Racial Equity Committee
March 3, 2026

City of Sacramento
Racial Equity Committee Report
915 I Street Sacramento, CA 95814
www.cityofsacramento.org
File ID: 2026-00612 3/3/2026
Update on CityStart Initiative and Next Steps
File ID: 2026-00612
Location: Citywide
Recommendation: 1) Review CityStart Blueprint; and 2) pass a Motion forwarding the CityStart Blueprint to the City Council as an update on the status of this work.

Contact: Lynette Hall, Community Engagement Manager, (916) 808-1955, [email protected], City Manager’s Office of Innovation and Economic Development Presenter: Lynette Hall, Community Engagement Manager, (916) 808-1955, [email protected]; Amy Williamson, Financial Empowerment Manager, (916) 808-1046, [email protected]; Ari Green, Community Engagement Analyst, (916) 808-5097, [email protected]; City Manager’s Office of Innovation and Economic Development Attachments:
1-Description Analysis
2-REC Presentation March 2026
3-CityStart Blueprint
4-Boosts and Blocks
5-Sac LIFT Framework
Description/Analysis
Issue Detail: The City of Sacramento was awarded a $75,000 grant to participate in the CityStart initiative with the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund (CFE Fund). Sacramento was one of eight local governments selected nationwide through a competitive process, joining 32 other municipalities that have already completed the CityStart blueprint process. Sacramento and the 7 other cities were the first in the nation to create blueprints solely focused on the wealth gap for local Black residents, as CFE Fund set that new focus for the initiative.

Through this initiative, the City received planning support and technical assistance to design a blueprint that identifies actionable strategies to strengthen residents’ economic well-being, with a focus on addressing wealth disparities experienced by Black residents. Members of the City’s Office of Innovation & Economic Development partnered with staff from then-Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s

File ID: 2026-00612 3/3/2026
office to implement this work.

The City engaged decision makers in three key areas: housing, workforce development, and access to capital, through a series of careholder conversations to identify challenges and opportunities to bridge the financial wealth gap with Black residents. This process helped shape strategies to advance homeownership, improve housing stability, expand access to financial coaching and capital, and support workforce development and entrepreneurship as key pathways to economic mobility.

The CityStart Blueprint is a strategic planning tool that was developed in partnership with key industry leaders to create a roadmap for collaboratively developing tangible programs, services, policies, and processes to improve economic mobility and close the wealth gap for Black residents. Across the nation, white households hold roughly $200,000 more wealth than Black households and in Sacramento those inequities are mirrored. Compared to local White residents, local Black residents earn $25,000 less annually, own homes at half the rate, and are denied mortgage loans at twice the rate, Local Black residents also only own 3% of the local small businesses despite representing 13% of the local population. A wage analysis showed that Black residents in Sacramento hold the lowest wage jobs in Sacramento, followed by Hispanic residents. The wage gap continues to exacerbate the racial wealth gap and underscores the urgent need for targeted strategies to increase economic mobility. History and data have shown repeatedly that these disparities are not accidental and are a direct result of systemic barriers rooted in racism and discriminatory policies and laws. To ensure prosperity for all Sacramentans, we must eliminate barriers and create new pathways and targeted opportunities.

The CityStart blueprint builds upon existing City efforts, including: the Financial Empowerment Center, which provides free financial coaching; the Fine and Fee Justice program, which reduces financial barriers for low-income residents; and the Racial Equity initiative, which addresses the need for advancement of racial equity in City decision-making regarding impacts that result from City policy, budget, and service delivery decisions. Other aligned initiatives support this endeavor as well, such as the City’s African American Experience Project (AAEP). For too long, African American contributions and lived experiences in Sacramento were not fully reflected in historical records so this project acknowledges the gap by documenting, elevating, and preserving the stories, landmarks, and cultural assets that define the African American experience in Sacramento.

Key Strategies for Wealth Creation
The City’s proposed strategies include elements designed to systemically close the wealth gap, particularly for Black residents, by both the City and its industry partners.

1. Sector-Specific Strategy
· Focus on high-growth industries (e.g., life sciences, clean economy, mobility, advanced manufacturing).
· Expand skills-based training and workforce pipelines for Black residents.

File ID: 2026-00612 3/3/2026
· Support Black entrepreneurs through accelerators and mentorship programs.

2. Neighborhood-Specific Strategy
· Target redevelopment investments in historically disinvested neighborhoods (e.g., Del Paso Heights, Oak Park, Meadowview).
· Promote homeownership for renters.
· Support and mentor Black developers through co-developer models. · Create community ownership models that allow residents to co-invest in revitalization projects. · Provide wraparound supports such as affordable housing, workforce development, and local business investments.

3. Financial Stability Strategy
· Expand Guaranteed Income and asset-building programs. · Encourage inclusive lending products for homes and businesses. · Continue supporting the Financial Empowerment Center for 1 on 1 coaching · Strengthen socially responsible banking practices and establish a Responsible Banking Ordinance to ensure financial institutions prioritize equity, community investment, and fair access to credit.

The City has already taken significant steps to implement several recommendations outlined in the Blueprint. Notably, we secured grant funding to establish a Small Developer Bootcamp, which is designed to strengthen the pipeline of local developers and increase participation from people of color and women in the development sector. We have also made strategic investments in a Small Business Resource Center that provides technical assistance, fee credits, and microgrants to support the growth and sustainability of small and micro enterprises. Furthermore, in collaboration with the City Treasurer’s Office, we are advancing socially responsible banking practices to ensure that municipal financial strategies align with equity and community impact goals.

CityStart is also aligned with and will be carried forward in part through another CFE Fund initiative called Financial Empowerment Cities (FE Cities), which is focused on community collaboration to grow financial opportunity, access, and well-being for all local residents. As an outgrowth of the CityStart and FE Cities planning processes, the City has also begun to form an effort called Sac LIFT (Local Impact Funders Table), comprised of leaders from financial institutions, philanthropic organizations, the City, and other public and private institutions. Sac LIFT will be an informal yet intentional and consistent engagement space for these leaders to come together around shared goals and to develop collaborations leading to greater community impact.

Policy Considerations: Council adopted a resolution on Dec 3, 2024, to operationalize racial equity in the City government by beginning an institutional transformation process that aims to produce material outcomes for all residents to thrive and will foster a culture of shared partnership and accountability between community and government. The resolution states that persistent inequities

File ID: 2026-00612 3/3/2026
exist in Sacramento and are disproportionately experienced by communities of color and marginalized groups, who are not a part of the process of offering solutions to the racial inequities they experience. The City defines racism as a social construction that has been used (historically and presently) to unjustly determine power and to distribute resources based upon a person's skin color, heritage, ethnicity, and/or national origin. The City also acknowledges that racism operates in various forms and levels that include internalized, interpersonal, institutional, and structural. And Sacramento acknowledges that the foundation of the United States is inextricably linked with racist ideologies, policies, practices and culture, often compounded by government; and that foundation has resulted in social violence, informed by racist narratives and tropes to oppress and dehumanize communities of color, making communities more vulnerable to cycles of racial inequity still today.

Economic Impacts: The CityStart Blueprint is designed to generate long-term economic impact by strengthening wealth-building pathways, expanding workforce development, increasing entrepreneurship, and stabilizing neighborhoods historically impacted by disinvestment. While adopting the Blueprint does not require any immediate General Fund expenditures, it provides a coordinated framework to guide future investments, leverage external funding opportunities and align public-private partnerships to achieve measurable outcomes. Closing the wealth gap of Black residents is an economic growth strategy that will positively impact all residents and the City by increasing homeownership, expanding access to capital for potential homeowners and small businesses, and strengthening the workforce pipeline, which will lead to higher household incomes, higher property values, more businesses and increased revenue for the City. Research has shown that when historically excluded populations such as African Americans gain access to assets and do well the broader regional economy tends to do even better.

Environmental Considerations: This action is not a project that is subject to CEQA because it is an administrative activity and relates to government fiscal activities that do not involve any commitment to any specific project that may result in a potentially significant physical impact on the environment. (CEQA Guidelines § 15378(b)(2) and (b)(4).)
Sustainability: Not applicable.

Commission/Committee Action: Not applicable.

Rationale for Recommendation: Forwarding the CityStart Blueprint to the Council formalizes the City’s commitment to racial equity by advancing targeted, data-driven strategies that can assist in addressing Sacramento’s racial wealth gap by implementing short, medium and long-term economic mobility goals for Black residents. This Blueprint is not a standalone document but a strategic planning framework developed and designed with technical assistance from national industry experts, industry-specific leaders (workforce, housing and banking) and community careholders. It builds upon existing City efforts and investments, such as the Financial Empowerment Center, Fine and Fee Justice Initiatives, African American Experience Project, and Inclusive Economic

File ID: 2026-00612 3/3/2026
Development programs. This Blueprint will provide direction for continued cross-departmental collaboration and implementation in alignment with the City’s Racial Equity Resolution. Additionally, this will position the City to leverage future public, private and philanthropic investment, while affirming Sacramento’s leadership role nationally as one of seven cities to develop a wealth-gap plan centered on Black residents. Advancing this Blueprint aligns directly with the City’s stated goal of operationalizing racial equity in government decision-making and implementing tangible outcomes that allow all residents to thrive. Recognition from the Council affirms that closing the wealth gap is not just aspirational but a real, measurable economic-development priority that is essential to long- term prosperity for all.

Financial Considerations: No funding is being requested or recommended.

Local Business Enterprise (LBE): Not applicable.

The CityStart Initiative
A collaboration between Community Engagement, Office of Diversity and Equity, and the Mayor’s Office March 3, 2026

Community
Engagement Team
2 Lynette
Hall
Amy
Williamson
Ari Green
Background and Overview
3 • Cities for Financial
Empowerment (CFE)
Fund awards the City a
grant to focus on
addressing the Black
Wealth Gap
CityStart Grant
Awarded (Apr 2023)
• In collaboration with
CFE Fund, the CityStart
Blueprint release was
celebrated at a Black-
owned Business
Blueprint Release
(May 2025)
• Ongoing; Research,
networking, engagement
Staff Support
• Ongoing; Leadership,
engagement,
accountability
Community
• Ongoing; Grant-funded
initiatives
Alignment
CityStart Blueprint
The CityStart Blueprint is an initiative designed to outline strategies to reduce Sacramento’s Black Wealth Gap.

The Blueprint focuses on three areas of improvement:
• Housing
• Workforce Development
• Banking
Funding provided by The Center For Financial Empowerment and Bloomberg Philanthropies Greenwood Initiative
4 CityStart Blueprint
● Consider expanding local
Guaranteed Income and Financial
Empowerment programs
● Continue neighborhood specific
investment such as Aggie Square
● Increasing opportunities for local
Black developers (Small Developer
bootcamp)
● Working with the Treasure’s Office
on Socially Responsibly Banking
● Building public-private partnerships
through the Sac LIFT Initiative
5 Recommendations
CityStart Blueprint Release (May 14, 2025) 6

Next Steps
● Continue conversations with financial
partners and expand philanthropic
ventures
● Align with Financial Empowerment
Cities initiative
● March 2026 Kick-off for Sac LIFT
initiative
● Working with the City Treasurer to
develop community-centered banking
criterion
7 Partnering with Local
High Schools for
Youth Engagement
with the CityStart
Blueprint
8 Lessons Learned
9 The need to develop alternative methods to conducting this work despite limitations due to Prop 209.
• This effects all facets of life when it relates to public funds (i.e.: Housing, Workforce Development, etc.)
The need for foundational skills
Continuing to address the Racial Wealth Gap
Recommendation and Direction
10 We are seeking your direction to:

1. For Council and the Racial Equity Committee to review the Blueprint Report

2. Pass a motion to adopt the Blueprint Report as a guiding document

Thank you!
11 From Disparity to Prosperity
Addressing the Black Wealth Gap in Sacramento
2025
In 2023, the City of Sacramento received a grant from the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund (CFE) as part of the CityStart Initiative. CityStart offers local governments a structured approach to developing and crafting a Blueprint aimed at addressing the country’s wealth gap and the disproportionate impact on those communities at the bottom of the wealth distribution. We recognize that there are other underserved communities within Sacramento that have also experienced historical injustices as a result of local, state, and federal policies. Given the nature of the funding source and scope, this work solely focuses on the Black wealth gap in Sacramento.

Through the work of this grant, in partnership with various local careholders, the City of Sacramento has selected three key subjects – housing; access to banking; and workforce development – across which it will pursue innovative programs to reduce the Black wealth gap in Sacramento. This Blueprint proposes a set of strategies to reduce the Black wealth gap, along with example programs and policies. The intent is to present strategies that both the City and other local organizations, institutions, and leaders can pursue to reduce barriers and build pathways to increasing Black wealth.

The law with respect to strategies and programs like those described here is rapidly changing, and currently unsettled.

This Blueprint does not yet reflect legal review, and so may include illustrative programs whose legality might be challenged. When specific programs are designed for implementation in Sacramento, care will be taken to assure legal compliance.

Introduction 4
Origins and History of the National Wealth Gap 5
The Wealth Gap in Sacramento 8
Strategies 1 6
Conclusion 22
Appendix 23
Launch Careers and Businesses in High-Growth Industries 23 Provide Specialized Mentorship and Funding for Black Entrepreneurs and Businesses 25 Targeted Neighborhood Investment / Homeownership Strategy 27 Expand Participation in Real Estate Industry 28
Expand Access to Savings Accounts and Mortgage/Lending Products 30 Provide Financial Coaching and Empowerment Services 32 Guaranteed Income Expansion 33
Document Links 34
References 36
Boosts and Blocks Timeline 42
Cover photos: Sourced from Center for Sacramento History. Clockwise from top to bottom:
• Church Congregation at Shiloh Baptist Church, Sacramento’s second oldest Black church, established in 1856. • Mr. and Mrs. Dunlap of Dunlap’s Restaurant, a Black-owned restaurant that operated out of Mr. and Mrs. Dunlap’s Oak Park residence and was listed in the Negro Motorist Green Book.
• Martin Luther King Jr. ’s eldest daughter at North Avenue Elementary School, which was previously a predominantly Black school in Del Paso Heights. • William H. Lee, the founder and publisher of one of Sacramento’s Black newspapers, the Sacramento Observer.

