- 4 hours ago
Food insecurity and housing insecurity have long disproportionately affected Black communities and historically marginalized groups. In this session, we welcome three experts advancing innovative solutions to tackle these systemic issues. Join us as they share their insights, strategies, and initiatives to create sustainable change and improve the quality of life for those most impacted. Discover how their approaches are making a tangible difference, and learn how you can contribute to these critical efforts.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00CEO of Steinbridge, T'Juan Davis, and CEO of Feeding America, Claire Babineau-Fontenot.
00:19Yes.
00:23Hello, everyone, and welcome.
00:25We're excited to have this conversation today.
00:27So I am going to jump right in.
00:30My name is Kashawna Hill.
00:31I am Executive Director of the Redress Movement, a national nonprofit that works to address
00:37segregation at the local level in communities all across the country.
00:42So I'm honored to be here today and joined by these esteemed guests.
00:46Acting Secretary Todman, I'm going to start with you, please.
00:50So congratulations.
00:52On being named Acting Secretary for the Department of Housing and Urban Development,
00:57which has been working to address housing insecurity for decades.
01:01So I'd like to start with a bit of a two-part question for you.
01:05As you undertake this new role, can you share with us what you believe most Americans misunderstand
01:12about HUD's work and this country's housing shortage?
01:15And in introducing HUD's work to us, can you share what the most significant issue is affecting
01:23black people in America today relative to housing insecurity?
01:26No, thank you.
01:28And greetings to my panelists.
01:29Wonderful to be up here with you.
01:31So many people, when they think about HUD, they think about the housing we provide to some
01:37of our lowest income families in the country, our public housing, our Section 8 vouchers.
01:42Many people may not be aware of all the work we do to help first-time homeowners.
01:48And I know that there's some first-time homeowners out there who need HUD's assistance.
01:55You might not know that we're also there to help disaster recovery after there's been a hurricane
02:01or a tornado or flooding that HUD are the ones that help to re-knit the community.
02:06Folks may not be aware that there may be a child care unit or even a health clinic that HUD funds
02:15are actually supporting because it shows up at the local level, but you don't know it's your federal dollars at work.
02:22So we are there holding it down for communities, especially black communities, all the time.
02:27You asked the question, what is one of the biggest issues facing black America right now in housing?
02:33Well, one, we want to make sure that people can afford their rents.
02:38And this administration has been laser-focused, the president, the vice president, laser-focused
02:44in making sure that we're working with owners and providing rental assistance to families.
02:50In addition to that, we're trying to build new housing to begin with
02:54to make sure that we're trying to drive down some of those costs.
02:57But one of the most significant things happening right now in the black population
03:01is the huge gap between how many white folks own their homes and how many of us own our homes.
03:09And that's creating a generational wealth issue.
03:12So one of the things that HUD has been working on is making sure we are teaching, educating,
03:17but providing tools like down payment assistance to families who need our help to buy their first home.
03:24The black-white home ownership gap is creating a wealth transfer gap.
03:31As we're seeing some of the boomers retiring and even passing on and transitioning,
03:37and their equity is going to the next generation.
03:39So many of our grandparents and parents might not have that equity to move forward.
03:44So we are doing everything we can to make sure we are, you know, closing that gap
03:49and making sure that more black folks can become homeowners.
03:53Wonderful. Thank you so much.
03:55Mr. Davis, moving on to you, you're in the private sector
04:00and have developed a business model to work with nonprofits, black churches,
04:05and historically black colleges and universities to maximize the value of their real estate holdings.
04:12Why is this work important?
04:14And can you share a little bit with us about the value that it provides to those you're seeking to serve?
04:20Sure. I appreciate the question, and thank you for being here as well.
04:24Yes, we have about today active development in different stages of about $700 million around the country,
04:33growing to about $1.3 billion.
04:35We should be in construction in about five states over the next 12 months developing homes for rent and for sale
04:43for all kinds of American people.
