As Los Angeles battled its largest wildfires in history, parts of the southern U.S. faced a very different kind of disaster — record-breaking snowstorms not seen in over 125 years. In LA, the Benn family didn’t lose their home to the flames, but they did lose access to their livelihood. Their screen-printing business, which they’ve […]
Money
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice, Health, Money, Public Safety
Generational Black Homes in LA Reduced to Ash Amid Growing Wildfires
Support Black-Led, Nonprofit News Capital B is an independent news organization uncovering important stories — like this one — about how Black people experience America today. But we can’t tell these stories without your help. If you support our mission, please consider becoming a member by making a tax-deductible donation. Sixty-two years burned to ashes for […]
Posted inHousing, Partner Content, Social Welfare
‘Waiting List to Nowhere’: Homelessness Surveys Trap Black Men on the Streets
LAS VEGAS — Maurice Clark huddled in his tent along dusty railroad tracks as two homeless-outreach workers began asking him questions to determine whether he would qualify for free or subsidized housing. Did he use drugs? Had he ever been in jail? How many times had he been to an emergency room? Had he been […]
Posted inEconomy, Environmental Justice
The Costs of America’s EV Dreams
This week, Joe Biden became the first U.S. president to visit the West African nation of Angola, where he spoke of “our nation’s original sin.” About 25% of all enslaved Africans who arrived in the U.S. came from Angola, which is more than any other African region. But outside of the acknowledgement of America’s past […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Wealth Gap
The Struggle for Land, Reparations, and Belonging in California
This story was produced in partnership with High Country News. Like many residents of Southern California’s San Bernardino Mountains, Jacques Powers wears clothes and boots painted with dirt and mud and gets around in a humming monster truck. But no matter where he goes, whether in these mountains or elsewhere in the state, Powers rarely […]
Posted inHousing, Partner Content
In the Shadow of the Obama Center, Chicago Residents Fight Displacement
Originally published by In These Times When Barack Obama met with Chicago residents about his proposed presidential center in 2018, the former president downplayed the threat that gentrification might pose to their communities. “We’ve got such a long way to go in terms of economic development before you’re even going to start seeing the prospect of significant gentrification,” Obama said […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics & Policy
Ignored for Years, Black Milwaukee Voters Hold Power in 2024
MILWAUKEE — When Diane Blaylock’s parents migrated to Milwaukee from Lena and Canton, Mississippi, they immediately went to work. Her father was employed by Rex Chain Belt, a manufacturing company that produced chain links for agricultural equipment. Donning a knit Green Bay Packers cap, she reminisced about a time when Black people had more opportunities […]
Posted inExtreme Weather, Housing
From Hurricanes to Homelessness: Black Renters at Risk as Evictions Soar
A little over two weeks after Hurricane Helene turned living rooms into murky, debris-filled pools, washed away homes, and caused upward of $50 billion in damage, dozens of renters and homeowners stood outside the Buncombe County Courthouse on Oct. 17 in Asheville, North Carolina. With winter approaching and temperatures dipping into the 40s, they gathered […]
Posted inCourts, Housing, Policing, Politics & Policy
Black Unhoused Communities Targeted After Supreme Court Ruling
LOS ANGELES – On a dirt pocket between a sidewalk and freeway in the Wilmington neighborhood in South Los Angeles, roughly half a dozen people lived in tents for most of the summer. But by 7 a.m. on Sept. 24, three police SUVs and a bright orange truck lined the street next to the freeway […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather, Housing
Flooded, Foreclosed, and Forgotten: The Unkept Promises to Hurricane Katrina’s Victims
NEW ORLEANS – Robert Green guesses it was about 5 a.m. when the water first broke through. By 5:10, he, his mother, brother, cousin, and three grandchildren, ages 4, 3, and 2, were on the roof. Within five minutes, their house was floating down the street. By 5:20, the home, pinned against an oak tree, […]