Table of Contents
1 To the Residents of Sacramento:

In 2023, the City of Sacramento, under Mayor Steinberg’s leadership, received a grant from the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund (CFE) as part of the CityStart initiative. CityStart offers local governments a structured approach to developing actionable strategies and crafting a Blueprint aimed at addressing the country’s wealth gap. While the City recognizes that there are many underserved communities within Sacramento that have experienced historical injustices as a result of government policies, this work solely focuses on the Black wealth gap.

Sacramento strives to be a city where each of our residents can prosper – a city that offers opportunities for everyone to live, work and play. One of the primary enablers of opportunity is residents’ access to wealth. Residents generate wealth in many ways – for instance through employment, business ownership, and homeownership. Our city thrives when all of our residents have access to wealth generation opportunities.

Currently, access to wealth is drastically different for certain segments of the population. Many, particularly Black Sacramentans, face obstacles in accessing wealth, creating a tremendous wealth gap in our city. Nationally, white Americans have $200,000 more wealth than Black Americans. Trends are similar in Sacramento: as compared to white Sacramentans, Black Sacramentans own homes at half the rate, are denied mortgage loans at twice the rate, make $25k less per year, and own just 3% of businesses.

These disparities are not a recent revelation. The white-Black wealth gap has been deliberately constructed and maintained over time, originating with slavery and maintained through its legacies, which have been historically found embedded in government systems, policies and programs. Sacramento will not continue to thrive unless all our residents are able to access and create wealth. This means that, working with community, we must address the effects of past discrimination, dismantle personal and institutional discrimination, and identify other avenues of wealth creation for Black residents.

This report outlines the historical events that led to today’s Black wealth gap; the current state of the wealth gap – across housing, access to banking, and workforce development; and proposes three strategies to address it alongside example initiatives to implement each. This document is just a starting point for addressing the Black wealth gap; in reality; closing the gap will require a broad range of innovative and ambitious initiatives and long-term policy solutions.

The City of Sacramento has a role to play in addressing the wealth gap, but we cannot do it alone. Therefore, we will work in partnership with institutions and organizations to ensure all our residents thrive by evaluating City policies through an equity lens.

I look forward to the future collaborations this document will foster.

Sincerely,
Kevin McCarty, Mayor
City of Sacramento
2 Dear Partners, Funders, Community Leaders, and Advocates, I am honored to introduce the CityStart Blueprint, a strategic, transformative roadmap designed to reshape Sacramento’s future by addressing the wealth gap and ensuring that every resident has an opportunity to build and secure wealth. As the Assistant City Manager, I am proud to support this important work and join with you, our community, and careholders to drive inclusive and lasting change.

Sacramento has long aspired to be a city where every resident can thrive, a city that offers opportunities for all to live, work, and play. But this vision will only be realized when every resident, regardless of race, has access to wealth-building opportunities that allow them to prosper. Unfortunately, this access is not equitably distributed.

In Sacramento, Black residents face significant barriers in accessing wealth, barriers that have been entrenched for generations. Nationally, the wealth gap between Black and White Americans is staggering. Workforce analyses in Sacramento reveal a stark disparity in wages, with Black residents consistently earning the lowest wages across various sectors. Despite being a vital part of the local workforce, Black Sacramentans are disproportionately concentrated in low-wage jobs, earning significantly less than their white counterparts. This wage gap is a critical issue that exacerbates the racial wealth gap and underscores the urgent need for targeted strategies to increase economic mobility.

We cannot continue to ignore these deep inequities. The prosperity of our city is directly tied to the prosperity of all its residents. We must dismantle the barriers that have historically kept Black residents from accessing wealth and create new pathways to financial empowerment and generational wealth.

This report outlines the historical events that led to today’s Black wealth gap; the current state of wealth disparities across housing, access to banking, and workforce development; and proposes strategies to address it, alongside sample initiatives for each. While this document represents an important starting point, closing the gap will require a broad range of innovative and ambitious initiatives, as well as long-term policy solutions.

The strategies presented here are not just recommendations; they are a collective call to action. The City of Sacramento certainly has a role to play in addressing the wealth gap, but we cannot do it alone. We must work in partnership with institutions, organizations, and individuals who share our commitment to equity and economic justice. Together, we will align our efforts with the strategic recommendations outlined in this document to create a future of shared prosperity for all residents.

I encourage you to join us in this effort. Whether you are a community leader, a funder, a business owner, or a resident, your support is essential to ensuring that this work leads to real, lasting change. Together, we can create a Sacramento where wealth is not limited to a few but shared by all.

Let us build the future we know is possible – one where opportunity, financial security, and prosperity are available to every resident, and where the legacy of inequity is no longer the story we tell. The CityStart Blueprint is the first step on this journey, and I look forward to the partnership and progress we will make together.

Sincerely,
Michael Jasso
Assistant City Manager & Director, Innovation and Economic Development City of Sacramento
3 Introduction
Net Worth (Median, 2022$)
1989
300
200
100
0 1992 1995 1998 2001
white, non-Hispanic Black, non-Hispanic
2004 2007 2010 2013 2016 2019 2022
The white to Black wealth ratio has been as high as 56
to 1. While it fell immediately following Emancipation – reaching 10 to 1 by 1 920, and 7 to 1 by the 1 950s – it is no longer closing. The pandemic alone widened the
gap by $50,000.2
F
or generations, Black Americans have been
systematically denied access to opportunities
and the wealth that fosters fundamental wellbeing.

Black households earn 37% less income than white
households. Even more staggering, they have 85%
percent less wealth. And, Black Americans cannot
rely on generational wealth. The average Black family
is four times less likely to receive an inheritance –
instead, they grapple with “generational accumulation
of disadvantages.” They are also more likely to lose
everything in an emergency, with just $2, 100 in liquid assets (versus $1 2,000 for white families).1
Today, Black household median wealth is $44,000
while white households have $200,000 more. The
gap in mean wealth - $1, 1 50,000 - is even higher.

Particularly concerning is that since the 1 980s, the
wealth gap has been widening.2
The impacts of this wealth gap are destructive to all
Americans. For Black communities, it means lack of
access to safe, affordable housing, well-paying
jobs, medical care, and healthy food options, and
it even contributes to lower life expectancy. For all
Americans, not only does it divide us socially but it
also limits income mobility and economic growth
more broadly. As inequality rises, economies do
worse: they waste valuable assets, and bear the
high costs of poverty.3
If Black Americans suffer, then we all suffer.

Addressing the Black wealth gap – by removing
barriers and building pathways to wealth creation –
creates a better outcome for everyone.
“We have yet to understand that if I am starving, you are in danger. If people think that my danger makes them safe, they’re in trouble.” – James Baldwin 4 Origins and History of the National Wealth Gap
During Reconstruction (1 865-1 877), the wealth gap
between white and Black Americans was 23 to 1 –
equivalent to just $4 of wealth for Black Americans for every $100 for white Americans.2
One of the first proposed actions to address the wealth gap was Special Field Order No. 1 5, which would
have provided 40 acres of land to 1 8,000 formerly
enslaved families, but this was never delivered.6
The Black wealth gap in the United States dates back
to 16 1 9 – when the first slaves arrived in Virginia. Over 200 years of forced labor and wage theft followed –
estimated to be between $1 5 trillion to $20 trillion of denied or stolen wealth.4
Since then, America has perpetuated and maintained
systems that are designed to deny wealth to and
extract wealth from our most vulnerable communities.5
Black Americans have disproportionately been on the
receiving end of this wealth extraction and continue
to endure the effects of economic disparity. When we
consider all that Black Americans have endured since
their arrival in the United States, we come to understand the unjust origins of the wealth gap and the structures that maintain it today.

Over the span of 400 years, U.S. policies have
provided both “boosts” and “blocks” to building wealth
(see Boosts and Blocks diagram at end of document).

In 1 863, the Emancipation Proclamation freed millions
of slaves but did not guarantee the right to own land. A short-lived promise of “40 acres and a mule” ultimately would have changed the trajectory for Black Americans
– but this promise was unfulfilled.6 African Americans
gained their formal legal freedom, yet they did so in
poverty, and without economic freedom.

Despite this, in an effort to redefine their position in society and build wealth during the Reconstruction era, Black Americans built farms, small businesses, mutual
aid societies, and most importantly – their own homes.

But, beginning in the 1 890s, the passing of Jim Crow
placed legal restrictions on Black mobility – limiting
homeownership, employment, education, and banking
access by enforcing racial segregation.7 The 1896
Plessy v. Ferguson “separate but equal” Supreme Court
decision further cemented segregation as legal.

Despite the eventual end of legal segregation – in
public schools in 1 954 (Brown v. Board of Education),
and more broadly in 1 964 (Civil Rights Act) – its
legacy remains in nearly every system. This includes
policies and programs like the 1 935 Federal Housing
Administration (FHA) redlining, 1 944 GI Bill, urban
renewal programs, and the 1 956 Highway Act. These
policies and their implementation stymied the growth
and wealth accumulation of Black Americans but
propelled their white counterparts. They did this through, for instance, intentionally denying loans to majority-
Black neighborhoods, preventing Black Americans from
moving into majority-white neighborhoods, displacing
Black residents to make way for new construction, and
using highway construction to cut off majority-Black
neighborhoods from accessing opportunity.8
While some narratives communicate that Black
inequality is the byproduct of the Black communities’
work ethic and self-sufficiency, that could not be further from the truth.9 The wealth gap has been deliberately
constructed and maintained over time, originating with
slavery and maintained through its legacies, which are
deeply embedded in our systems. After the abolition
of slavery, the U.S. government and various institutions found new ways to continue oppressing and exploiting
Black Americans. One of the most pervasive and
insidious methods was the use of the prison system as
a means of unjust control. With the passage of laws
designed to criminalize minor offenses, especially
targeting Black communities, there was a dramatic
5 increase in incarceration of Black Americans. The 1 3th Amendment abolished slavery “except as punishment
for a crime,” creating a loophole that allowed for the
continued forced labor of Black Americans under the
guise of the penal system. As a result, there was a
surge in Black imprisonment, effectively maintaining a
system of racial subjugation through mass incarceration and convict leasing.10 This legacy of criminalizing
Black existence continues to impact generations,
perpetuating cycles of poverty, discrimination, and
disenfranchisement.

Today, we see that the systems that maintain and widen
the wealth gap are deeply complex, interwoven, and
have compounding effects (see diagram). For example,
lack of access to educational opportunities leads to
lower education credentials. This is exacerbated by
discrimination in hiring, which leads to low-wage
jobs, reinforcing how the Black wealth gap impacts
us all. Lack of income and generational financial
The average “Friends and Family” funding round to
launch a business is $23,000 – and without access
to generational wealth, or access to networks, many
Black entrepreneurs are never given the opportunity to
successfully launch and scale a venture.11
Discrimination
• Employment
• Lending
• Legal System
• Government
State-Sanctioned Violence
• Mass Incarceration
• Police Violence
• Forced Relocation
Environmental Harm
• Poor Air Quality
• Flooding
• Pollution
Poor Access to Networks
• Clients
• Lending Support
• Jobs/Promotions
Poor Access to Services
• Healthy Food
• Healthcare
• Education/Training
Racialized Planning
• Redlining
• Racial Covenants
• Urban Redevelopment
• Freeway Construction
WEALTH
GAP
From Disparity to Prosperity
6 Photo source: www.istockphoto.com, author: Jacob Wackerhausen resources, compounded by discrimination in the housing
market (access, assessed values, finance practices,
government infrastructure, etc.), limits homeownership
and particularly wealth accumulation through increased
home values. These factors, combined with poor access
to business networks and financial resources, further
restrict entrepreneurial opportunity.11 Consequently,
concentrated poverty, lack of access to quality basic
services – from health care to nutritious food – present major challenges to wealth building as well as wealth
sustainment.

As a result, today:
• The gap in Black-white homeownership is 44% to
75% - and this gap is growing12
• Homes in Black neighborhoods are valued 2 1-23%
lower than what their valuations would be in non-
Black neighborhoods13
• 7 4% of formerly redlined areas remain low-to-
moderate income14
• Black-founded startups receive less than 0.5% of
all U.S. venture capital funding – and this rate is
declining15
• Just 3% of Black households own commercial real
estate (versus 8% white households)16
• White households have 1 1 times more stock market
investment than Black households17
• 1 3% of Black individuals are unbanked (versus 3%
white) – and, Black households spend 7% of their
income on interest and fees (versus 3% white)18
These staggering figures provide a snapshot of the
severity and complexity of the Black wealth gap. The
narrative is similar in every metropolitan region in the United States. However, to address the wealth gap in a
particular city, it is important to understand the unique local policies, economic patterns and spatial patterns
that have maintained the wealth gap over time. The next section explores the evolution of the Black wealth gap in Sacramento.

From Disparity to Prosperity
7 The Wealth Gap in Sacramento
Distribution of Black residents in 1880 (left) and 1990 (right). Source: Source: Google Maps, edited by Page & Turnbull; published in Page & Turnbull, “Sacramento African American Experience History Project, Historic Context Statement, ” June 2023. “Between 1 940 and 1 960, 350,000 new homes were
built in Northern California using FHA support; however, fewer than 100 went to Blacks.”22
HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO’S WEALTH
GAP
As in other cities across the U.S., many federal policies and programs that maintained segregation-era blocks to
Black wealth were implemented locally in Sacramento.

And, racism was a central tenet of early governance
in Sacramento. One of the city’s founders - Peter
Hardeman Burnett- was a former slaveholder from
Tennessee with a “burning passion to create a whites-
only American West.” The local Ku Klux Klan held their
first local ceremony in 1 922, initiating 300 people
(many of them City workers).19
This led to widespread discrimination. Many business
owners in white collar industries refused to hire Black workers, so most were employed in industries like
hospitality or building trades that often paid low wages.

Even as Black migration into Sacramento increased
with the start of the Great Migration, employment
opportunities were limited to lower-growth personal
services businesses.20
Covenants, Redlining and Redevelopment
From the beginning, race was an important factor in
gaining access to land and housing markets. Racial
covenants were used in the early 1 900s onwards,
pushing Black residents and businesses to cluster in the West End.21
West End properties were then subject to racist lending practices. In 1 933, the Home Owner’s Loan Corporation
(HOLC) was created to reduce foreclosures but also
institutionalized exclusion.22 When determining whether to grant a loan, HOLC used color-coded maps to
assess neighborhoods’ perceived risk. Areas occupied
by Black populations were colored red and marked as
“hazardous” – making them off-limits for FHA home
loans. Sacramento’s West End, the hub of the Black
8 HOLC Residential Security map for Sacramento. The West End is outlined in black. Maps were based on surveys conducted by local real estate officials that used race along with a range of other factors to designate risk levels. Colors: A (Green) – “best”; B (Blue) – “still desirable”; C (Yellow) – “definitely declining”; D (Red) – “hazardous” Source: Mapping Inequality. West End redevelopment. Source: Race and Place in Sacramento. “Black business owners in the West End often faced
financial ruin following confiscation of their property.