04:47My deep conviction is that the opportunity is, I have what I call the latent asset theory,
04:56which is that the opportunity exists for us to catalyze underutilized assets to economically productive uses.
05:05And if you think about where our assets are, there are really two large asset holders in the African-American community.
05:12There's the church, and there's the historically black college.
05:15So if you think about, there are 350,000 churches in the United States.
05:19There are 139 African-American congregations.
05:23So we represent 12% of the population, but almost 40% of churches.
05:29We are three times as represented in the church house as we are in the ballot box.
05:35And so a lot of our resources, a lot of our land holdings, a lot of our wealth is in the church.
05:42And so one of the opportunities is to catalyze those churches' real estate to economically productive uses,
05:49particularly as church attendance changes post-COVID.
05:52The second opportunity for us is in the historically black college.
05:56There are somewhere between 105 and 107, depending on which ones you count and don't count.
06:03Of those 105, they employ 134,000 people.
06:07They are some of the largest landowners in the African-American community.
06:11And so the second opportunity for us is to really work with those institutions to catalyze land that now,
06:18as the nation moves back to the South, where 90% of historically black colleges are,
06:23and remigrates back to the urban center of the South, that's exactly where the land is.
06:27That's exactly where our colleges are.
06:29And for the last 80 years, people told us that land wasn't valuable.
06:34And now all of a sudden, they're trying to move in like the plague.
06:37And so the opportunity for us.
06:39So we've committed $100 million just to catalyze real estate in historically black colleges.
06:45Wonderful.
06:46Thank you so much.
06:47Ms. Babineau-Fontenau, another two-part question for you as well.
06:53So we know that inflation is a huge issue across the country.
06:57It is exacerbating food insecurity across the United States, in addition to causing a variety of other hardships.
07:04Can you share with us some of the solutions Feeding America is advancing to tackle the challenge of food insecurity?
07:12And can you tell us the ways in which Feeding America centers racial equity in the work to combat food insecurity?
07:20Absolutely.
07:22So thank you.
07:22And thank you to each of you for the work that you do.
07:27I would start by saying that as a theory, I believe it's easy to prove out that the way that we've approached philanthropy in this country is exactly backwards.
07:44We've assumed that moneyed interests have the best ideas as well as the money.
07:52We've gone into communities and said in order to get this money, you have to do these things.
08:00Feeding America has witnessed and been privileged to participate in transformational change inside of communities when we flip that.
08:10And when we've had a strong bias toward going into communities as partners and asking communities for what their own solutions are.
08:22And that has unearthed some fabulous opportunities.
08:26So we have work that we're doing with black churches.
08:30We have work that we're doing around housing.
08:34We have work that we're doing with black farmers, growers, and producers.
08:38We're participating in processes that are designed to create new ecosystems that are sustainable for communities.
08:48We don't think of these as being our tables, but instead we ask for an invitation to someone else's.
08:56And we go into communities in the spirit of partnership trying to think through how might I be of best service to the interests that you have?
09:06How might we be fueled for the solutions you've already thought about and that we can help solve for together?
09:15And every time we've done it in that way, we've seen remarkable, remarkable return.
09:21So it's fundamentally important that we, and this kind of touches on your second point as well, but it's fundamentally important that we as a nation contemplate the fact that I don't believe our issue is that we don't have enough people who care about these issues.
09:42Sure.
09:42I believe we do have an issue around how many of us are partnering with each other in those solutions.
09:52And when I come to the final point I'd like to make in response to your question is we are the Calvary.
10:02The black community is a rich community filled with resiliency and assets.
10:07Thank you for helping to optimize the assets that exist.
10:12And certainly we are also confronted by barriers and most of those barriers are human made barriers.
10:19But I believe and I see in the work that I get to do that when we have a mindset that says we will control the things that we can control.
10:32We're going to come up with our solutions and we're going to go try to find partners who are invested in our solutions.
10:40That's when we can all win.
10:42Wonderful.
