November 4 – November 18

Housing Equity

1. Rent stabilization measures win in US midterm election, including a few in North Carolina: Ballot measures to build more affordable housing and protect tenants from soaring rent increases were plentiful and fared well in last week’s midterm elections. Proposals on the ballot raising money for and authorizing construction of affordable housing passed in Charlotte, Fayetteville and Buncombe County.
2. Tenants Demand Emergency Measures From White House as Rents Skyrocket: Historic rent increases over the past two years are a core driver of inflation, and eviction rates have already reached pre-pandemic levels in cities across the country. Housing advocates are now calling on Biden to issue an emergency executive order to protect tenants and prevent the housing market from destabilizing the economy.
3. NC law makes mandating affordable housing hard — did Asheville find a solution?: When Asheville put a temporary pause on construction of hotels three years ago, officials seized the moment to address a burgeoning affordability problem in their city. In doing so, Asheville may have also left a breadcrumb trail that other North Carolina localities can follow to get around state restrictions on affordable housing.
4. Solutions Centering Black Women in Housing: The harms that Black women face in our housing market are the result of decisions made by the government and real estate industry to segregate housing markets, setting the stage for corporations to profit off Black women’s pain. Without understanding the decisions that got us here, we cannot build a housing system that is just and equitable.
5. What Are The Barriers To Native American Homeownership?: Compared to white non-Hispanic Americans, Native American’s face are staggering disparities in homeownership rates. NeighborWorks America is a non-profit organization seeking to close this gap.

Health Equity

1. Does Solving Inequality in Education Mean Embracing ‘Birth Equity’?: There’s a disparate rate of preterm births between Black and white communities affiliated with increases in the likelihood of cognitive or behavioral challenges later in life. Addressing inequity in birthing conditions is crucial for educational outcomes.
2. The Digital Divide 2.0: Navigating Digital Equity and Health Equity in Education: Access or lack of access to technology is one of the many social determinants of health. According to the Federal Communications Commission, evidence is showing a strong relationship between broadband access, internet adoption and health outcomes.
3. Sick profit: Investigating private equity’s stealthy takeover of health care across cities and specialties: As private equity extends its reach into health care, evidence is mounting that the penetration has led to higher prices and diminished quality of care that targets lower-income families enrolled in Medicaid.
4. What Recent State Elections Mean For Health Care: Abortion was a key issue for many voters heading into the midterm election. Republicans failed to win a veto-proof supermajority in the North Carolina legislature in this election to outlaw abortion in the state, but won a 5-2 majority in the state Supreme Court that could impact the outcome of legal challenges to abortion access in the state.
5. Root Causes, Relationships Are Keys to Health Equity: Experts at an equity-focused U.S. News forum pointed to ingrained problems and prejudice as fueling racial health disparities – and to data as part of the solution.

Economic Development

1. Kinetic Business Offers $2,500 Grants for Black-Owned Businesses: Kinetic Business by Windstream is offering grants to Black-owned businesses within its service area including North and South Carolina. The Black Business Support Fund aims to support this traditionally underserved group by providing financial support and free internet service.
2. Rebuilding The Homestead: How Black landowners in eastern North Carolina are recovering generational wealth lost to industry encroachment: In North Carolina, discriminatory lending practices, familial property disputes, industry land grabbing, and farm consolidation have led to Black-owned land loss and striped Black people of their wealth. Although many Black families have been caught between the decision to stay or leave, the work and legacy of Elsie Herring and countless other Black landowners show us there’s hope in a third option: to resist and reclaim.
3. New service union seeks to inspire labor movement in South: The Union of Southern Service Workers hopes to win remedies for what it sees as a common set of grievances across a region historically hostile to unions. The group will join the nearly 2 million members of the Service Employees International Union, and its demands include better pay, fair grievance processes, safe workplaces, health care benefits and consistent scheduling.
4. Meet the 10 leaders transforming diversity and inclusion in corporate America: Included on the list is Alexis McGill Johnson, the CEO of Planned Parenthood, who’s on the front lines of the movement to protect abortion access; Darrin Williams, the CEO of Southern Bancorp, who’s one of dozens of leaders of Black-owned banks working with top financial institutions like JPMorgan to decrease the racial wealth gap; and Chris Smalls, the head of the Amazon Labor Union, is demanding better working conditions at the retail giant.
5. Advancing research and evidence on childcare and U.S. economic growth: Research shows that accessible and affordable childcare is both a lifeline for working families and a driver of growth across the entire U.S. economy. A functioning childcare market has the potential to grow the economy through several distinct channels: assisting parents who choose to pursue work, helping children grow and develop their human capital, and providing high-quality jobs for caretakers.

Educational Equity

1. The Healthy Social Behaviors project helps licensed child care centers reduce reliance on suspensions and expulsions: Keeping students in their classrooms and supporting their social emotional learning (SEL) is a priority for DCDEE. When children are removed from their educational settings at an early age, the harm to their development can have lifelong impacts, including placing them in the preschool-to-prison pipeline.
2. Science of Reading Gives Kids the Best Chance to Close the Literacy Gap: Last month’s national assessment of fourth-grade reading revealed the largest decline in reading performance in 30 years with low-income children and students of color falling further behind. The best lever to accelerate learning in America is to use the science of how children learn to read.
3. Teach for America launched high-impact tutoring program to accelerate student learning in Eastern North Carolina: Teach For America North Carolina announced today their launch of the Ignite Fellowship, a high-impact tutoring initiative in partnership with Bertie County Public Schools, Edgecombe County Public Schools, and Henderson Collegiate.
4. Ending Affirmative Action Will Be an ‘Earthquake’ for Colleges, Companies: If the court determines that any benefit or preference based on race is unconstitutional, the impact could gut a half century of programs and laws designed to help groups that have historically faced racial discrimination in the U.S. level the playing field.
5. Community colleges in action: Advancing equity and enhancing economic mobility using local collective impact strategies: Community colleges are a powerful engine to advance equity, enhance social mobility, and end poverty. Community colleges must embrace partnerships, renew and intensify scalable reforms to eliminate inequities, and serve each and every student to success.