Many just could not afford the costs of relocation.”27
population, was one such “redlined” neighborhood.23
Unable to access loans for new homes or home repairs,
West End properties became overcrowded and fell into
disrepair.

As a result, redlined property in the West End
decreased in value by 30% – and some blocks
by 65%. Yet, elsewhere in Sacramento, property
experienced a 46% increase in value.24
This paved the way for redevelopment. California’s
1 945 Community Redevelopment Act authorized
local redevelopment agencies to acquire “blighted”
properties - often, those in minority neighborhoods - to convert them to uses that “greater served the public,”
and federal programs like the Housing Act of 1 949 and
National Interstate and Defense Highways
Act of 1 956 permitted racially segregated areas of
the city to be repurposed by private developers. The
West End was designated as “blighted,” and, with
assistance from Tax Increment Financing (TIF) dollars,
the Sacramento Redevelopment Agency (RDA) acquired
the land via eminent domain in 1 956.25
Residents and businesses pushed back against the City’s misuse of eminent domain powers, but the land was
redeveloped for Interstate 5, City administrative offices, and commercial buildings.26
The result: West End non-whites that owned their home
from 1 950 to 1 970 went from 56% to zero. 75% of
the West End’s minority population was displaced.

This also had devastating impacts to the many Black-
owned retail establishments and Black entrepreneurs
that operated in the West End. They lost clientele and
networks, and most closed.27
Finding new housing was difficult in a market that was
closed to Black residents.28 Some middle-class Black
From Disparity to Prosperity
9 Sacramento was the first city to use Tax Increment
Financing, which subsequently became the primary
financing mechanism for other regions as well to leverage federal urban renewal funds. Early use of TIFs “directly supported projects that disproportionately targeted non- white residents,” allowing “government-sponsored racial antagonism” to reclaim land.25
Source: City of Sacramento, edited by RW Ventures, LLC

HOUSING DISCRIMINATION
While state legislation worked to combat housing discrimination in California (e.g., 1 959 Unruh Civil Rights Act; 1 959 Hawkins Fair Housing Act), fair housing enforcement was difficult - largely because most non-whites could not afford the cost of litigation.33 Although the 1 963 Rumford Fair Housing Act addressed this by holding real estate professionals legally accountable for fair housing violations and establishing the Fair Employment Practice Commission (FEPC), its passage left the real estate industry so outraged that they lobbied for Proposition 1 4 to nullify Rumford, and secured its passage in 1 964, essentially authorizing discrimination in the housing market.34 Although it was struck down by the California Supreme Court two years later, efforts of the local housing industry to prevent fair housing persisted.

The passage of the 1 968 Fair Housing Act sought to put a stop to housing discrimination, but its implementation was not able to address the pervasiveness of the problem.35 It remains an issue today; for instance, in 201 8, the City of Sacramento sued Wells Fargo for violating the Fair Housing Act by steering Black borrowers towards high-cost and high-risk loans.36
residents were able to purchase housing in areas
where there were no restrictive covenants, by asking
white friends to purchase property and transfer it to
them. But many of these areas were redlined, so loans
were difficult to obtain.29 The use of race in determining property values was legal until 1 977 , so for the few
residents that did purchase homes, these were often
undervalued. Property was further de-valued as urban
redevelopment programs planned and built highways
through majority-minority neighborhoods. Following
West End redevelopment, poor, non-white residents
dispersed - shifting to places like Meadowview and
Del Paso Heights, with a majority moving to Oak
Park. New concentrations of Black-owned businesses
emerged in Oak Park and Del Paso Heights.

A wealth-stripping cycle of redevelopment followed
Black residents. Oak Park was eventually tagged
“blighted” and was redeveloped, once again taking
property from homeowners and tenants to facilitate
demolition.30 Freeways, built to connect the suburbs

DEL PASO HEIGHTS

MEADOWVIEW

OAK PARK
From Disparity to Prosperity
10 Men sitting outside a business near the intersection of Rio Linda Boulevard and South Avenue in Del Paso Heights (1975). Source: Center for Sacramento History To meet wartime production needs, companies like
Southern Pacific Railroad “sent recruiters into the South to hire Black labor, promising free transportation and a ‘good job’ once they arrived.”38
While the Housing Act of 1 949 was intended to provide
affordable housing in downtowns (to combat the exodus
to the suburbs), it did not help non-white residents; in fact, an amendment to ban racial discrimination was
voted down.25
to the redeveloped West End, cut off access to Oak
Park, sending its commercial district into decline.31 What remained of Oak Park’s business district was destroyed
in 1 969 after rioting in response to the police raid of the Black Panthers’ Sacramento headquarters. In Del Paso
Heights, many businesses closed by the late 1 980s as
white flight resulted in disinvestment.32

MILITARY/GOVERNMENT JOB AND

HOUSING GROWTH
Pre-1 940s, jobs for Black residents were
disproportionately concentrated in lower-wage and
lower-growth industries – personal services, agriculture, food processing, manufacturing and construction. But,
World War II transformed Sacramento’s workforce,
as it did for many other west coast cities. It prompted mass migration and growth of wartime industries that
labeled this period of time the “second gold rush.” In the 1 950s and 60s, civil service and military employment
opportunities grew, and many were available to Black,
Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) and paid
higher wages than other employers.37 The 1 950s
brought about 25,000 workers – 10% Black – to
Sacramento’s military institutions (e.g., McClellan Field, Mather Army Air Base).38
Demand for housing grew alongside of this – fueling
suburban growth to accommodate a majority white
population. The market could not keep up with housing
demand and by 1 980, home prices had tripled.39 The
local housing market was still largely closed to Black
families, once again leading to inner-city overcrowding.

Heavy local government investment in suburban
commercial and residential development caused
widening inequality between district tax bases in
Sacramento, impacting educational and healthcare
quality.40 As a result, schools in predominantly Black
neighborhoods were (and continue to be) underfunded.

These same neighborhoods were already cut off from
access to amenities like healthcare facilities and grocery stores due to freeway construction.

Despite these challenges, a new non-white middle
class population emerged, and by 1 980, 9.7% of the
County’s Black families earned at least $35,000 a
year (equivalent to about $1 30,000 today).41 But just as this middle class was rising, McClellan Air Force
Base closed, which had a disproportionate impact on
the city’s BIPOC population, many of whom also lived
nearby.

Finding another job was not easy. Discrimination was
an ongoing issue both for Black workers and business
owners – limiting job opportunities, educational
opportunities, and cutting off access to networks (which are so important to being hired).42 Employers are more
likely to hire employees who are the same race, and the absence of Black workers - in particular in executive
positions - has prevented hiring or promotions for Black residents.43
From Disparity to Prosperity
11 Racial Differences in the Quarterly Foreclosure Rate. Source:
https://home.treasury.gov/news/featured-stories/racial- differences-in-economic-security-housing. The gap between white and BIPOC foreclosure rates has remained since 2020. Source:
https://www.enterprisecommunity.org/blog/foreclosure-risks- remained-high-during-pandemic-households-color
2022 % Black residency: Higher Black concentrations and poverty lie to the north and south , while areas that were redeveloped (and now have majority white residency and greater access to opportunity) lie along an east to west corridor.

Discrimination persists today. Black workers in
Sacramento tend to earn lower wages than their white
counterparts, even in similar roles. Job segregation into lower-paying sectors, such as retail and service jobs,
exacerbates this income disparity. Black unemployment
rates are consistently higher than those of other racial groups in Sacramento, due in part to systemic barriers in education and employment opportunities.

Job prospects and earning potential for Black
Sacramentans are further limited by repeatedly
underfunding schools in majority-Black neighborhoods
– resulting in lower educational outcomes. The high cost of higher education and lack of financial aid for Black students also impacts long-term economic mobility.

Many Black families in the Sacramento region struggle
with student debt, which hinders wealth accumulation.44

HOUSING CRISIS AND AFTERMATH
Credit was finally extended to Black residents as
housing construction spiked in 2000. However, many
loans were predatory – with balloon interest payments
that resulted in foreclosure or bankruptcy.45 These loans were targeted at Black and Hispanic households, and
the pervasiveness of the issue has resulted in several
From Disparity to Prosperity
12 Median Household Income, Sacramento (2022 $)
$80
$10,080
$20,080
$30,080
$40,080
$50,080
$60,080
$70,080
$80,080
$90,080
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 BlackTotal Population
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%
white
Black
Poverty Rate, Sacramento County (2022)
$0
$100,000
$200,000
$300,000
$400,000
$500,000
Black white
Median Home Value, Sacramento (2022)
% Owner Occupied Housing Units, Sacramento
0 0.1

0.2 0.3

0.4 0.5

0.6 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Total Population Black
Data sources: ACS 5-year (2022) [top graph]; ACS 1-year [bottom graph]. Note: Data for 2020 are not available for the ACS 1-Year Data product as the U.S. Census Bureau only released an extremely limited, “experimental” data release. See www.census.gov/programs- surveys/acs/data/experimental-data.html for further details Data sources: ACS 5-year (2022) [top graph]; ACS 1-year [bottom graph]. Note: Data for 2020 are not available for the ACS 1-Year Data product as the U.S. Census Bureau only released an extremely limited, “experimental” data release. See www.census.gov/programs- surveys/acs/data/experimental-data.html for further details local and national lawsuits – for instance, Wells Fargo, Countrywide/Bank of America and City National.46
This lending practice once again led to speculative real estate investment and displacement of Sacramento’s
Black residents.

Since then, housing supply has not been enough
to keep pace with demand – and home valuations
have skyrocketed, doubling in Sacramento from
2009 to 201 8. In-migration from San Francisco
has put additional pressure on an already stressed
housing market.47 This has led to gentrification in
neighborhoods where Sacramento had pushed its
Black population (e.g., Meadowview, Del Paso
Heights) and increased houselessness – primarily
affecting BIPOC residents. As a result, Sacramento’s
Black population, currently 1 3%, has been declining.48

THE LOCAL WEALTH GAP TODAY
Since Sacramento’s founding, Black residents have
repeatedly been denied access to opportunity and
assets. Today, there are striking inequities across
multiple avenues to wealth creation in Sacramento:

Employment Income
As compared to white Sacramentans, Black
unemployment is higher, job opportunities are more
limited, and salaries are lower. Black unemployment
rates in the County are nearly double that of white
residents (10% vs 6%).49 As a result, the Black poverty rate is more than twice the white poverty rate.50 Across the region, Black employment is concentrated in low-
wage jobs (social assistance, messengers, nursing
homes, administrative services, warehousing and truck
transportation).51 For better paying jobs, residents
need to upskill, but many get stuck in multiple stop-
gap jobs to make ends meet: they thus have little time
to complete training programs, which often require
some unpaid coursework and work experience. Black
residents also have the lowest self-employment rates of any racial/ethnic group in the city, region, and U.S.52 As a result, average city household incomes are
$56,600 for Black families versus $80,200 overall.

Homeownership
The white-Black homeownership gap is 65.6% (white) to

34.3% (Black).53 Black-owned homes are also under-
valued. Median home values for white residents are
From Disparity to Prosperity
13 $-
$500,000
$1,000,000
$1,500,000
$2,000,000
$2,500,000
$3,000,000
white Asian Hispanic Black
Annual Revenue/Firm, Sacramento (2022)
Sources of Income, Sacramento (2022)

0.0% 20.0% 40.0% 60.0% 80.0% 100.0% 120.0%
white
Black
Wage and Salary Income Business and Farm Income Social Security Income Welfare (public assistance) income Interest, dividend, and rental income Retirement income Supplementary social security income Other income Data sources: ABS (2017) [top graph]; ACS IPUMS 5-year (2022) [bottom graph].

Access to Financial Institutions and Credit
In Sacramento County, there are 1 2 Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation (FDIC) active institutions per
100k people – half as many as there are nationally
(24 per 100k people).60 These are concentrated in
majority-white neighborhoods, with banking deserts
in majority-BIPOC neighborhoods like Del Paso
Heights.61 This impacts access to business and home
loans – compounded by the fact that denial of wealth
to Black Sacramentans has resulted in low or no credit
history/scores.62 Black mortgage applicants were
denied loans at about twice the rate of white applicants (1 3% vs 7% in 2022).63 And, neighborhoods with
high concentrations of Black residents receive fewer
business loans from traditional bank lenders.64 There is potential to address this not only through growing bank relationships, but also with NCUA-active credit unions
and Community Development Financial Institutions
(CDFIs). Both, in particular credit unions, have a strong presence in Sacramento.

Other Factors
As mentioned, the systems that maintain the wealth gap
are interwoven and complex. Solutions to address it
must therefore address factors beyond those described
above. For instance, Black families have less income
diversity – most comes from wages with very little
from other sources (e.g., white families receive 5.6%
of income from interest, dividend and rental income -
versus 2.3% for Black residents). Educational attainment $90,000 higher than for Black residents;54 in general,
Black homeowners live closer to industrial development
and highways, and they also have less tree cover and
green space.55 Access to homeownership is aggravated
by the city’s affordability crisis; the county’s home values are more than $1 50k over the national average.56
Gentrification is actively pushing Black renters out of neighborhoods they call home.

Business Ownership
Just 3% of privately held city firms are Black-owned.

These firms are smaller, generate less revenue, and are in lower-growth industries than white-owned firms.57
However, Sacramento has a slightly higher Black
entrepreneurship rate than the U.S. (6.3% vs 5.8%),
representing a strong foundation for growth.58 Many
of the Black-owned businesses seeking technical
assistance from local providers are microbusinesses that make $30 to $100k per year – and many have to rely
on their own savings to scale their business.59
From Disparity to Prosperity
14 Data source: ACS 5-year (2022).
is uneven; in the county, 37% of white residents have
a Bachelor’s degree while 25% of Black residents
do. Health disparities are severe; across the county,
Black residents are expected to live 4 years less than
white residents, and have twice as many preventable
hospitalizations. Fines and fees disproportionately
affect low-income Black residents, further limiting their economic prospects. In addition, the over-policing of
Black communities in Sacramento and the broader U.S.
disproportionately impacts Black men and women,
resulting in criminal records that make it harder to find jobs, secure housing, and build wealth.65
Highest Educational Attainment (25+), Sacramento County (2022) 0 0.05

0.1 0.15

0.2 0.25

0.3 0.35

0.4 0.45
% <HS % HS % Associates % Bachelor +
Black white
From Disparity to Prosperity
15 Strategies
To address the Black wealth gap, strategic interventions must account for the complexity and interdependency
of the many causes and effects of past and ongoing
discrimination. Some of the gap flows from continuing
personal and institutional discrimination that must be
addressed. Equally important, much of the gap persists
due to past discrimination: the effects create barriers to wealth creation (e.g., lacking collateral to support loans) that must also be addressed, even if the original discrimination is not the continuing barrier. Broadly, “it takes money to make money,” such that the legacy lack
of wealth is in itself a key barrier. Successful strategies will understand and seek to remedy these legacy
barriers within each wealth creation pathway.

