Dear Atlas users,

As evidenced by our most recent rent debt analysis, low-income people of color in the Bay Area continue to suffer from the devastating impacts of the pandemic even as other aspects of the economy return to ‘normal.’ Local governments as well as the state government must do more to ensure these communities have access to stable housing and a just economy — through continued eviction moratorium and targeted economic recovery programs. The Atlas team is committed to supporting Bay Area residents to realize these policy wins through disaggregated equity data and research support. Here are some updates:

In Case You Missed It: Check Out Our Recent Conversation with Local Leaders on Fostering Increased Diversity Among Local Elected Officials

The Bay Area is one of the most diverse regions in the nation, but our recent analysis finds that while people of color make up 60 percent of the Bay Area region they are just 34 percent of top elected officials. In a September 9 webinar, we dug into these findings and pointed to potential pathways to increase representation — such as through district-based elections — with a great panel of local leaders. Clarissa Doutherd and Shanthi Gonzales shared their experiences as women of color running for Oakland Unified School District board. Other featured speakers include Bay Rising Executive Director Kimi Lee, Urban Habitat Executive Director Ellen Wu, and Atlas team member Michelle Huang. You can find a recording of the webinar here as well as our op-ed.

Our New Homeownership Indicator Reveals Persistent Racial Gaps in Access to Wealth-Building Opportunities

This month, we added Homeownership as the 22nd indicator on the Bay Area Equity Atlas to democratize data on homeownership rates by race, gender, nativity, ancestry, and geography between 2000 and 2019, the most recent year for which this data is available. We also highlight key insights from this data for the Great Recession through the long economic recovery until right before the Covid-19 pandemic. Find the analysis of the new homeownership indicator here.

Bay Area Renters Still Owe Millions in Pandemic-Related Rent Debt

Our updated Rent Debt Dashboard reveals that thousands of Bay Area renter households are behind on rent payments. In Santa Clara County alone, we found that 23,504 households owe rent, totaling more than $109 million dollars. Despite the need for immediate assistance, rent relief distribution lags behind in the region: just 6 percent of relief funds have been distributed in Santa Clara County. The Raise the Roof coalition and other community advocates cited data from the dashboard to the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors September 21 in their fight to protect low-income tenants at risk of eviction, temporarily limit the scope of just cause evictions, and allocate county funds for expanded tenant legal services. The Atlas team also provided public comment and cited the dashboard during the Board of Supervisors meeting to make the case for stronger renter protections during the pandemic.

In the News

Our analysis on the diversity of Bay Area electeds was featured in the SF Chronicle, SF Gate, Post News Group, and the Daily Journal. Check out a complete list of our coverage here.

Thank you,

Bay Area Equity Atlas team

Dear Atlas users,

As evidenced by our most recent rent debt analysis, low-income people of color continue to suffer from the devastating impacts of the pandemic even as other aspects of the economy return to ‘normal.’ The majority of federal rental assistance has yet to reach those who need it, and a new report from The Housing Initiative at Penn found that other housing access programs like Housing Choice Vouchers reach just one in five low-income renter households who are eligible. With federal, state, and local governments working to pass policies to rebuild our economy, the Atlas team continues to equip advocates with necessary data and analysis to push for a just and equitable recovery. Here are some updates:

New Analysis Finds Fewer and Fewer Small Businesses Are Getting Federal Contracts

The federal government is the nation’s largest purchaser of goods and services, but our new analysis reveals that the number of small businesses doing business with the federal government has plummeted over the past decade: about 40 percent fewer small businesses fulfilled federal contracts in 2020 compared with 2010. We also found that while people of color own 29 percent of all American businesses, entrepreneurs of color receive less than 12 percent of federal government contracting dollars. Federal contracts are highly concentrated in just a few congressional districts, mostly in the DC metro area, that are home to less than 4 percent of the total population. A critical solution is within reach through the infrastructure package before Congress, but is at risk of being removed. Policymakers are negotiating the inclusion of a groundbreaking set of programs that would direct $2.4 billion to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other people-of-color-serving institutions to uplift the next generation of small businesses owners.

Updated Rent Debt Dashboard and Analysis Finds Mounting Debt for Low-Income Renters of Color

The share of renters with debt has not declined since April. Our updated Rent Debt Dashboard and analysis show that nearly 6 million renters remain in debt, and the majority of them are low-income people of color. Just 11 percent of federal rental relief funds have been distributed; our new map shows that many of the cities and counties with the lowest distribution of relief funds have large populations of low-income renters. Finally, we found that Black renters disproportionately expect to be evicted by October: 58 percent of Black tenants with rent debt say they are very or somewhat likely to be evicted, compared with 45 percent of their White counterparts. The dashboard continues to fuel community advocacy for debt cancellation and rent assistance. Recently, California-based Raise the Roof coalition cited our work in their presentation to the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors, while Housing4Hoosiers provided recommendations to Indiana’s Emergency Rental Assistance program using our data.

