Black Realtor Strives To Overcome Lingering Issues From Redlining In Denver

DENVER (CBS4) - At a time when many are out in the streets protesting racism and violence, some believe the conversation also starts with those closest around you -- your neighbors.

CBS4 talked with a real estate agent who works in various neighborhoods in the Denver metro area. She's also a mom and a black woman. She said that from her vantage point, it's easier to see some of the issues that still surround the community regarding race.  

Monica Askew took a CBS4 crew to the Five Points neighborhood in Denver. It has historically been a center for African Americans, however that's partly because the federal government used a racist policy to make sure it would stay that way in the 1930s.

At one Five Points was an area redlined by the Federal Housing Administration. Redlining was the practice of dividing up areas where minorities (mostly blacks) lived. Banks were encouraged not to lend to families in these neighborhoods, so they couldn't move out to potentially white neighborhoods or own homes. The policy ended in 1968, however those lines created long lasting attitudes and effects that have yet to be erased.

"I have instances where clients have expressed to me that they want to be in neighborhoods that they feel comfortable, one in particular was a young woman, a millenial, she said that she has natural hair, she is, you know, ethnic looking and she wants to be somewhere where she's not going to be stared at or made to feel uncomfortable, and I feel this is contrary to white people, they have no problem moving into our neighborhoods, as we are here in the gentrified Five Points they feel protected, and I don't feel that's the same for us," she said.

She also pointed out that the old redlining policies prevented families from building up generational wealth. That's why she is doing what she can through her business to educate people like her about the value of home ownership.

"As a black mother and a realtor, I stress to my sons the importance of home ownership. One day I want my children to buy a home wherever their money can afford and that to be okay, in Denver or anywhere else in the United States."

But she says she cannot do it all alone. She believes it is also incumbent on local governments to step up to address how discriminatory policies still affect communities today.