Championing Homeownership to Close the Racial Wealth Gap

Our Vision

California Community Builders envisions a nation where everyone has a safe place to call home – a home that helps build economic opportunity rather than undercuts it, enabling individuals and families to pursue their dreams. We seek a society in which communities of color have their full share of economic power, in which the economic and racial injustices of the past are replaced by vibrant, diverse communities where all residents can build wealth, own a home if they choose, and fulfill their full potential.

Our Mission

California Community Builders seeks to close the racial wealth gap by focusing on the core issue of housing and homeownership. Taking a data-driven, outcomes-focused approach, we research and advocate for policies that promote wealth-building and tear down barriers created by redlining, exclusionary zoning, and all forms of discrimination.

California Community Builders Believes

Building wealth is essential to economic security and opportunity for communities of color. Wealth–savings, investments, home equity–is what gets you through a crisis like an unexpected illness or job loss and lets you provide for your children’s future. You can’t have real economic security without it.

Housing scarcity hurts all families. Housing scarcity creates competition for the same home: Wealthy families compete with middle-income families; middle-income families compete with moderate-income families; and moderate-income families compete with low-income families. In this competition, the lower-income family always loses.

Homeownership drives wealth creation but has been denied to people of color due to over a century of deliberate policies such as redlining. Homeownership allows families to leverage equity to invest in prudent financial choices, but people of color have been largely excluded, producing an enormous racial wealth gap.

Communities of color must have a seat at the table of policymaking. People of color have a right and responsibility to play a leading role in public policy, especially related to housing and homeownership.