Ultimately, the goal of closing the wealth gap means
co-creating access for and with Black Sacramentans to
generate more wealth: strategies thus will not be limited to addressing on-going discrimination or its continuing legacy effects, but will extend to any vehicles for Black wealth creation. Closing the wealth gap will require
a broad range of innovative and ambitious initiatives
and long-term policy solutions that focus on multiple
pathways.

Photo source: www.unsplash.com, author: Josh Hild
16 STRATEGIES TO ADDRESS THE BLACK

WEALTH GAP
Proposed strategies address financial, technical
support and network access, with respect to business,
employment, housing, and other real estate. They
particularly focus on providing or pursuing new wealth
creation opportunities (whose access may still require
addressing institutionalized discrimination or legacy
barriers). These strategies are designed to be mutually- reinforcing – to tackle the wealth gap systemically, just as it has been created systemically.

A range of suggested strategies are outlined in the
Appendix. Several are underway by City-led or
partner-led programs, and there are many other
programs that can be designed and launched to
further existing efforts. To make the biggest impact
in addressing the Black wealth gap, this Blueprint
recommends piloting a few deeper, more focused efforts
that can eventually be scaled:
• Sector-specific strategy
• Neighborhood-specific strategy
• Financial stability strategy

PATHWAYS TO WEALTH CREATION
Employment Income
Most people build assets through income from employment. Income is used to cover daily expenses, but can also generate savings, which in turn enables investing in various asset categories. This can generate further income, including investment income. However, savings are only possible when individuals have sufficient income – meaning, it will be important to scale opportunities for good-paying jobs in high-growth industries.

Education
Higher education can lead to other pathways to wealth creation – for instance, providing opportunities for higher- income employment, entrepreneurship, or business ownership. Note that skills can be acquired through higher education or other means (e.g., on-the-job training, credentials).66 Business Ownership
Entrepreneurship and business ownership are strong drivers of wealth creation, and this includes both businesses in high-growth sectors as well as small businesses.

Homeownership
Homeownership is often the most substantial asset many families own. As a path to wealth creation, it requires access (availability and capacity to purchase), continued investment in the neighborhood (to enable the home to appreciate in value), and addressing other barriers such as fair assessments.67 Other Real Estate Ownership
Ownership of other real estate assets, including rental housing and commercial or industrial property, similarly offers opportunities for wealth creation.

Investment Assets
A wide range of investment assets – from publicly traded stocks to private equity to savings accounts – are available to those who have enough income and/or wealth to invest, and the guidance or expertise to do so.

Access to Financial Institutions and Credit
Access to financial institutions and credit enables other pathways to wealth creation (e.g., ability to secure loans for home ownership or business development).

From Disparity to Prosperity
17 SECTOR-SPECIFIC STRATEGY
The City plans to review the sectors highlighted in its economic development strategy (life sciences, clean
economy, future mobility, agriculture and food and
beverage manufacturing, headquarters and business
services) or an emerging sector. Then, the City will
explore a priority sector and ensure that the selected
sector is projected to grow rapidly and offers pathways to inclusion (or, with intervention will offer pathways to inclusion) across employment, business ownership, and
location/accessibility.

Within this sector, launch programming that explicitly
focuses on placing Black residents in front of wealth
creation opportunities. This includes:
• Labor market programs – Launch a cluster
organization whose goal is to change employer
hiring practices to skills-based hiring; expand
availability and delivery of skills-based training
programs; and connect Black residents to these
programs and to eventual job placement in
the targeted sector. The organization should
also coordinate with necessary wraparound
services (e.g., childcare, transportation, financial
empowerment).
• Entrepreneurship programs – Expand or launch
accelerators focused on supporting Black
entrepreneurs starting companies within the targeted
sector.
• Business scale-up programs - Launch a fund that
identifies high-growth potential companies in
the targeted sector that are Black-owned or are
ready for acquisition. For those that are ready for
acquisition, pair them with a Black entrepreneur
looking to acquire a company. To help the company
scale, provide (1) deep, specialized engagement
from industry experts; combined with (2) stage-
specific funding.

For relevant programs and next steps to inform
implementation, see “Launch Careers and Businesses
in High-Growth Industries” and “Provide Specialized
Mentorship and Funding for Black Entrepreneurs
and Businesses” in the Appendix.

Source: www.istockphoto.com, author: coffeekai

RECOMMENDATION
The City will explore seed investments to launch a scale- up fund, targeting Black entrepreneurs entering the
advanced mobility sector (e.g., connected, autonomous,
shared, or electric vehicle industries). The City plans to form partnerships to sustain the fund over time and
partner with organizations/institutions training the next generation of advanced mobility professionals.

From Disparity to Prosperity
18 NEIGHBORHOOD-SPECIFIC STRATEGY
This strategy is targeted at neighborhoods on the cusp
of change and, combined with strategic, coordinated
activities, is designed to create a positive cycle of
wealth creation and community revitalization. The
City will select a priority neighborhood to receive
targeted redevelopment investment. Criteria could
include neighborhoods with higher numbers of Black
residents, low homeownership rates (e.g., at risk of
gentrification), and low household income. It could also include neighborhoods that historically were subject to disinvestment and disruption from highway construction
(e.g., Del Paso Heights, Oak Park, Meadowview)
and/or those that were redlined or subject to racial
covenants.

The City will then look to focus redevelopment
investment within the selected neighborhood. This could begin by either: (1) identifying high-impact projects
(e.g., sector-specific development projects identified
above) – and, choosing to locate these neighborhood
projects in the selected neighborhood; or, (2) selecting parcels in the neighborhood for redevelopment and
identifying their highest and best use (residential,
commercial, or industrial) to improve wealth creation
pathways for residents.

Alongside project or parcel identification, within the
selected neighborhood, the City will explore:
• Launching a targeted homeownership strategy to
help renters to own their homes. This will help them
capture the value of new development.
• Hiring Black developers or hire mission-driven
developers, and using a co-developer mentorship
model, pair these developers with aspiring Black
developers.
• Creating community ownership models for
development projects, offering residents an
opportunity to co-invest in neighborhood
revitalization efforts.
• Providing wraparound support to facilitate
inclusive growth, which could include investments
in local entrepreneurs, affordable housing, or
workforce development (e.g., Aggie Square
Community Benefits Partnership Agreement).

Source: www.istockphoto.com, author: SeventyFour

RECOMMENDATION
With partners, the City of Sacramento is committed
to creating a positive cycle of wealth creation in the
Aggie Square neighborhood. The City is committed to
investing $50+ million in affordable housing. $29 million will be dedicated to affordable housing; $5 million
will be allocated to anti-displacement programs; and
$1 50,000 annually in wraparound services that support
youth opportunities, local entrepreneurs, public art,
minority and veteran-owned businesses, and workforce
development. In addition, the City is advancing efforts for local job creation including 5,000 construction jobs and neighborhood improvement. See more at this link.

The City is also piloting a Small Developer Incubator
Program. The City will explore different ways to continue to support affordable housing developers thought the
Surplus Land Act. Furthermore, the City will explore
various community ownership models. See “Expand
Participation in Real Estate Industry” for example funds.

The various neighborhood investment programs could
be coordinated through an advisory group or through
the Financial Empowerment Center.

For relevant programs and next steps to inform
implementation, see “Targeted Neighborhood
Investment / Homeownership Strategy” and “Expand
Participation in Real Estate Industry” in the Appendix.

From Disparity to Prosperity
19 FINANCIAL STABILITY STRATEGY
Since “it takes money to make money,” this strategy
is meant to provide individuals and families with a
financial base to enable them to feel more comfortable
taking the time or risk to pursue a training opportunity, move into a higher-paying job, buy a home, or start
a business. It can accelerate the impact of the two
strategies above by first targeting a specific sector or neighborhood/tract (e.g., Golden 1 Credit Union’s
commitment to Del Paso Heights), then expanding to
others over time.

As part of this strategy, the City will explore:

1. Expanding Guaranteed Income (GI) and related
asset-building programs. Alongside the time-
limited monthly payments that GI programs provide,
supplemental initiatives could include a seed deposit
into a savings account for participating families.

For instance, Connecticut’s Baby Bond program
provides $3,200 to each child born into poverty.

These funds, which can grow to about $20,000
over 1 8 years, may be used for buying a home,
investing in a business, paying for higher education
or job training, or saving for retirement. Invest STL in St. Louis, MO pairs residents with $20,000 towards
a home, business or investment (along with a
dedicated financial planner).

2. Offering each family in GI and other asset-building
programs free financial coaching. This service can
guide the use of GI funds and/or the investment
of seed deposits by developing a financial plan
customized to each family’s unique needs and
goals.

3. Incentivizing financial institutions to create more
inclusive lending products for both homes and
businesses. Notify financial coaching professionals
as new products are launched so they can connect
clients with these resources.

For relevant programs and next steps to inform
implementation, see “Expand Access to Savings
Accounts and Mortgage/Lending Products,” “Provide
Financial Coaching and Empowerment Services,” and
“Guaranteed Income Expansion” in the Appendix.

Source: www.istockphoto.com, author: Jacob Wackerhausen

RECOMMENDATION
The City will consider expanding its local Guaranteed
Income programs and explore providing families with
seed deposits into a high-interest savings account.

Seeded funds that grow over time could be used for
education, starting a business, or buying a home. Each
recipient should be offered free financial coaching,
which can include credit management, debt reduction,
building savings and accessing safe and affordable
financial institution products and services. The City will explore partnering with housing agencies and nonprofits to provide comprehensive education for first-time
homebuyers on homeownership and lending practices.

Finally, the City should implement an enhanced socially responsible banking program by modifying the community
investment criteria under which it enters into banking
relationships.

See next page for additional recommendation.

From Disparity to Prosperity
20 RECOMMENDATION
The City of Sacramento must go beyond traditional fiscal stewardship to ensure its investments reflect our values of equity, inclusion, and community empowerment. The City Treasurer’s Office (CTO) already directs a portion of the City’s short-term pooled fund into locally owned financial institutions to support small business, residential, and commercial real estate lending.

The City’s annual investment policy, which is affirmed by the City Council, outlines specific guidelines for deposits made with community banking partners pursuant to the government code. These include limiting deposits to no more than 1% of each local bank’s total deposits and requiring that 50% of City funds be reinvested within Sacramento’s city limits. Financial institutions are required to provide semi-annual reports detailing loan activity by ZIP code and, when possible, the demographics of loan recipients. Through better analytics and demographic information, the CTO will work with the depositing banks to develop banking strategies that target individuals or areas within the city that have been underserved and will benefit low-to-moderate income residents.

It is recommended to explore additional requirements for community banking partners that are consistent with the provisions of the California Government Code governing public funds that would prioritize socially responsible and equity-centered practices into financial partnerships. Specifically, the Treasurer’s Office should develop depository relationships with institutions that promote the following business practices:
• Engage in foreclosure prevention and relief efforts, including moratoriums, loan renegotiation, and other good- faith practices that protect vulnerable homeowners.
• Offer accessible, free or low-cost banking services to low- and moderate-income residents, particularly those who are unbanked or underbanked.
• Demonstrate a strong record of lending and economic investment in historically underserved and redlined neighborhoods.
• Promote racial and economic equity through products, programs, and services that uplift small businesses and entrepreneurs of color.

Moreover, the CTO and the Community Engagement Department should collaborate with community stakeholders to:
• Co-create social responsibility metrics and transparent reporting requirements for financial institutions that wish to hold public deposits.
• Identify and reduce systemic barriers to banking access for low-income and BIPOC communities. • Use disaggregated data and lived experience to help inform banks of inclusive banking and lending products which are focused on Black residents and tailored lending packages.

The City will work to ensure that any financial institution entrusted with taxpayer funds aligns with our collective vision of a more inclusive economy. The City shall establish a Responsible Banking Ordinance that would require the city’s commercial banks to report mortgage lending practices, small business lending, and other investments in the community. Banking contracts shall include equity accountability provisions and responsible banking practices.

Through this initiative, Sacramento will use its public dollars as a lever for structural change by driving equitable economic opportunity, financial inclusion, and community wealth-building. Our investments should not only protect City assets but also generate meaningful outcomes for residents, especially those in communities historically excluded from prosperity.

From Disparity to Prosperity
21 Conclusion
Source: www.istockphoto.com, author: art-skvortsova

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Blueprint arose from a highly collaborative process with individuals and organizations across the Sacramento region, as well as national experts from across the country. The work overall was led by RW Ventures, LLC, which assembled a project team of leading national consultants. Working in close collaboration with the City of Sacramento, this team gathered and organized a breadth of research and data, led interviews, and undertook analysis and strategy development.

Many individuals and organizations participated in the creation of this Blueprint through interviews, engaging in brainstorming and identification of promising strategies. In addition, a group of careholders has been engaged from project conception through finalization – providing input into the Blueprint’s goals as well as strategy development.

Many of these folks will be working with the City to carry out the recommendations of the Blueprint, and their input has been critical in guiding strategies to be both broadly applicable to housing, financial and workforce stakeholders – as well as being specific enough to facilitate future program implementation.

We are deeply indebted to these individuals and organizations for their time and insights. These collaborations guided the Blueprint to be responsive to the unique challenges and opportunities to address the Black wealth gap in Sacramento.

Since its inception, Sacramento has extensively
discriminated against Black residents with respect to
housing, employment, business opportunity, finance,
and services, building on and aggravating the history
of discrimination of the U.S. as a whole. The result is a staggering Black wealth gap, overall and with respect
to each type of asset and pathway. Addressing this
gap requires leveling the playing field by addressing
continuing institutional bias, removing legacy barriers, and deliberately supporting inclusive growth across the full range of economic opportunities. While the City of Sacramento has already undertaken several initiatives
to address the Black wealth gap locally, it can do much more and will need strong partnerships – with other
governments, financial institutions, community-based
organizations, non-profits, private companies and other leaders – to fully close the gap.

The City of Sacramento is exploring various ways to
collaborate with community careholders to implement
this Blueprint’s recommendations. The Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund has selected Sacramento to
participate in a related initiative that can help further these efforts and institutionalize financial empowerment efforts within government. Through Financial
Empowerment Cities, a local advisory group launching
in May 2025 will guide the next phase of development
for this work.
22 Appendix
The set of strategies are described in more detail on the following pages, along with their current status, list of relevant models, and financing options.

1. Launch Careers and Businesses in High-Growth
Industries

2. Provide Specialized Mentorship and Funding for
Black Entrepreneurs and Businesses

3. Targeted Neighborhood Investment /
Homeownership Strategy

4. Expand Participation in Real Estate Industry

5. Expand Access to Savings Accounts and
Mortgage/Lending Products

6. Provide Financial Coaching and Empowerment
Services

7. Guaranteed Income Expansion

LAUNCH CAREERS AND BUSINESSES IN

HIGH-GROWTH INDUSTRIES
Black employment and business ownership have been
and still are disproportionately limited to low-wage
or low-growth industries due to discrimination. To
close the wealth gap, strategies should be developed
that consider within which industries lie the biggest
wealth creation opportunities – and position Black
Sacramentans to be in front of these opportunities.

The City and partners could design programs to connect
residents with opportunities in key growing sectors
(e.g., biotech, advanced manufacturing, and advanced
mobility) – particularly those that present opportunities for inclusion in ownership and employment.68 In
addition to focusing on high-growth industries, support could also be provided to businesses in community-
oriented sectors that are important to the health and
vitality of neighborhoods (e.g., retail, healthcare, food processing).

Next steps could include more closely identifying and
breaking out Black-owned businesses by industry
and stage of growth, identifying those with growth
opportunities, identifying barriers preventing growth,
and developing targeted programs to address barriers
and support growth. These programs should be
developed with employers at the table; in particular,
there is a need for greater coordination between
employers and workforce development providers.

Targeted, sector-specific programs could include:

Training
Continuous upskilling is becoming important as
tech disrupts sectors like manufacturing. This could
be achieved through employer-led design of
apprenticeships (potentially partnering with community
colleges).

Hiring and Placement
This could include employer-led changes to hiring
practices (e.g., increase employment pathways for
re-entry) such as skills-based hiring (which is five
times more predictive of job performance than hiring
based on education credentials).69 Employers could
be brought together to write universal job descriptions based on skills, and outline career pathways of the
future in sectors that are difficult to navigate (e.g., biotech, manufacturing). Employers could also increase
employee-ownership structures.70
Entrepreneurship
Develop and grow mentorship programs (including
accelerators and scale-up funds) that target Black
entrepreneurs and early to mid-stage companies in
specified sectors. This could also include acquisition
strategies for legacy industries – for instance,
connecting manufacturers ready for acquisition with
Black entrepreneurs.

The identified growth opportunities should be kept in
mind when executing all of the other strategies.
23 The City and other partners have several relevant programs, focused on biotech, advanced manufacturing, and advanced mobility. Examples include a UC Davis and City partnership to expand access to biotech careers, in addition to on-the-job training programs (e.g., Siemens). Growing investments in EV batteries are leading to creation of new programs (e.g., electric vehicle apprenticeship program). The California Mobility Center’s introductory courses (e.g., Intro to Green Careers) can be expanded.

Programs to increase business ownership within key sectors:
• mHUB – targets hard-tech companies
• BEAM Circular Accelerator – targets biomanufacturing companies in North San Joaquin Valley
• Shift 2.0 - addresses the needs of growing small to mid-sized manufacturers Programs to implement community ownership/investment:
• The Industrial Commons – develops community owned manufacturing enterprises • Ujima Fund – community investment fund, providing finance to BIPOC-owned small businesses
Programs to expand BIPOC founders and CEOs:
• Search Fund Accelerator - supports entrepreneurs through the process of acquiring and managing a company
• Alpine Investors’ CEO-in-Training – trains and places leaders at companies • Endeavor Global – works with high-impact entrepreneurs, and has a fund to support them
Programs to define career pathways and link residents to jobs include:
• JPM Chase Advancing Black Pathways Fellowship Program • Year Up - Prepares young adults with free training for careers in information technology and financial operations
• I-BEST - a community and technical college–based program for students enrolled in general education courses to concurrently receive occupational training – typically in high-demand fields such as automotive, electrical, nursing, precision machining • Per Scholas – no-cost training, followed by job placement services, for IT careers • JOFI – Provides assessment tools for skills-based hiring and career navigation; assesses fit based on (1) personality traits; (2) career interests; (3) thinking skills.

Industry specific training and financing:
• Rebuilding Exchange – recently awarded $3.9M EPA grant to launch a workforce training program to support careers in building trades
• Contractors on the Rise – CDFI-operated, builds capacity of women and minority home contractors, providing them with between $100,000 and $250,000 in low-interest revolving lines of credit and technical assistance
• City of Sacramento funded certification programs – in partnership with UC Davis, the Status
Relevant
Models
From Disparity to Prosperity
24 PROVIDE SPECIALIZED MENTORSHIP

AND FUNDING FOR BLACK

ENTREPRENEURS AND BUSINESSES
Aligned with the sector-specific support provided in the Launch Careers and Businesses strategy, expanding
mentorship support consists of one-on-one business
assistance to connect them with technical and financial resources. To undergird this, expansion of sector-specific funding resources is desirable.

Black-owned start-ups first need general business
technical support to help get licensed, insured, and
bonded (which leads to increased opportunities for
growth), and they need initial working capital. Following start-up, growth support for firms is most successful if it is highly tailored to the stage and sector of each firm, and if technical support and funding are tightly linked:
• Technical Support requires deep engagement, best
accomplished and delivered by coaches or mentors
that have extensive practical experience within the
same sector. In addition, it benefits from a longer-
term relationship with firms and mentors that extends
beyond the period of immediate technical/financial
assistance.
• Specialized funding for entrepreneurs and
businesses should similarly be tailored to key growth
stages and sectors. Business planning reflecting
technical support informs and justifies appropriate
financing.

Programs could include a funding pool that enables
targeted business support, or a revolving loan fund that also assists with training or upskilling.

Increasing the number and size of Black-owned firms
generates wealth for business owners but also increases Black employment – because, as mentioned, Black
employers are more likely to hire Black employees.

Several programs have been launched to provide technical assistance to Black-owned small businesses. The City’s Small Business Assistance Center (SBAC), a pilot program from the Office of Innovation and Economic Development, is assisting small and micro businesses with access to technical assistance, micro-capital and relevant industry and economic data to support business stabilization and growth.71

The SBAC intends to award agreements with California Capital, a CDFI which houses the Women’s Business Center, APEX Accelerator, Sacramento Valley Small Business Development Center. In addition, SBAC intends to award the Black Small Business Association of California (BSBA) with a two-year business technical assistance agreement.

BSBA provides technical assistance in the form of workshops and one-on-one support, customized for each business. Given the linkages between business financial health and Status
City is scaling availability of certificate programs for entry level careers in high growth sectors (e.g., sterilizing surgical equipment).

The City could subsidize any of these programs, with additional funding to sustain the program coming from industry groups, employers, philanthropy, and government (federal, state and local).

Financing
Options
From Disparity to Prosperity
25 an individual entrepreneurs’ finances, SBAC is exploring a grant in partnership with the Financial Empowerment Center (FEC) to provide entrepreneurs with financial empowerment services. While there are several programs that provide connections to financial resources, there are not many local funds available that specifically target Black-owned businesses.

Examples of programs that provide targeted, deep mentorship for businesses include:
• NextStreet Business Solutions Centers – free, one-stop resource center for entrepreneurs and small businesses
• Motor City Match - business competition that pairs the best businesses with Detroit’s best available real estate
• AccelerateVI - recruits BIPOC entrepreneurs and pairs them with mentors (many which are executives at Google, Microsoft, or IBM)
• The Oakland Black Business Fund – pairs Black businesses with Black technical assistance providers who are also owners of small local businesses; in addition, provides grants
Examples of start-up and scale-up funds, some targeting Black founders:
• Fifth Star Funds - Friends and Family funding round
• Ohio Venture Fund - state-run fund
• Rooted Fund - integrated capital investment fund
• Seed Commons - network of loan funds
• Entrepreneurs of Color Fund - administered by Detroit Development Fund, provides loans of $10,000 to $300,000 to small businesses
Examples of sector-specific funds:
• Invest Detroit’s Venture/Equity Capital Funds - IDV IV Fund focuses on businesses in the life sciences/healthcare, mobility/transportation, information technology, advanced manufacturing, materials, and consumer products spaces
• Future Heritage Fund - Focuses on the consumer, technology, life sciences, mobility, clean energy/climate media/entertainment, and advanced manufacturing sectors • 43 North – focuses on tech businesses that relocate to Buffalo; competition model, with mentorship support
A variety of resources can be pooled to provide mentorship support, including HUD Entitlement federal funds (e.g., CDBG), City dollars, philanthropic investments, and CDFI capital. To establish a fund, the City could provide seed capital, potentially utilizing resources like CDBG as well as repayments that accrue from New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) transactions. But the model could also be sustained through a partnership with key financial stakeholders (e.g., commercial lenders, corporations, social investors, philanthropy). For instance, the City could invest soft money into CDFIs (e.g., offering guarantees, loans or grants) – and the private sector could then follow. The City could also form a debt financing pool using CDBG, HUD Section 108 or other low-cost, flexible capital.

Relevant
Models
Financing
Options
From Disparity to Prosperity
26 Sac Club 100 is an existing collaborative of lenders, real estate agents and developers that works to effect change in the real estate industry. This group can be scaled and work with the City to develop the details of this strategy. Recently updated City zoning requirements may assist (e.g., removal of single family zoning), as outlined in the 2040 General Plan.

Programs that could be expanded or scaled include the City’s Tenant Protection Program, Housing Trust Fund, or Missing Middle program.

For strategic redevelopment or identifying target neighborhoods, see:
• Invest Southwest - City-led strategic redevelopment of commercial corridors • Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives (CNI) – a mission-driven developer that revitalizes communities through a multi-faceted strategy: increasing housing density, while also increasing access to jobs, education, recreation and amenities. For a specific neighborhood revitalization example, see: Pullman.

For homeownership support, see:
• Innovative lending products listed in “Expand Access to Savings Accounts and Mortgage/Lending Products” strategy – this includes products ranging from down payment assistance to zero down
• CLTRE Keeper Program - an 8-week program to help navigate the home buying process For mission-driven property acquisition, see:
• Adre – mission-driven developer; develops buildings that create benefit to BIPOC communities
• Durham Community Land Trust - affordable housing community land trust Status
Relevant
Models

TARGETED NEIGHBORHOOD

INVESTMENT / HOMEOWNERSHIP

STRATEGY
For residents to build wealth from homeownership, the
home must also appreciate in value. To address this,
the City could identify neighborhoods for targeted
revitalization to (1) build Black homeownership
rates, and (2) increase commercial development and
amenities (to ensure homes appreciate in value).

To execute this strategy, a first step will be creating or growing an existing group of lenders, real estate agents, developers, financial empowerment providers, and
planners to collaboratively work together to increase
avenues for Black home and real estate ownership,
and work with the City to identify continued investment opportunities in these neighborhoods. The City could
lead policy implementation (e.g., pairing upzoning,
inclusionary zoning, or similar policies 72 with anti-
displacement policies).73
The strategy could encompass, for example:
• Accelerate development of multi-family housing on
vacant land (with faster permitting, re-zoning, mow
to own programs, etc.)
• Increase Black homeownership rates (work with
renters in the neighborhood to buy)
• Acquire and rehab properties with a Mission-Driven
Land Bank / Community Land Trust – and sell
properties for discounted prices
• Build affordable housing with additional
programming to build wealth (e.g., commercial
kitchen or maker space on ground floor to support
startups)
From Disparity to Prosperity
27 YBuild is designed to advance Black leaders in real estate.

Programs to increase diversity in real estate development:
• Project REAP - increasing diversity in real estate
• CREUnited - increasing diversity in real estate
• Yield program - LISC/ULI partnership, cohorts of emerging developers • Milwaukee INVESTS – a co-developer mentorship model that pairs an experienced real estate developer with a community leader
• Partners in Equity (PIE) – commercial real estate investors who provide patient capital to enable small businesses to own their property
Funds to support Black developers:
• Ebiara Fund - administered by Invest Detroit, a local CDFI, with financial support from Status
Relevant
Models

EXPAND PARTICIPATION IN REAL ESTATE

INDUSTRY
Strategies to increase real estate ownership as a wealth creation strategy are varied. They range from training
and launching new developers, to increasing the use of
community ownership models for real estate. Programs
could include:
• Developer Accelerator – train cohorts of Black
developers
• Funding for Black developers – provide loans/
equity for developers (e.g., acquisition loans for
buildings with revitalization potential, a fund to
provide co-investment support or loan guarantees).
• Community ownership – increase innovative,
culturally-relevant ownership models of commercial
or residential real estate
There are multiple pathways to get started on this
strategy. For instance, the City and partners could
identify an underutilized site (in a priority neighborhood) and redevelop it to support the goals outlined in this
Blueprint. This will involve additional analysis to identify the highest-impact viable use of the site, community
ownership structures, and identification of a Black-led development firm to partner in the project.
• Houston Community Land Trust – offers two pathways to homeownership and is part of the Catalytic Land Cohort (which supports BIPOC homeownership opportunities) • New Home Development Program (NHDP) - assists residents in purchasing newly constructed homes on lots owned by the Houston Land Bank • Homebuyers Choice Program (HCP) - provides residents with subsidies of $100,000- 1 50,000 to purchase a market-rate home
For strategies to build homeownership, see:
• Newark Homeownership Revitalization Program - sells low-cost residential properties to Newark residents of five years or more, or those displaced by gentrification The City could leverage public funding for redevelopment – and in addition, engage philanthropy to align funding with the City’s priority neighborhoods.

Financing
Options
From Disparity to Prosperity
28 the Kresge Foundation; provides early-stage capital to minority-owned development companies
• Ubuntu Fund - administered by Cinnaire, with support from JPMorgan Chase, PNC Bank, KeyBank, and Fifth Third Bank; financing pool to support underrepresented affordable housing developers in the Midwest
• Black Developer Capital Initiative (BDCI) – launched by LIIF, a CDFI, and supported by Wells Fargo and Ford Foundation; an unsecured predevelopment revolving line of credit to support the growth of Black-led affordable housing developers • Cleveland pilot program - identifies strategic buildings with immense potential for revitalization; provides loans up to $200k per building (20-year term, 1% interest only payments for 2 years, forgivable after 2 years) 74
Funds to support development of affordable/middle-income housing:
• SE Raleigh Promise – a $3.3M investment from the City of Raleigh (including $2M in bond proceeds) and additional funds from the County allowed the development of several parcels of affordable housing
• Chicago Missing Middle Housing Initiative – a pilot program selling 44 vacant City- owned lots for $1, and providing developers with up to $1 50,000 in construction assistance per unit
Community ownership models:
• TREND Inclusive Ownership and Acquisition Strategy75 - increasing community real estate ownership
• Milwaukee INVESTS – also mentioned above, this co-developer model invites community members to invest in real estate projects using a crowdfunding model • Market Creek Plaza (San Diego, CA) - the first development to offer residents an opportunity to become shareholders in local commercial real estate; individual investors owned 20%, residents 30%, and the Jacobs Center, the nonprofit funding anchor, owned 50%
• The Community Investment Trust (Portland, OR) - local residents can participate in a low- dollar ($10-$100/month), loss-protected commercial real estate investment that can be cashed out at any time
• Kensington Corridor Trust (Philadelphia, PA) – Uses a Perpetual Purpose Trust (PPT) model, controlled by residents, of a neighborhood corridor. Profits are reinvested in the community.
• Community Wealth Building Ecosystem – A research hub that aims to advance models of local, democratic and shared ownership and control – focused on worker- owned cooperatives, limited-equity housing cooperatives, community land trusts, and community investment vehicles

Target philanthropic funding, institutional and individual donors, alongside a range of potential federal, state and local subsidies in the capital stacks for particular developments.

Financing
Options
From Disparity to Prosperity
29 “Community development financial institutions (CDFIs) are lenders with a mission to provide fair, responsible financing to communities that mainstream finance doesn’t traditionally reach.” Learn more at: www.ofn.org/what-is-a-cdfi/
In the realm of Socially Responsible Banking, since 201 8 the City Treasurer’s Office (CTO) has invested a portion of the City’s short-term pooled fund in locally owned banks at reduced interest expense to provide capital for local small business loans and residential and commercial real estate loans. Currently, the funds deposited in local banks ranges from $50 - $75 million. This practice currently targets banks headquartered in counties in and around Sacramento, including but not limited to Placer, El Dorado, Sutter, and Yolo. These institutions, which receive deposits from the City as part of the local community investment, must invest 50% of the deposits within the City of Sacramento city limits. Ideally the CTO would like to enter into banking relationships through which City funds can be used to target individuals or areas within the city that have been underserved and will benefit low-to- moderate income residents. This may require the program to modify its criteria for eligibility.

Underwriting and credit scoring innovation:
• People Trust Community Federal Credit Union (highlighted in the Oscar-nominated The Status
Relevant
Models

EXPAND ACCESS TO SAVINGS ACCOUNTS

AND MORTGAGE/LENDING PRODUCTS
Development finance should be supported and
expanded. This entails broadening the criteria for
evaluating creditworthiness, finding collateral substitutes, cash-flow lending, innovative financial instrument
design and deal structuring better tailored to Black
wealth creation opportunities, as well as growing
the capacity of specialized lending institutions like
Minority Depository Institutions (MDIs) or Community
Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). In particular, financial institutions and other partners should:
• Expand access to saving accounts. This could
include programs like Baby Bonds, Children’s
Savings Accounts, seed deposits into 529 College
Savings Program, or Individual Development
Accounts (IDAs) – and could leverage state
programs like CalKids.
• Broaden criteria used for credit scoring. The
Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is in
process of replacing its traditional FICO credit
scoring model with a more inclusive version that
accounts for payments like rent and utilities. Other
financial institutions should follow with expanded
credit criteria – for instance, those proposed by the
California Small Business Coalition for Racial Justice
(outlined in The New C’s of Credit Underwriting
Criteria, page 1 5 [Appendix C]).
• Develop and implement new lending products
and practices. This could include down payment
assistance, programs lowering down payments to
0-5%, Special Purpose Credit Programs (SPCPs)
for small businesses or to help with home closing
costs, rate caps on loans, revolving loan funds,
low-cost patient capital, subsidies, guarantees,
or other collateral substitutes for loans. Down
payment assistance can be even more effective with
elimination/lowering of interest rates and additional
support to help a family establish themselves in their
home (e.g., subsidize cost of appliances). The City of
Sacramento will provide estate planning whenever
the City allocates funding for down payment
programs for housing.

To be most effective, particularly with respect to business loans, this strategy should cross-reference the sector- specific business support programs (“Specialized
Mentorship and Funding” strategy). It should also
work in tandem with the “Financial Coaching and
Empowerment” strategy; financial coaches can link
residents and businesses with the savings accounts and
loan products that will best support them.

From Disparity to Prosperity
30 Financial
Models
Barber of Little Rock film) – does not use credit scoring; offers repayable grants and forgivable lending
• Petal – uses personal banking history to construct a CashScore rather than credit score • Nova Credit – uses alternative credit data
• Esusu – generates credit scores from rental history
For programs that work to build a more inclusive banking system, see:
• EBBC Black Vision Fund - expands the capacity of Black-focused/led CDFIs. The fund is managed by LISC New Markets Support Company.
• Mission Driven Bank Fund – invests in mission-driven banks that provide credit and financial services to underserved communities
• PNC mobile branch strategy – providing essential banking services to underserved communities
• Stackwell – an investment app for those who have not participated in the stock market • Bank On – a platform run by Cities for Financial Empowerment (CFE) Fund, facilitating connections between consumers and bank and credit union accounts For subsidized or City-seeded savings and lending products:
• San Francisco’s Kindergarten to College program (K2C) – the City seeds a $50 deposit • Family Self Sufficiency (FSS) Programs – Various cities have expanded capacity of HUD’s FSS program to help public housing residents build financial health • Baby’s First Years – monthly cash transfers to low-income mothers, until the child turns 6 • Connecticut Baby Bonds - $3,200 investment for each child whose birth was covered by Connecticut’s Medicaid program
• Oregon IDA Initiative – provides matching cash for Oregonians with low to moderate incomes for their savings over a 6 month to 3 year duration • Invest STL Rooted initiative – provides residents with $20k for a home purchase, business scale-up, or investment – alongside a dedicated financial planner For innovative lending or payment assistance products, see:
• Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco Middle-Income Downpayment Assistance - $50,000 grant to families/individuals earning 80% to 1 40% of the area median income • Fannie Mae 5% Down Multifamily Loan - 5% down payments for owner-occupied 2-, 3-, and 4-unit homes
• Bank of America Community Affordable Loan Solution – zero down, available in Black communities
• Tri Counties Bank Homeownership Access Program - up to $7 ,500 in lender credits if the collateral is in a majority Black and/or Hispanic census tract Programs or products can be financed through a combination of banks, philanthropy, private companies, or government. For instance, private companies can invest in funds (e.g., Microsoft provided an anchor investment to the Mission Driven Bank Fund), or the City could seed deposits into savings accounts for low-income youth. The City could also provide funds to pay down the interest rate on small business loans, in partnership with a CDFI.

From Disparity to Prosperity
31 Since 2020, the City of Sacramento’s Financial Empowerment Center (FEC) has provided free, professional one-on-one financial coaching that helps residents access safe and affordable bank and/or credit union accounts, establish or improve credit scores, reduce debt, and build savings. Some financial institutions, CDFIs, and nonprofits are moving into this space as well, often building on a history of providing group workshops around similar topics. • Sacramento Financial Empowerment Center – as described above, primarily funded by the City budget
• Golden1Financial Resource Center – an example of financial institutions making these services available in a targeted community
• Health Education Council Financial Coaching Program – one-on-one financial coaching, funded by Kaiser Permanente
• Financial Solutions Lab – supports/builds financial products and services that promote inclusion
• Neighborworks counseling programs – providing support like student loan counseling or home pre-purchase counseling
• Centro Community Partners – for early-stage low-income entrepreneurs, provides education, financial coaching and leadership programming • Cincinnati medical debt relief program - medical debt relief program for about 30,000 Cincinnati residents
Initiatives can be expanded with additional public and/or philanthropic investment.

Status
Relevant
Models
Financial
Models

PROVIDE FINANCIAL COACHING AND

EMPOWERMENT SERVICES
Banks’ historic (and current) discrimination practices
have left many Black residents rightfully distrustful
of these institutions. Combined with other historical
factors described above, this has often led to a lack of connection with or access to non-predatory checking
and savings accounts, along with loans and other
financial products. As a result, fees spent on check
cashing, payday loans, and other high-interest rate
credit vehicles are a form of further wealth stripping.

This strategy proposes to expand financial coaching
and empowerment services and partnerships. This type
of coaching is highly customized, helping residents work toward their specific financial goals – and goes deeper than traditional financial education services.76
There can be a concern that this kind of coaching
approach focuses too much on individuals, when the
root causes of the wealth gap are more structural and
institutional. However, as a complement to larger-scale policy changes and programmatic efforts, coaching
can help people connect with information, resources,
and non-judgmental support in planning for financial
health and asset building. Thus, this strategy will ideally work in close integration and alignment with others
proposed throughout this document. It may even result in expansion of coaching services to provide residents with student loan debt counseling and guidance on other
financial considerations such as estate/legacy planning and insurance.

High-quality staff training in both financial content and coaching skills is crucial, as is developing a coaching team that shares empathy and similar life experience
with targeted clients.

From Disparity to Prosperity
32 United Way runs a Guaranteed Income Program in Sacramento.

Guaranteed Income programs and resources:
• United Way Guaranteed Income Programs – Participating families in Sacramento County receive $500/month for one year
• Abt Associates Guaranteed Income evaluation – Abt is evaluating the impacts of Guaranteed Income pilots across the country, which range from $375 to $680 per month to each participant
• Stanford Basic Income Lab and Center for Guaranteed Income Research – visualizing data from over 30 Guaranteed Income pilots across the country For reparations payments, see for instance:
• Palm Springs City Council reparations approval - $5.9M program that includes direct cash payments to about 1,200 people
Guaranteed Income can be continued and expanded with funding from philanthropic organizations, universities (this work is heavily studied and there is incentive for a university to be involved in measuring impact of a pilot)77, or government (local, state, federal).

Status
Relevant
Models
Financial
Models

GUARANTEED INCOME EXPANSION
As stated earlier, “it takes money to make money.”
Guaranteed Income (GI) programs, increasingly
piloted across the country in recent years, have proven successful in guiding low-income families towards
financial stability (which is the necessary first step in starting to build wealth). The City of Sacramento has
supported one cohort in a local Guaranteed Income
program led by United Way California Capital Region,
which has included other cohorts funded by a mix of
private and public dollars.

In addition to scaling existing local Guaranteed Income programs, there is an opportunity to create an even
more innovative approach, for instance by:
• Pairing monthly GI payments with a one-time
reparations payment. This will enable residents to
build savings (a key piece of addressing the Black
wealth gap).
• The program could also institute a voucher system
– not only would residents receive vouchers to use
for specific wealth building opportunities (e.g.,
down payments, business investments, educational
study) but the programs themselves must qualify to
receive vouchers to ensure they are not perpetuating
inequities. As an example of potential qualifying
systems, Connecticut’s Baby Bond program allows
funds to be used for buying a home, investing in
a business, paying for higher education or job
training, or saving for retirement.

From Disparity to Prosperity
33 DOCUMENT LINKS
Links from the relevant models within each of the Appendix’s strategies are listed below, in order of appearance.

1. Launch Careers and Businesses in High-Growth Industries • https://www.mhubchicago.com/
• https://www.gener8tor.com/investment-
accelerators/beam-circular
• https://shiftmfg.com/
• https://www.theindustrialcommons.org/
• https://www.ujimaboston.com/finance
• https://www.searchfundaccelerator.com/
• https://alpineinvestors.com/talent-programs/
• https://endeavor.org/
• https://www.jpmorganchase.com/impact/
diversity-equity-and-inclusion/advancing-black-
pathways
• https://www.yearup.org/
• https://perscholas.org/
• https://jobfitscore.com/about-us/
• https://rebuildingexchange.org/workforce-
training/
• http://www.clevelandnp.org/vcc/

2. Provide Specialized Mentorship and Funding for Black Entrepreneurs and Businesses
• https://nextstreet.com/small-business-services/
• https://www.motorcitymatch.com/
• https://www.acceleratevi.com/about
• https://oaklandblackbusinessfund.org/
• https://www.fifthstarfunds.com/
• https://development.ohio.gov/business/state-
incentives/ohio-venture-fund
• https://www.rootedfund.family/#about
• https://seedcommons.org/about-seed-commons
• https://www.lisc.org/eocf/
• https://idventures.com/our-funds/
• https://www.michiganbusiness.org/press-
releases/2024/03/ssbci-2.0-funding/
• https://43north.org/

3. Targeted Neighborhood Investment / Homeownership
Strategy
• https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/
sites/invest_sw/ISW_TwoYear_Update_Nov1 7.pdf
• https://www.cnigroup.org/
• https://www.cnigroup.org/pullman-revitalization/
• https://cltre.org/cltre-keeping/
• https://www.adre.dev/
• https://dclt.org/
• https://www.houstonclt.org/
• https://groundedsolutions.org/catalytic-land-
cohort/
• https://www.newarknj.gov/news/mayor-baraka-
announces-council-passage-of-program-to-
enable-low-cost-sales-of-city-owned-properties-to-
longtime-residents-and-selection-of-naca-as-the-
first-program-administrator

4. Expand Participation in Real Estate Industry
• https://www.projectreap.org/
• https://www.walkerdunlop.com/about/
environmental-social-governance/creunited
• https://www.lisc.org/media/filer_public/f8/6a/
f86adce8-1 4f6-432 1-9f82-df9939b4868d/
application_for_2020_yield_cohort.pdf
• https://www.fixdevelopment.com/wp-content/
uploads/2020/01/WEDC-Case-Study-Report-
FINAL_DIGITAL-2.pdf
• https://www.pie-nc.org/
• https://www.ebiara.com/
• https://cinnaire.com/ubuntu-fund-secures-55-
million-investment-from-prominent-financial-
institutions-to-create-pathways-for-equitable-
access/
• https://www.liifund.org/strategic-priorities/
lending-tools/black-developer-capital-initiative/
• https://serpromise.org/mixed-income-housing/
• https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/sites/missing-
middle/home.html
• https://www.chicagotrend.com/TREND-Inclusive-
Ownership-and-Acquisition-Strategy
• https://www.fixdevelopment.com/wp-content/
uploads/2020/01/WEDC-Case-Study-Report-
FINAL_DIGITAL-2.pdf
• https://www.jacobscenter.org/shopmcp/
• https://investcit.com/
• https://kctphilly.org/
• https://ccwbe.org/

5. Expand Access to Savings Accounts and Mortgage/
Lending Products
• https://ptcfcu.org/
• https://www.petalcard.com/the-company
• https://www.novacredit.com/
• https://esusurent.com/
• https://ebbcfund.org/
From Disparity to Prosperity
34 • https://www.missiondrivenbankfund.org/
• https://www.pnc.com/insights/our-commitments/
communities/pnc-mobile-branches.html
• https://stackwellcapital.com/
• https://joinbankon.org/
• https://www.sfgov.org/k2c/
• https://catalog.results4america.org/programs/
babys-first-years
• https://portal.ct.gov/ott/debt-management/ct-
baby-bonds
• https://oregonidainitiative.org/overview/
• https://www.investstl.org/rooted/
• https://www.fhlbsf.com/community-programs/
grant-programs/middle-income-downpayment-
assistance
• https://themortgagereports.com/107690/fannie-
mae-introduces-5-down-payment-option-for-
multifamily-homes
• https://newsroom.bankofamerica.com/content/
newsroom/press-releases/2022/08/bank-of-
america-introduces-community-affordable-loan-
solution--t.html
• https://www.tcbk.com/personal/loans/
home-mortgages/home-buyer-assistance/
homeownership-access-program

6. Provide Financial Coaching and Empowerment Services
• https://www.cityofsacramento.gov/city-manager/
oied/community-engagement/financial-
empowerment/financial-empowerment-center
• https://www.golden1.com/financial-resource-
center
• https://healthedcouncil.org/financial-coaching-
english/english-landing-page.html
• https://finlab.finhealthnetwork.org/
• https://nwsacramento.org/our-services/
• https://www.centrocommunity.org/
• https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/
politics/2024/08/28/cincinnati-to-
spend-1-45m-to-pay-off-residents-medical-
debts/7 4983892007/

7. Guaranteed Income Expansion
• https://www.yourlocalunitedway.org/our-work/
invest-in-families/guaranteed-income-program/
• https://www.abtglobal.com/projects/evaluating-
guaranteed-income-programs
• https://guaranteedincome.us/
• https://www.kqed.org/news/1 201 4575/palm-
springs-oks-5-9-million-in-reparations-for-black-
and-latino-families-whose-homes-the-city-burned
From Disparity to Prosperity
35 REFERENCES

1. Median HH income, $50,901 (Black) vs $8 1,423 (white non-Hispanic). Source: data-Fab analysis of ACS 5-year
data (2022); Median net worth, white non-Hispanic is
$284.3 1k while median net worth, Black non-Hispanic
is $44. 1k- with a gap of $240.2 1 k. Median liquid
assets for Black families is $2, 100. Source: Survey of Consumer Finances (2022), available at https://www.
federalreserve.gov/econres/scfindex.htm. Inheritance
data is available at https://apps.urban.org/features/
wealth-inequality-charts/; Generational “accumulation
of disadvantages” is referenced in William Julius Wilson, The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy; For a commentary on wellbeing, see
Black Wealth, White Wealth: A New Perspective on
Racial Inequality, by Melvin L. Oliver and Thomas M.

Shapiro. – which states that Black Americans “entrust
their children to school systems that are rarely able to provide them with the educational foundation they need
to take the first steps up a racially skewed economic
ladder. Trapped in communities of despair, they face
increasing economic and social isolation from both their middle-class counterparts and white Americans.”

2. The mean gap is higher than the median because it gives more weight to the severe racial disparities of the ultra- wealthy. Data source: Survey of Consumer Finances
(2022), available at https://www.federalreserve.gov/
econres/scfindex.htm; For instance, of Forbes’ list of
700 US billionaires, just 7 are Black. Source: https:// itep.org/the-geographic-distribution-of-extreme-
wealth-in-the-u-s/; “Between 201 9 and 2022, median
wealth increased by $5 1,800, but the racial wealth gap increased by $49,950.” Source: https://www.nber.org/
system/files/working_papers/w30101/w30101.pdf;
History of the wealth gap over time – from 56:1 to 10:1 to 7:1 is documented at https://www.nber.org/system/
files/working_papers/w30101/w30101.pdf and at
https://www.minneapolisfed.org/article/2022/how-
the-racial-wealth-gap-has-evolved-and-why-it-persists

3. The rate of “absolute income mobility” – the fraction of children who earn more than their parents – has
fallen, from approximately 90% for children born in
1 940 to 50% for children born in the 1 980s. https://
opportunityinsights.org/paper/the-fading-american-
dream/; Addressing inequality is the only way to achieve prosperity. See: Transformative Economies, Brophy,
Weissbourd and Beideman (Philadelphia Federal
Reserve Board, Oct 201 7), available at: https://www.
philadelphiafed.org/-/media/frbp/assets/community-
development/reports/101 7-transformative-economies-
emerging-practices-for-aligning-growth-and-inclusion.
pdf

4. Various methods have been used to calculate the
amount of wealth denied or taken from enslaved African
Americans. These methods are explored in From Here to
Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty- First Century, Second Edition by William A Darity and A.

Kirsten Mullen. Most calculations arrive at a present-day value between $1 5-20 trillion (p.265).

5. The United States is built on capitalism, and markets.

But, markets have institutional biases – most notably,
racism – which leads to valuable assets – human capital, businesses, real estate, other market opportunities –
going unrecognized and underutilized.

6. https://www.actec.org/resource-center/video/40-
acres-and-a-mule-reparations-and-the-estate-tax/

7. https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/
w30101/w30101.pdf

8. https://www.history.com/news/gi-bill-black-wwii-
veterans-benefits; https://library.harvard.edu/
confronting-anti-black-racism/space-design

9. See, for example: William Julius Wilson, The Truly
Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and
Public Policy; Melvin L. Oliver and Thomas M. Shapiro,
Black Wealth, White Wealth: A New Perspective on
Racial Inequality.

10. See: https://www.vera.org/news/the-chains-of-
slavery-still-exist-in-mass-incarceration; https://blogs. loc.gov/inside_adams/202 1/06/convictleasing-
system/; https://www.econtribute.de/RePEc/ajk/
ajkdps/ECONtribute_1 95_2022.pdf; Also, note
that some states have amended their constitutions to
“abolish slavery without exception,” but most, including California, “still contain language mirroring the 1 3th Amendment carve-out for incarcerated labor.” https://
assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/publications/2022-06-
1 5-captivelaborresearchreport.pdf
11 . For instance, the “average friends and family round” for entrepreneurs “is $23,000,” but “the average Black
founder raises less than around $1,000 from family
and friends.” https://techcrunch.com/2023/04/06/
friends-and-family-investment-funds/
1 2. https://stacker.com/california/sacramento/black-
From Disparity to Prosperity
36 homeownership-gap-sacramento
13 . https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-racial-bias- in-appraisals-affects-the-devaluation-of-homes-in-
majority-black-neighborhoods/
1 4. National Community Reinvestment Coalition. (201 7).

HOLC maps. http://maps.ncrc.org/holc.

15. https://news.crunchbase.com/diversity/venture-
funding-black-founded-startups-2023-data/

16. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/introducing-the- buy-back-the-block-lab-building-black-wealth-through-
community-real-estateownership/

17. Average 2022 value of directly held stocks. https:// www.federalreserve.gov/econres/scf/dataviz/scf/
chart/#series:Directly_Held_Stocks
1 8. https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2023-
economic-well-being-of-us-households-in-2022-
banking-credit.htm; https://finhealthnetwork.org/
research/finhealth-spend-report-2023/

19. https://www.aclunc.org/sites/goldchains/explore/
peter-burnett.html; https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=t3hyl0O4cyg

20. “Census records taken between 1 860 and 1 870 show
that the most common positions held by African American men during these years included porters, laborers, cooks, barbers, and stewards, with a smaller number working as blacksmiths, whitewashers, bricklayers, carpenters, and other similar positions.“ Sacramento African American
Experience History Project; The Great Depression put
about 20% of Sacramento County residents out of work,
and wages fell significantly. “By 1 932, 27 ,000 of the county’s 1 40,000 residents were out of work.” Source:
https://www.comstocksmag.com/longreads/booms-
and-busts; Around this time, unions began to organize,
many open to African Americans. “But this does not
mean that all unions were welcoming and/or interested
in cross racial solidarity.” Source: https://exhibitions.lib. umd.edu/unions/social/african-americans-rights

21. Even after the Supreme Court’s 1 948 decision that
racial covenants were not enforceable, Sacramento
“homeowner associations and neighbors pressured
homeowners on who to sell to or intimidated African
American and Black residents,” and builders often
refused to accept credit applications from non-white
borrowers (even if they could qualify for FHA financing).

Source: Race and Place in Sacramento

22. From 1 934 to 1 962, 98% of FHA (and later VA)
financing went to white Americans. Source: https://crab. rutgers.edu/users/glasker/FHADMIN.htm. “Between
1 940 and 1 960, 350,000 new homes were built in
Northern California using FHA support; however, fewer
than 100 went to Blacks.” Source: Race and Place in
Sacramento.

23. Note that redlining was more pervasive than the areas outlined on the HOLC map. “The FHA redlining map is
no longer sufficient to understand race and housing in
Sacramento. Souce: Race and Place in Sacramento.

24. From 1 938 to 1 949. Source: Race and Place
in Sacramento. See also “Sacramento Urban
Redevelopment: Existing Conditions in Blighted Areas.”
City of Sacramento. October 1 950.

25. Interstate 5 and Highway 50 in particular displaced residents in the city while also enabling suburban
growth. The West End was designated as blighted by the
Sacramento City Planning Commission for Sacramento in
1 949. This land was the same area redlined by the FHA
in 1 938. This is not coincidence; “using blight as a way to justify land grabbing and redevelopment in minority
neighborhoods was a concept set into motion at the
national level in 1 935 by NAREB.” In addition, the early use of TIFs to finance these projects “directly supported projects that disproportionately targeted non-white
residents.” Source: Race and Place in Sacramento. Note
also that the Housing Act of 1 949 did not offer enough protections; an amendment to ban racial discrimination
was voted down. https://www.nahro.org/journal_
article/race-equity-and-housing-the-early-years/

26. “Residents actively resisted redevelopment plans
through a coalition of organizations represented by
the Sacramento Business and Taxpayers Association.”
Race and Place in Sacramento. In addition, attorney
Nathaniel Colley urged the City to provide fair housing for relocated residents and compensation to business
owners. Historical records do not clearly outline what, if anything, was provided. See more of Colley’s work at:
https://youtu.be/ltv0usoG9oE?si=cOWslcTCjgZOeF9k;
https://youtu.be/AuFes7xy4sk?si=rOYoS-
uqBQdzMDKO. Eminent domain was used elsewhere;
for instance see Burgess family land: https://www.
sacbee.com/news/equity-lab/representation/
article287646990.html.

27. In the 1 940s and early 1 950s, the largest number of Black businesses were centered in the West End - most
were hotels, small eateries, or bars. “Although such
From Disparity to Prosperity
37 businesses adequately catered to the needs of the West End residents, local government officials criticized these establishments because of their inability to generate
reasonable levels of taxable income for the city.” Center for Sacramento History, email from June 1 8 2024; The
1 950s also saw increased Black entrepreneurship in
the West End, catering to military officers and civilian employees. Note that some of the increases in Black
business ownership were due to takeover of Japanese
owned businesses after their forced relocation to
internment camps during WWII. Source: Sacramento
African American Experience History Project. “Black
business owners in the West End often faced financial
ruin following confiscation of their property. Many
just could not afford the costs of relocation.” Source:

Sacramento African American Experience History Project

28. In 1 965, surveys conducted found that 9 of 10 landlords refused to accept Black renters; “90% of the rental
market was unavailable to Blacks.” Surveys were by
State Employees for Equality and the Sacramento
Committee for Fair Housing. Source: Race and Place in
Sacramento.

29. Sacramento African American Experience History
Project; https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/
sacramento/sacramento-west-endrevitalization/103-
9829 1e2c-37 1e-489 1-aa59-d41 5768522d0

30. A 1 973 redevelopment plan for Oak Park was
for the most part, never realized, aside from
public housing on 35th Street – causing further
displacement and disinvestment. Sources: https://
themetropole.blog/201 8/04/1 2/sacramento-city-
of-redevelopments/; Sacramento 2040 General Plan
pg. 10, available at https://www.cityofsacramento.
gov/content/dam/portal/cdd/Planning/adopted-
2040-general-plan/2040%20GP_1-01_Introduction_
Adopted.pdf

31. Highway construction in the 1 960s and 1 970s erased much of the progress of new commercial districts, just
as they were getting established. Race and Place in
Sacramento; For instance, “the highway created a
distinct border between Oak Park and Curtis Park and
other primarily white, affluent neighborhoods to the
west.” Sacramento African American Experience History
Project.

32. By the late 1 970s, a popular new Black commercial
district had developed along the Stockton Boulevard
south of Broadway. Sacramento African American
Experience History Project

33. “The Unruh Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination by all business establishments including housing and public accommodations and provided citizens the right to sue
for damages. That same year, the Hawkins Fair Housing
Act was passed prohibiting discrimination in any publicly assigned housing accommodations and provided access
to the courts for injunctive relief. In 1 962, the California Supreme Court extended the reach of these new fair
housing laws by including realtors and tract developers as businesses subject to the provisions of the Unruh
Act.”Race and Place in Sacramento, page 35.