10:43Thank you so much for that excellent answer.
10:45So, Mr. Davis, I'm going to come back to you and teasing out that thread a little bit around where assets are held, right, in our communities.
10:53And given the work that you are doing to maximize assets and really ensure that black communities are thriving, I wanted to ask what is a common misperception or maybe the most common misperception about the private real estate market and real estate developers in the black community that you encounter?
11:17And how does your work interact with those perceptions?
11:22Sure.
11:23Let's see if I can answer that.
11:25I tend to see things in context and I love what you said.
11:28My favorite sermon, one of my favorite sermons is by Adam Clayton Powell, 1967, What's in Your Hand?
11:36So, we have been so dependent on other people managing our economic outcomes and they have managed us into multiple generations of poverty.
11:46When the French declared their, so the American Revolution ended in with the Constitution being written in about 1788 and America did all it could to maintain slavery.
12:01The next year, the French Revolution began in 1789 and by the end of the French Revolution, they had actually abolished slavery.
12:10So, the American government, with all due respect, has never had a primary interest in the economic well-being of African American people.
12:20It has never prioritized the economic outcomes of African American people.
12:25You know I'm going to respond to that.
12:27Yeah.
12:28And so, my view is that we have to be self-determining.
12:32We have to identify, and this goes back to why I, as an African American person, who is the son of a preacher and the grandson of a preacher, view that as an opportunity.
12:44Not just a pulpiteering opportunity or a preaching opportunity, but an economic empowerment opportunity.
12:50And so, for me, I am deeply convinced that we have to take our own economic future into our collective hands.
12:57And I worked for the government.
12:58I worked for Mayor Bloomberg.
12:59I worked for public-private partnerships.
13:01I helped the city to rehabilitate and rebuild Harlem and Brooklyn and the other parts of New York City.
13:06So, I understand and believe in the partnership with government.
13:09But we cannot leave it to government to determine our economic outcomes.
13:13We have to do that collectively and we have to find our own resources and our own backyards to do it together.
13:20That's my conviction.
13:22Please, Acting Secretary.
13:23No, no, no.
13:24I want to absolutely agree that government can't do it alone.
13:28Non-profits can't do it alone.
13:30And as black folk, we do need to take even more responsibility to make sure that we are helping each other grow and thrive.
13:37But I'll tell you what government can do.
13:40Leadership matters.
13:42Leadership matters at every level.
13:44And day one, President Biden did an executive order that said to all of us, we are going to center racial equity in the work that we do.
13:59Day one.
14:00And that has had a domino effect with everything we've done.
14:04And at HUD, we can't talk about racial equity without talking about economic equity, to your point.
14:11So, when I talked about home ownership, go to HUD.gov, figure out how to become a homeowner.
14:18When we talk about the goal that the President and Vice President have to make sure that our government contracts are going to black and brown businesses.
14:29When we talk about making sure that we are helping black developers figure out, not just how to build affordable housing, but how to actually have economic growth as a black development community, to make sure we are growing and thriving in a number of different ways.
14:45So, I completely agree.
14:46I am there with you.
14:47Government is not the only answer.
14:49But if you don't have the right leadership, then the resources are not available to you the way that it would be with someone who just didn't care.
14:58Absolutely.
14:59And if I might, in fact, engage on that same subject, while I hear what you're saying, and I believe that so many people believe it to be true, that somehow one human can gain at the cost of another.
15:17It is, in fact, a fallacy.
15:18It is, in fact, a fallacy.
15:21We are our brother's keepers.
15:24Our society is better for all of us when all of us have opportunity.
15:31When I think about the work that Feeding America does, and that was part of a question that you asked earlier, I go into communities all across the country, red states, blue states, purple states.
15:44I have been to all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
15:47And in each of those places, what I talk to people about is the fact that at the core of what we do is equity.
15:57So, I will usually ask people, where are you from?
16:01What's the fanciest neighborhood in your community?
16:03And they'll tell me the name.
