Wealth Building & Financial Stability
Atlanta’s racial wealth gap mirrors the United States as a whole. White family wealth is nearly ten 10 times greater than Black family wealth and eight times greater than Hispanic family wealth—a divide that’s wider than it was in 1963 and that is still growing.[1] The gap in net worth between Black and white families is particularly pervasive—it persists at nearly every income level, meaning that even when Black and white households have similar income, the latter are likely to enjoy more overall wealth.
If Black households held a share of the national wealth in proportion to their share of the U.S. population, it would amount to $12.68 trillion in household wealth, rather than the actual sum of $2.54 trillion.[2]
LISC ATL invests in strategies to help people of color maintain financial stability and build enduring wealth.
How we do it:
- We help families purchase affordable for-sale homes in gentrifying and mixed-income neighborhoods by increasing the supply of developments that guarantee affordability. See more.
- We help BIPOC-owned small businesses grow so they can positively impact local economies, create generational wealth, and increase the number of employees making a living wage. See more.
- We provide grants and loans to develop commercial enterprises that increase the number of employees making a living wage. See more.
- We improve the long-term financial health of BIPOC individuals by increasing net income, credit scores, increasing savings, accessing safe financial products, and accessing quality jobs. See more.
[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/11/01/how-wealth-inequality-has-changed-in-the-u-s-since-the-great-recession-by-race-ethnicity-and-income/
[2] https://www.brookings.edu/research/closing-the-racial-wealth-gap-requires-heavy-progressive-taxation-of-wealth/