34. Largely driven by the California Real Estate Association (CREA). “By arguing that fair housing law constrained
an individual’s freedom to enter contracts of their
choosing, CREA claimed that fair housing endangered
the financial freedoms and personal rights of law-abiding citizens.” “As part of their efforts to gain public support for the initiative, the CREA and the NAREB published
the Property Owners’ Bill of Rights.” Race and Place in Sacramento

35. “Even if HUD’s investigations revealed that a victim had suffered blatant discrimination, the agency had no way
to force compliance, grant a remedy, assess damages,
prohibit discriminatory practices from continuing, or
penalize the lawbreaker in any way.” https://www.ncbi.
nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC48088 1 5/

36. https://money.cnn.com/201 8/02/27/investing/wells-
fargo-sacramento-lawsuit-discriminatory-lending/index.
html

37. 1 941 Executive Order 8802 / Fair Employment Act
prevented discrimination in wartime industries.

38. The tremendous social, cultural and political changes of Sacramento’s “second gold rush” are described
in: Johnson, Marilynn S. The Second Gold Rush:

Oakland and the East Bay in World War II. University
of California Press, 1 996. To meet wartime production
needs, companies like Southern Pacific Railroad “sent
recruiters into the South to hire Black labor, promising free transportation and a ‘good job’ once they arrived.” Source: Sacramento African American Experience
History Project

39. Housing building spiked in the 1 970s as Sacramento sprawled outwards – 1 10,000 new units in the 1 970s.

Source: https://www.comstocksmag.com/longreads/
booms-and-busts; Business opportunities were also
limited due to population influx into the suburbs; between From Disparity to Prosperity
38 1 939 and 1 948, the number of businesses in the city decreased by 1%, while the remainder of the county,
excluding the City of North Sacramento, experienced
a 22% increase in commercial activity. Source: Center
for Sacramento History, email from June 1 8 2024. “As
the suburbs continued to sprawl outward — Roseville,
Rancho Cordova, South Sacramento and Elk Grove —
homes are built at a madcap pace. In 1 970, Sacramento
had a total of 2 1 2,000 housing units. The decade
cranked out over 1 10,000 new units (53 percent of them single-family homes), a larger expansion than the region would see in the ’80s (9 1,000), ’90s (60,000), 2000s
(8 1,000) and especially this decade so far (a meager
1 4,000). They were also pricier.“ Source: https://www. comstocksmag.com/longreads/booms-and-busts

40. The County tried to make education more equitable by increasing taxes in wealthy areas, requiring school district funding to be disbursed equally and not contingent on
the district’s property tax base. But this caused uproar in wealthy areas (who did not want to subsidize low
income areas), and thus Proposition 1 3 was passed in
1 978 which capped property tax at no more than 1%
of the 1 975-76 assessment and limited annual increases to the inflation rate or 2%. Following this, tax revenue as a percentage of total county revenues fell from 33%
in 1 977-78 to 1 2% in 1 995- 96. Municipalities thus
invested more heavily in suburban commercial and
residential development (in part to generate property
and sales tax to invest in healthcare facilities and
schools). Source: Race and Place in Sacramento.

41. Sacramento African American Experience History
Project.

42. “In the 1 960s and 1 970s, the local Black community challenged discriminatory practices that had limited their job opportunities” – for instance at Bank of America.

Sacramento African American Experience History Project

43. https://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/dps/pdfs/
dp1 23601.pdf

44. Looking at in-state undergraduates in California, 84% of Black students have accumulated student loan debt
versus 62% of white students. https://tcf.org/content/
report/the-student-loan-borrowing-undermining-
californias-affordability-efforts/

45. “From 2000 to 2006, Sacramento built 68,600 new
homes (an annual average of nearly 10,000), compared
to 1,700 in ’98.” In 1 980, interest rates hit a historic high, making it nearly impossible to qualify for a mortgage,
and housing construction slowed. To combat this, the
Glass-Steagall Act was repealed, allowing banks to
make risky loans. Source: https://www.comstocksmag.
com/longreads/booms-and-busts

46. https://money.cnn.com/201 8/02/27/investing/wells-
fargo-sacramento-lawsuit-discriminatory-lending/index.
html; https://www.epi.org/publication/bp335-boa-
countrywide-discriminatory-lending/; https://www.pbs.
org/newshour/show/bank-of-america-topay-335m-to-
settle-countrywide-case-of-alleged-racial-bias; https:// www.forbes.com/sites/shaunharper/2023/01/1 3/3 1-
million-to-black-andlatino-communities-in-largest-ever- housing-discrimination-lawsuit/

47. “Real-estate website Redfin reported that in October through December 201 7 , there were 1 5,000 users of their site (home searchers) living in San Francisco who wanted to leave, and their top destination was Sacramento.”
Source: https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/news-
columnsblogs/city-beat/article1 99 163524.html

48. Source: data-Fab analysis of ACS 1-yr Longitudinal Data (2022)

49. Source: data-Fab analysis of ACS 5-yr data 2022

50. And, today, a family of four would need about
$87 ,000 annually to live, but 30% of households live
below this – disproportionately Latino andAfrican
American. https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/
hgascon/viz/TheRealCostMeasureinCalifornia2023/
RealCostDashboard

51. Source: data-Fab analysis of QCEW/QWI data, 2010
and 2022.

52. In the city, about 4.2% of Black residents are self- employed, versus 10. 1% of white residents. Including
Black Hispanic. Source: data-Fabanalysis of ACS-IPUMS
2022 5-yr Release (data for employed persons, 25-64
years old)

53. 2020. https://stacker.com/california/sacramento/
black-homeownership-gap-sacramento

54. Source: data-Fab analysis of ACS 5-yr data 2022

55. Previously redlined areas in Sacramento generally
have worse environmental stats today: higher
temperature, greater impervious surfaces, and less
tree cover- which impact resident health as well as
assessed home value. https://www.arcgis.com/apps/
dashboards/73e329457b6644e7aeff1 3ecce43c8d8;
One study found that areas with more Black and Latino
residents have fewer trees. See: Schwarz, K., Fragkias, From Disparity to Prosperity
39 M., Boone, C. G., Zhou, W., McHale, M., Grove, J. M., . . ., Whitmer, A., & Cadenasso, M. “Trees Grow on
Money: Urban Tree Canopy Cover and Environmental
Justice,” PLoS One, Volume 10, 201 5, https://www.
cityofsacramento.gov/content/dam/portal/pw/
climate-action/urbanforestry/Sacramento%20Draft%20
Urban%20Forest%20Plan.pdf

56. Median home values (2022) in Sacramento County:
$476k. Nationally: $3 1 1k. https://blackwealthdata.
org/wealthindicator?firstCounty=Sacramento%20
County,%20California&secondCounty=national

57. Black-owned firms average about 6 employees per firm (versus 1 1.6 for white-owned). Black-owned businesses
in Sacramento County have an average of $750k in
revenue versus white-owned average $2.7M in revenue
(ABS 201 7).

58. Source: data-Fab analysis of Annual Business Survey 201 7 (201 8 Release); ACS 201 7. Entrepreneurship rate is number of firms per 1,000 working age population aged
25-64.

59. Interviews with small business assistance and lending organizations.

60. Sacramento County (1 2 per 100k people); nationally (24 per 100k people). https://blackwealthdata.
org/wealthindicator?firstCounty=Sacramento%20
County,%20California&secondCounty=national.

61. Banking deserts, defined by the Federal Reserve, are urban tracts with no banks within 2 miles or suburban
tracts with no banks within 5 miles. Or, rural tracts
with no banks within 10 miles. 2023 data. https://
fedcommunities.org/data/banking-deserts-dashboard/.

62. Most home loan denials were due to “debt-to-income
ratio” (36%) but also credit history (1 4.6%) and
collateral (1 1.8%). HMDA 2022.

63. In 2022. Average across all loans: 7% of loans
were denied (233 1 of 32,932). HMDA 2022. Code
references: https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/
documents/cfpbreportable-hmda-dataregulatory-
and-reporting-overview-reference-chart-201 9.pdf; In
addition, Black applicants were denied 1 1.8% of the
collective amount of loan dollars for which they applied (versus 6% for white applicants).

64. City tracts with high concentrations of Black residents (over 20% Black/African American) comprise 1 5%
of the population (And more specifically, they contain
29% of the Black/African American population) but
only received 1 2% of small business loans (<$1M) from
traditional bank lenders. Source: data-Fab analysis of
FFIEC-CRA Aggregate Data, 2022; ACS 2022 5-year
release.

65. County-level health disparity data is available at:
https://www.racecounts.org/county/sacramento/. For
more information on the unjust impacts of fines and fees, see: https://finesandfeesjusticecenter.org/

66. https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/research-
summaries/education-earnings.html ; Skills-based
hiring can help to eliminate discrimination built into
hiring practices – evaluating candidates based on true
merit rather than education credentials. https://www.
weforum.org/agenda/2023/04/growth-summit-2023-
why-skills-first-hiring-is-the-solution-to-the-global-talent-; Moving to a skills-based hiring approach is timely, given the unprecedented rate of change of skillsets across
industries. See: EMSI (2022), Shifting Skills, Moving
Targets, and Remaking the Workforce.

67. Because of these factors, homeownership is not
a guarantee of successful wealth accumulation.
https://www.huduser.gov/publications/pdf/
wealthaccumulationandhomeownership.pdf

68. High-growth clusters that may present particular
opportunities for inclusion include: life sciences/
biotech, clean economy, future mobility (e.g.,
electrification), agriculture and food and beverage
manufacturing, headquarters and business services
(see: ScaleUP Sacramento, available at https://www.
cityofsacramento.gov/city-manager/oied/scale-up).

Or, opportunities may include industries (2D NAICS)
with more than 800 establishments, positive employment
growth from 2010-2022 and average wages above
$60,000: manufacturing, professional services. Source:
data-Fab analysis of QCEW/QWI data, 2010 and
2022.

69. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/04/growth-
summit-2023-why-skills-first-hiring-is-the-solution-to-the- global-talent-shortage/

70. “The median household net worth is 92% higher for
employee-owners.” Source: https://media.erepublic.
com/document/CITYACCELERATOR_FINAL.pdf

71. SBAC is focusing on small businesses, which are defined by CA DGS as 100 employees or less, or $1 8 million
in annual gross revenue, and microbusinesses, which is
defined by 25 employees or less or $6 million in annual gross revenue. SBAC is also focusing on disadvantaged
From Disparity to Prosperity
40 and under-resourced areas, such as HUD Qualified
Census Tracts, Promise Zones, and areas with an
overburdened linguistic isolation or pollution score, as defined by CalEnviroScreen.

72. e.g., Moderately Priced Dwelling Unit (MPDU) program, which guarantees that income-restricted housing be built as part of market-rate development projects.

73. For instance: “direct rental assistance to affected tenants, eviction prevention, preservation of older housing stock, housing vouchers” and “tenant right of first refusal laws, housing trust funds, community land trusts.” https://www. urban.org/urban-wire/how-embed-racial-equityzoning-
code-reform
7 4. The program is piloted by partners including the City of Cleveland and Cleveland Neighborhood Progress.

75. Disclosure: RW Ventures, LLC is a co-owner of TREND.

76. https://assetfunders.org/wp-content/uploads/
AFN_2020_FinancialCoaching_Exe-Summary-
From Disparity to Prosperity
41 Framework Document for Sac LIFT:

Sacramento Local Impact Funders Table
Purpose

The Sacramento Local Impact Funders Table (Sac LIFT) seeks to launch an informal yet intentional and consistent engagement space for leaders from financial institutions, philanthropic organizations, the City of Sacramento, and other public and private institutions to come together around shared goals and the development of collaborations leading to greater community impact.

Sac LIFT aims to:

• Strengthen peer networks, partnerships, and trust across funder sectors • Share and promote ideas, resources, programs, and lessons learned • Identify, advance, facilitate, and/or support aligned initiatives and/or programs and services to maximize collective impact
• Expand financial access and opportunity for underserved/marginalized (low- and moderate- income) Sacramento residents and communities via interconnected strategies

Sac LIFT’s intent is to expand participation, emphasize collaboration, and create new ways to align resources across the funder sector.

Background
The Sacramento Local Impact Funders Table (Sac LIFT) builds upon the foundation of the Financial Institution Collaborative (FIC, formerly known as the Financial Institution Partnership Opportunity or FIPO), a collaborative effort led by the Sacramento Promise Zone in partnership with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

Created in 2016, FIC has provided financial institutions with a structured way to meet Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) requirements by funding programs and initiatives to support local communities.

FIC has brought valuable resources and partnerships to Sacramento, aligning grants and investments in affordable housing, small business development, financial empowerment, and other related programs.

FIC has generated significant benefits, which have also held great potential for growth:

• Engagement has been strong, with potential for longer-term impact follow-up and data. • Though invited, philanthropic organizations and nontraditional funding partners’ participation was fairly limited.
• Government entities generally did not participate in partnership opportunities.

Between 2016 and 2023, FIC helped facilitate CRA-eligible grant funding of $1,050,000 to 10 projects in the Sacramento Promise Zone.

Key Features

1. No Cost to Participate: No financial commitment, grant requirement, or program funding ask.

2. Expanded Participation
o Includes financial institutions, philanthropic organizations, and other public and private agencies (that have a funder role) as partners
o City of Sacramento staff support through facilitation, convening, and coordination o Alignment with local and regional goals and initiatives

3. Regular Convenings
o Meetings will take place on a regular, consistent basis, and may alternate between in- person and virtual.
o Convenings will include presentations, discussion, networking, and action planning/implementation.

4. Collaborative Learning and Collective Impact
o Provides a platform to highlight innovations and share challenges and best practices o Encourages cross-sector collective impact partnerships that extend beyond funding

Value Adds for Participants
For Financial Institutions
• Build on FIC’s value-add by streamlining its processes and emphasizing community impact • Visibility as a proactive partner to advance local well-being • Deeper insights into local priorities and community needs • CRA-eligible partnership opportunities

For Philanthropic Organizations and Other Private Funder Institutions • Alignment of philanthropic investments with local, community, and financial institution priorities • Visibility as a proactive partner to advance local well-being • Expanded network to grow existing opportunities and develop new ones

For the City of Sacramento and Other Public Agencies
• Strengthen partnerships with financial institutions and philanthropy partners • Ability to align external efforts and resources with public initiatives. City examples include:
o CityStart, which is focused on reducing the local Black wealth gap o Financial Empowerment Cities, which is focused on community collaboration to grow financial opportunity, access, and well-being for all local residents • A platform to advance/innovate around equitable community development, including financial empowerment, access to non-predatory financial products, credit, and other services, small business growth and access to capital, workforce pathways, and housing stability and homeownership, among other local needs