16:05And each of you can think about what that would be.
16:08And here, somebody might say, in New Orleans, the East is East Dover, whatever you say.
16:15Then I ask people, so how many food distributions are you doing over there?
16:21And they go, no, I don't think you understand.
16:23We don't do food distributions over there.
16:26That's where the rich people are.
16:27And I say, is it because you hate the rich people?
16:29And they're like, no.
16:30I say, well, why don't you do it?
16:32Because they don't need the food.
16:34So, when we fundamentally understand that we all have an interest in equity, that equity, the work, the space of equity,
16:44elevates every single one of us, then we are opportunistic, I find, as humans.
16:51We tend to attach to the things that we can see.
16:55Well, what's that going to do for me?
16:57That is something, and sometimes the for me is altruistic, but still, how's that going to help advance something that I care about?
17:05The work that we're talking about advances what everybody actually cares about, and that's a myth that I'd love to be a part of dispelling.
17:14You know, I love this conversation because, you know, I am commercial, right?
17:19I am, I believe in that.
17:21I am, and I believe that the primary consistent theme in the Constitution is actually property, right?
17:27So, there's one thought, and that is today, 30 of the 50 states have either passed or are in process of passing anti-DEI and anti-equity legislation.
17:39So, the question is, 40% of African-American people live in those states.
17:44We cannot leave those 40 million people, 40% of our folks, destitute.
17:49So, we have to figure out how to be successful economically where they like us and where they don't.
17:55And I guess that's my point, is that we've got to be self-reliant in all political cycles, whether it's political leaders that we prefer or political environment that may be somewhat adverse to our circumstances.
18:12Thank you so much for that, and as we wrap up.
18:15We're wrapping up?
18:16We're just getting, we're just getting started.
18:18I know, and I could absolutely sit here all day, but I do not believe they want us to do that.
18:24And so, we want to respect everyone's time and wrap up with some final thoughts.
18:31And so, I would love to give you all the chance to share what it is that individuals can be doing in their communities around these very critical issues related to housing insecurity and food insecurity.
18:46I would say stay informed.
18:48One of the things that concerns me is we do all these things in Washington, D.C., but the information is not getting to the folks who need it the most.
18:56So, I really encourage you to go to hud.gov, I'm not ashamed, hud.gov, find rental assistance, figure out how to become a first-time homeowner, you, your child, your sister, your cousin, so we can have this self-reliance that we're talking about.
19:11But stay informed and spread the word.
19:15Mr. Davis, your thoughts?
19:16Well, first, I would encourage folks to do what the secretary said, buy a house, buy your own home.
19:2130% of your net worth is in your home.
19:23The second thing I would encourage folks to do is to join one organization that owns something and help them to structure some strategy to activate that, maybe to feed the community, maybe to clothe the naked.
19:37But somewhere, we should activate our resources to make our communities better and join one thing in your community.
19:43That's what I would say.
19:44Wow.
19:45And I would say that at Feeding America, we often talk about food, funds, and friends, and we need all three.
19:55And your capacity to provide one or the other might change over time.
20:01But we are asset-filled people.
20:04And we should find a path toward a true understanding and acknowledgement of just how powerful we actually are.
20:15Harness that power.
20:16Harness that power.
20:17And make certain that we activate inside of that power.
20:20So go to feedingamerica.org and you'll learn all about the work that we do.
20:24And I guarantee you, we're serving your community.
20:27So wherever you live, anywhere in the United States and Puerto Rico, there's someone in the network that I'm so privileged to serve alongside who's standing side-by-side with your neighbors.
20:39So you go stand out there with them too.
20:42Absolutely.
20:43Thank you all so much.
20:44And as you heard, there's something to do no matter where you are.
20:48So I'll ask that you join me in thanking our panelists.
20:55We hope you enjoy the festivities.
20:57Welcome to New Orleans.
20:58And thank you so much for being here.
21:00Yeah.
21:06Yeah.
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