You’re Invited! The Power of Place: Addressing Structural Racism in the Workforce and Economy

On September 29, Atlas team member Abbie Langston will speak on a panel on racial equity and the workforce system at the Aspen Institute Opportunity Youth Forum alongside our partners at the National Fund for Workforce Solutions and local partners on our Advancing Workforce Equity project. The conversation will touch on structural racism in the world of work and highlight solutions that workforce systems, communities, employers, and training providers are implementing to improve career outcomes for students and young workers of color. Join us by registering here.

Fact Sheets Reveal Continued Housing Insecurity in Mid-Hudson Valley

Earlier this month, we produced a series of fact sheets on renters in New York’s Mid-Hudson Valley in partnership with For the Many, to support their advocacy for policies to protect renters from unfair evictions and predatory landlords. We found that housing insecurity is a region-wide issue. More than half of renter households in the Mid-Hudson Valley are rent-burdened, and Black and Latinx renters are especially impacted. In New Paltz, for example, nearly all Black renter households are rent-burdened. You can download fact sheets here for the following places: Ulster County, Beacon, Kingston, Newburgh, New Paltz, and Poughkeepsie.

In the News

This month, our Rent Debt Dashboard work was featured in the New York Times, CBS News, Bloomberg, Oklahoma Watch, Minnesota Post, Tampa Bay Times, The Hill, and Law360. Our work on California rideshare driver benefits under Prop 22 was featured in Jacobin and Dissent Magazine. See a complete list of news coverage here.

- The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Equity Research Institute (ERI)

While California congratulates Governor Newsom for keeping his post in the recall election last week, we’re taking a moment to appreciate Californians for showing up to vote for our shared future. Voter turnout is always difficult, important work — and one of the difficulties in turning people out to vote in the recall election was that people don’t feel represented by their elected officials.

By Michelle Huang and Kimi Lee of Bay Rising

Our region’s biggest problems — overpolicing in Black, Indigenous, and people-of-color communities, violence against Asian American and Pacific Islander elders, working-class people and renters being left behind during the pandemic — all require community-led voices and solutions. Especially in the context of local budget shortfalls, having elected officials with knowledge of the experiences of our communities is key to  more equitable distribution of resources and priorities.

This is why we need people in office who reflect our diversity and values — including people who are Black, Latinx, Asian, immigrants, queer, and people with disabilities. While representation does not automatically mean equitable policies, it can make a difference. For instance, in San Jose in June 2021, where all districts are majority of-color, the six city councilmembers of color voted to defer the decision on the Berryessa BART Urban Village Plan in support of Latinx organizers’ and La Pulga vendors’ ability to negotiate for fairer agreements, while the four white city councilmembers and the mayor voted against it. La Pulga is home to over 400 largely Latinx and Asian-owned businesses.

For the past four years, the Bay Area Equity Atlas has tracked data on the diversity of elected officials in the Bay Area. Our analysis from the 2020 elections found that across the region, voters elected more people of color to office, following a steady trend over several years. About 34 percent of top elected officials in the Bay Area are now people of color, up from 29 percent in 2019 and 26 percent in 2018.

Despite this steady increase, people of color remain vastly underrepresented, given that they are roughly two-thirds of the Bay’s population. And just over a quarter of Bay Area cities still have zero people of color on their councils.

There is still much work to do. Corporate money, funneled into local elections and coupled with limited access to expertise and financial support for new candidates, makes it challenging for everyday people, renters, community leaders, and people not well-connected to political parties to run and win campaigns.

We know the solutions. We need campaign finance reforms, leadership development programs for those historically excluded from power, and more voter education and voting options to grow the number of community candidates running for office as well as voter participation.

Of these, campaign finance reforms stand out as especially timely. The 2020 federal elections saw more Wall Street financing than any other election cycle in US history, but that corporate money wasn’t reserved for just the presidential race — many millions showed up in both state and local races in the Bay, making it extremely hard for a diversity of candidates to run viable campaigns. For example, in 2020, wealthy donors raised over $300,000 to spend on Oakland school board races, where those same races used to be won with campaigns spending thousands of dollars, not hundreds of thousands. To counteract this trend, we need campaign finance reform that sets limits on corporate contributions, requires transparent budgets and ads, and promotes public financing.

Bay Area policymakers must pass policies that result in more candidates from underrepresented communities getting elected to city and county offices. We deserve to be represented by leaders who reflect our realities.

Kimi Lee is the Executive Director of Bay Rising, a regional alliance of over 30 Bay Area grassroots organizations building political power among working-class people and communities of color. Michelle Huang is an Associate with PolicyLink who provides data and research support as part of PolicyLink’s National Equity Atlas team.