Additional opportunities to learn and get involved in reshaping our systems and policies to ensure equity for all.
Overcoming Homeownership Barriers
Down Payment Assistance
- First-Generation Homebuyers Community Down Payment Assistance Fund
Minnesota has stark racial wealth and homeownership gaps that are among the highest in the country, and the gap is continuing to grow. Homeownership is the number one way families build wealth in America, but too many Minnesotans have been shut out of this opportunity. The First-Generation Homebuyers Community Down Payment Assistance Fund addresses this issue by providing zero-interest, forgivable, state-funded loans to help first-generation homebuyers in Minnesota achieve homeownership. - Down Payment Assistance Roundup: Minneapolis Metro
Fair Housing
Fairhaven: A Fair Housing Simulation
A training platform designed to help combat discrimination in America’s real estate market – made available at no cost to real estate professionals throughout the country, Fairhaven is an immersive simulation where agents work against the clock to close four deals, confronting various scenarios where discrimination enters into the transaction. The training also provides customized feedback to help real estate professionals incorporate fair housing principles in their daily interactions.
Fairhaven comes as part of NAR’s ACT! Initiative, the association’s fair housing action plan that emphasizes Accountability, Culture Change and Training to promote equal opportunity in real estate. Access the simulation training here.
Bias Override: Overcoming Barriers to Fair Housing
The mind science experts at the Perception Institute present an online workshop to help members avoid implicit bias in their daily business interactions. Drawing upon the latest evidence-based research, Perception explains how our brains’ automatic, instant association of stereotypes with particular groups can cause us to treat those who are different from us unfairly, despite our best intentions and often without our conscious awareness. Perception then applies these concepts to the everyday work of Realtors®, and offers strategies to override bias in order to convey respect, ensure fairness, and improve business relationships. Access the online training video.
Videos
- Testing The Divide – A Conversation with Bill Dedman – about the investigative report on discriminatory practices of Realtors® in several communities in New York
- Help understand Racism in America
- Bias Override: Overcoming Barriers to Fair Housing– video on Implicit Bias and an online test
- Rebuilding for Racial Equality: Steps to Take Action – video from 2020 NAR President, Vince Malta, addressing rebuilding grants and what brokers and agents can do now to help communities
Movies
- Jim Crow of the North – Full-Length Documentary– a documentary from Twin Cities Public Television
- Just Mercy– Movie based on a true story of civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson
- 13th – Filmmaker Ava DuVernay explores the history of racial inequality in the United States, focusing on the fact that the nation’s prisons are disproportionately filled with African-Americans
Articles
- White Fragility: Why It’s so Hard for White People to Talk About Racism– A sociologist examines the “white fragility” that prevents White Americans from confronting racism
- NAR Fair Housing Article– An overview of restrictive covenants and the Realtor® role
- Realtor® Magazine – Taking Action to Make Your Business Anti-Racist – Brokers and association leaders mobilize to address racial injustices in communities around America
Books
- The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated Americais a nonfiction book on how American governments deliberately imposed racial segregation on metropolitan areas nationwide (New York Times Book Review)
- How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi