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THE DISENFRANCHISEMENT OF SOUTH BEND’S KENNEDY <br />AND LASALLE PARK NEIGHBORHOODS <br />Through the Blueprint creation process, the Department of Community Investment contracted the help of <br />a local non-profit, enFocus, to conduct research on the City’s racial wealth divide. Initial findings provided <br />from the 2017 Prosperity Now Racial Wealth Divide report6 and the following 2019 Prosperity Now Scorecard7 <br />illustrated that income, wealth holdings, and employment rates were significantly lower for Black South Bend <br />residents from 2011 to 2017. However, the team sought to uncover more granular trends over a greater period <br />of time. To this aim, the team pivoted to a geographical-based strategy, focusing on housing, income, and <br />employment statistics as the best way to observe the racial wealth divide over time in South Bend. <br />A large portion of South Bend’s Black population is concentrated in two neighborhoods, Kennedy Park and <br />LaSalle Park, which are statistically observable areas as Census Tracts 21 and 23. Redlining, a racist home loan <br />practice that started in the 1930s, allowed banks to deny funding or offer inflated interest rates to residents <br />of neighborhoods based on redlining designations. These designations were on an A-D grading scale, mainly <br />determined by how many Black residents lived in the neighborhood. On South Bend’s redlining map8, Kennedy <br />Park and LaSalle Park suffered the most concentrated redlining at the hand of the Home Owners’ Loan <br />Corporation, receiving primarily “D” designations. <br />Source: 2020 American Community Survey 5-Year Data <br />NEIGHBORHOOD HOME VALUES <br />HOME <br />OWNERSHIP INCOME UNEMPLOYMENT <br />BLACK <br />POPULATION <br />South Bend $88,600 49%$42,697 6%25% <br />Kennedy Park $38,400 37%$19,511 14%60% <br />LaSalle Park $29,900 42%$13,369 23%59% <br />Figure 1: Redlining’s Impact on Kennedy Park and LaSalle Park Neighborhoods <br />As of 2020, redlining strongly correlates with median home values, indicating that this discriminatory practice <br />was successful in its aim. The median assessed owner-occupied property value is $38,400 in Kennedy Park <br />and $29,900 in LaSalle Park: mere fractions of South Bend’s overall median of $88,600 (Figure 1), and an even <br />smaller fraction of median values in neighborhoods that received primarily “A” or “B” grades in 1933 (Figure 2). <br />Figure 2: Redlining and Median Owner Occupied House Values <br />Source: 2020 American Community Survey 5-Year Data, University of Richmond Mapping Inequality, U.S. Census Bureau (TIGER/Line Shapefiles) <br />A <br />B <br />C <br />D <br />Census Tract Boundary, 2020 <br />Median House Value, 2020 <br />HOLC Redlining Grades (1933) <br />$ <br />N <br />0 <br />2,500 5,000 <br />Feet <br />FINANCIAL EMPOWERMENT BLUEPRINT 9