan and New Growth Innovation Network to Document Equity Outcomes of AMERICAN Rescue Plan Programs: This project is aimed at identifying best practices of equity and inclusion in two of EDA’s keystone ARPA initiatives: the Build Back Better Regional Challenge and the Good Jobs Challenge.  A capstone report will describe key learnings gleaned from the research and advance recommendations for equitable growth frameworks that can be adopted by the greater community of economic development practitioners.

Educational Equity:

1. Supreme Court considers Harvard and University of North Carolina’s use of affirmative action: The conservative Supreme Court will meet Monday to consider whether colleges and universities can continue to take race into consideration as a factor in admissions, a case that could diminish the number of Black and Hispanic students in higher education.
2. 2021-2022 NCDPI data indicates disparities in CHCCS school performance: In September, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction released performance data for North Carolina school districts from the 2021-2022 school year revealing racial disparities in performance within Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.
3. Wake school board backs new equity policy, saying it’s ‘long overdue’ step: The Wake County school board gave unanimous initial approval Tuesday to a new equity policy that has generated debate in the community. The policy says Wake will take steps like implementing diverse instructional materials, recruiting a more diverse workforce and questioning practices that lead to inequity.
4. Decline in teachers with traditional education degrees linked to growth in charter schools: As charter schools proliferate across America, there has been a corresponding decline in the number of new teachers earning bachelor’s degrees in education from traditional preparation programs. “We already know that North Carolina charters are exacerbating budget pressures and school segregation,” Nordstrom said. “This new research indicates that charters may also be worsening our teacher shortage.”
5. NC Supreme Court Issues Leandro Ruling: After nearly 30 years since the original lawsuit was filed, the NC Supreme Court issued a new ruling in the Leandro case, paving the way for a $785-million boost in funding for public schools from the state. “This is the most important civil rights decision issued by the Supreme Court in decades and one which will benefit generations of North Carolina children to come.”