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Redlining, a racist mortgage appraisal practice of the 1930s, established and exacerbated racial residential segregation boundaries in the United States. Investment risk grades assigned ago through security maps from the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) are associated with current sociodemographics and adverse health outcomes. We assessed whether historical HOLC investment grades are associated with 2010 greenspace, a health-promoting neighborhood resource. We compared 2010 normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) across previous HOLC neighborhood grades using propensity score restriction and matching. Security map shapefiles were downloaded from the Mapping Inequality Project. Neighborhood investment risk grades included A (best, green), B (blue), C (yellow), and D (hazardous, red, i.e., redlined). We used 2010 satellite imagery to calculate the average NDVI for each HOLC neighborhood. Our main outcomes were 2010 annual average NDVI and summer NDVI. We assigned areal-apportioned 1940 census measures to each HOLC neighborhood. We used propensity score restriction, matching, and targeted maximum likelihood estimation to limit model extrapolation, reduce confounding, and estimate the association between HOLC grade and NDVI for the following comparisons: Grades B vs. A, C vs. B, and D vs. C. Across 102 urban areas (4,141 HOLC polygons), annual average 2010 NDVI was 0.47 ( ), 0.43 ( ), 0.39 ( ), and 0.36 ( ) in Grades A-D, respectively. In analyses adjusted for current ecoregion and census region, 1940s census measures, and 1940s population density, annual average NDVI values in 2010 were estimated at (95% CI: , ), (95% CI: , ), and (95% CI: , ) for Grades B vs. A, C vs. B, and D vs. C, respectively, in the 1930s. Estimates adjusted for historical characteristics indicate that neighborhoods assigned worse HOLC grades in the 1930s are associated with reduced present-day greenspace. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP7495.

Following the Great Depression and related home foreclosures, the federal government established new agencies to facilitate access to affordable home mortgages, including the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) and Federal Housing Administration (FHA). HOLC and FHA directed widespread neighborhood appraisals to determine investment risk, referred to as “redlining,” which took into account residents’ race. Redlining thereby contributed to segregation, disinvestment, and racial inequities in opportunities for homeownership and wealth accumulation. Recent research examines associations between historical redlining and subsequent environmental determinants of health and health-related outcomes. In this scoping review, we assess the extent of the current body of evidence, the range of outcomes studied, and key study characteristics, examining the direction and strength of the relationship between redlining, neighborhood environments, and health as well as different methodological approaches. Overall, studies nearly universally report evidence of an association between redlining and health-relevant outcomes, although heterogeneity in study design precludes direct comparison of results. We critically consider evidence regarding HOLC’s causality and offer a conceptual framework for the relationship between redlining and present-day health. Finally, we point to key directions for future research to improve and broaden understanding of redlining’s enduring impact and translate findings into public health and planning practice.

Objectives. To assess if historical redlining, the US government’s 1930s racially discriminatory grading of neighborhoods’ mortgage credit-worthiness, implemented via the federally sponsored Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) color-coded maps, is associated with contemporary risk of preterm birth (< 37 weeks gestation). Methods. We analyzed 2013–2017 birth certificate data for all singleton births in New York City (n = 528 096) linked by maternal residence at time of birth to (1) HOLC grade and (2) current census tract social characteristics. Results. The proportion of preterm births ranged from 5.0% in grade A (“best”—green) to 7.3% in grade D (“hazardous”—red). The odds ratio for HOLC grade D versus A equaled 1.6 and remained significant (1.2; P < .05) in multilevel models adjusted for maternal sociodemographic characteristics and current census tract poverty, but was 1.07 (95% confidence interval = 0.92, 1.20) after adjustment for current census tract racialized economic segregation. Conclusions. Historical redlining may be a structural determinant of present-day risk of preterm birth. Public Health Implications. Policies for fair housing, economic development, and health equity should consider historical redlining’s impacts on present-day residential segregation and health outcomes.

The contemporary practice of homeownership in the United States was born out of government programs adopted during the New Deal. The Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC)—and later the Federal Housing Administration and GI Bill—expanded home buying opportunity, although in segregationist fashion. Through mechanisms such as redlining, these policies fueled white suburbanization and black ghettoization, while laying the foundation for the racial wealth gap. This is the first article to investigate the long-term consequences of these policies on the segregation of cities. I combine a full century of census data with archival data to show that cities HOLC appraised became more segregated than those it ignored. The gap emerged between 1930 and 1950 and remains significant: in 2010, the black-white dissimilarity, black isolation, and white-black information theory indices are 12, 16, and 8 points higher in appraised cities, respectively. Results are consistent across a range of robustness checks, including exploitation of imperfect implementation of appraisal guidelines and geographic spillover. These results contribute to current theoretical discussions about the persistence of segregation. The long-term impact of these policies is a reminder of the intentionality that shaped racial geography in the United States, and the scale of intervention that will be required to disrupt the persistence of segregation.

