Redlining is refusing mortgages, insurance, or other financial services to people because of the neighborhood they live in, usually along racial lines. In the United States, government and lenders used color-coded maps in the 1930s. Areas outlined in red were labeled too risky to serve, often because Black families and other marginalized groups lived there. A household that could afford the house still could not get the loan. Families in favored neighborhoods could buy, build equity, and pass that wealth on.

The original maps are gone, and that kind of housing discrimination is illegal. The gap they created still shows up in who owns a home and who has wealth to pass down. Canada did not use those same maps, but similar exclusion happened through racially restrictive housing rules and neighborhoods lenders would not serve.

Click Here for our lesson on Financial Resilience and Life Transitions