The long and enduring history of discrimination in housing and the built-environment is a significant factor in the wealth gap and other inequities between Black and White Americans. As members of the housing industry, it is our duty to understand this history and our role within it in order to help undo the damage that’s been done to our society. The current pandemic and its disproportionate impact on the Black community has only highlighted these long-standing inequities.
We support anti-racist change and invite our industry partners to do the same. We recommend the following resources:
- Housing Development Consortium’s Racial Equity Toolkit provides an excellent tool to assess and improve in our industry.
- The American Institute of Architect’s Guidelines for Equitable Practice have guided our work in the past, and will continue to do so.
- The JUST label evaluates businesses on diversity, equity and other social justice measures. We encourage you to consider pursuing this credential for your company.
- The City of Seattle’s Race & Social Justice Initiative provides many tools for eliminating racial injustice in our region.
- The International Living Future Institute’s Living Building Challenge includes measures to ensure equity in the built environment.
We invite our industry partners to join us in donating to Black Lives Matter – Seattle, King County, or other organizations with anti-racist change as a primary goal.
We are willing to do the hard work that must be done, and we’re supporting and standing with our employees in this effort. We hope you will join us in working towards a more equitable and just society.
Enough is enough.