We investigated historical redlining, a government-sanctioned discriminatory policy, in relation to cardiovascular health (CVH) and whether associations were modified by present-day neighborhood physical and social environments. Data included 4,779 participants (mean age 62 y; SD = 10) from the baseline sample of the Multi- Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA; 2000 to 2002). Ideal CVH was a summary measure of ideal levels of seven CVH risk factors based on established criteria (blood pressure, fasting glucose, cholesterol, body mass index, diet, physical activity, and smoking). We assigned MESA participants’ neighborhoods to one of four grades (A: best, B: still desirable, C: declining, and D: hazardous) using the 1930s federal Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) maps, which guided decisions regarding mortgage financing. Two-level hierarchical linear and logistic models, with a random intercept to account for participants nested within neighborhoods (i.e., census tracts) were used to assess associations within racial/ethnic subgroups (non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic Chinese). We found that Black adults who lived in historically redlined areas had a 0.82 (95% CI − 1.54, −0.10) lower CVH score compared to those residing in grade A (best) neighborhoods, in a given neighborhood and adjusting for confounders. We also found that as the current neighborhood social environment improved the association between HOLC score and ideal CVH weakened (P < 0.10). There were no associations between HOLC grade and CVH measures or effect modification by current neighborhood conditions for any other racial/ethnic group. Results suggest that historical redlining has an enduring impact on cardiovascular risk among Black adults in the United States.

There is emerging evidence that structural racism is a major contributor to poor health outcomes for ethnic minorities. Structural racism captures upstream historic racist events (such as slavery, black code, and Jim Crow laws) and more recent state-sanctioned racist laws in the form of redlining. Redlining refers to the practice of systematically denying various services (e.g., credit access) to residents of specific neighborhoods, often based on race/ethnicity and primarily within urban communities. Historical redlining is linked to increased risk of diabetes, hypertension, and early mortality due to heart disease with evidence suggesting it impacts health through suppressing economic opportunity and human capital, or the knowledge, skills, and value one contributes to society. Addressing structural racism has been a rallying call for change in recent years—drawing attention to the racialized impact of historical policies in the USA. Unfortunately, the enormous scope of work has also left people feeling incapable of effecting the very change they seek. This paper highlights a path forward by briefly discussing the origins of historical redlining, highlighting the modern-day consequences both on health and at the societal level, and suggest promising initiatives to address the impact.

The increasing intensity, duration, and frequency of heat waves due to human-caused climate change puts historically underserved populations in a heightened state of precarity, as studies observe that vulnerable communities—especially those within urban areas in the United States—are disproportionately exposed to extreme heat. Lacking, however, are insights into fundamental questions about the role of historical housing policies in cauterizing current exposure to climate inequities like intra-urban heat. Here, we explore the relationship between “redlining”, or the historical practice of refusing home loans or insurance to whole neighborhoods based on a racially motivated perception of safety for investment, with present-day summertime intra-urban land surface temperature anomalies. Through a spatial analysis of 108 urban areas in the United States, we ask two questions: (1) how do historically redlined neighborhoods relate to current patterns of intra-urban heat? and (2) do these patterns vary by US Census Bureau region? Our results reveal that 94% of studied areas display consistent city-scale patterns of elevated land surface temperatures in formerly redlined areas relative to their non-redlined neighbors by as much as 7 °C. Regionally, Southeast and Western cities display the greatest differences while Midwest cities display the least. Nationally, land surface temperatures in redlined areas are approximately 2.6 °C warmer than in non-redlined areas. While these trends are partly attributable to the relative preponderance of impervious land cover to tree canopy in these areas, which we also examine, other factors may also be driving these differences. This study reveals that historical housing policies may, in fact, be directly responsible for disproportionate exposure to current heat events.

Abstract Various neighborhood factors, including greenspace availability and neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage, are associated with accelerated biological age (aging faster than expected based on chronological age) among older adults. Neighborhoods, however, evolve overtime and historical neighborhood conditions may be influential in the aging process of older residents. In the United States, many neighborhoods were impacted by historical redlining (a federally sponsored, discriminatory program targeting communities of color throughout the 1930s), wherein neighborhoods received grades based on demographics and quality of infrastructure. Overwhelmingly, neighborhoods with more residents of color were considered less desirable or \"redlined\" and prior research links living in historically redlined neighborhoods to poor health across the life course and worse neighborhood conditions. We link data on redlining of U.S. census tracts from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) to the 2016 Health and Retirement Study Venous Blood Study (HRS-VBS) to assess whether living in historically redlined neighborhoods is associated with advanced biological aging among adults aged 55 and older. Our indicator of expanded biological age is a summary measure of 22 biomarkers associated with cardiovascular, immune, and metabolic functioning. Using multivariate linear regression models controlling for an individual's age, sex, and race/ethnicity, we found that individuals living in neighborhoods historically designated as \"declining\" or \"hazardous\" were about 2 years older biologically than individuals living in neighborhoods designated as \"best/desirable\". These findings suggest that residing in neighborhoods differentially shaped by historical forces impacts rates of accelerated aging. Identifying these historical neighborhood conditions may help target interventions addressing disparities in aging.