New NCRC study finds More Chronic Disease, Shorter Lifespans, and Greater Risk Factors for COVID-19 in Segregated Neighborhoods Redlined 80 Years Ago

The new historical study, from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) - done in conjunction with researchers from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health and the University of Richmond’s Digital Scholarship Lab - compared 1930’s maps of government-sanctioned lending discrimination zones with current census and public health data.

The study found that lower-income and minority neighborhoods that were intentionally cut off from lending and investment decades ago now have both reduced wealth and greater poverty, and also lower life expectancy and higher prevalence of chronic diseases that are risk factors for poor outcomes from COVID-19, a new study shows. 

This study confirms the previous research that many of today's most economically struggling neighborhoods in urban areas are the same places that had intentional, systematic segregation and lending discrimination in past decades. For example, a 2018 NCRC study found that three out of four neighborhoods marked “hazardous” in the HOLC's 1930 maps were still struggling economically.

The new study further establishes the very strong correlation between redlining and health outcomes in those same neighborhoods: more chronic illnesses like asthma, COPD, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, kidney disease, obesity and stroke. 

View maps and read the full report

View maps and read the full report here.

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Source: NCRC release, September 10, 2020.