Racism and Housing
Today, the third week of the Season of Creation we reflect on:
URBAN HEAT ISLANDS and REDLINING
On August 22, 2023, St. Louis reached a dangerous heat index of 116 degrees because of thick humidity and fog that helped trap hot air in the city. During the same week, fans were provided to an immigrant family living across from St. Pius V who had neither fan or AC. The Food Pantry provided them with two fans.
Climate Central ranks St. Louis as one of its top ten cities for impermeable surfaces, with a remarkable 57 percent of the city being hard, dry surfaces like buildings, roads and parking lots that contribute to higher temperatures. 1
Racist Housing Practices from the 1930s Linked to Hotter Neighborhoods Today
Research shows neighborhoods that were "redlined" — marked as risky investments by banks, usually due to the racial makeup of their inhabitants— in the 1930s are hotter today than other parts of the city. They usually have more pavement and concrete, which absorbs heat and releases it slowly. They also tend to have fewer trees, which cool the air and provide shade. The practice, along with the other segregationist housing policies of the time, had lasting effects — from concentrating poverty to stifling home ownership rates. Many neighborhoods are still struggling economically from decades of disinvestment. That extra heat can have dangerous, and sometimes deadly, health consequences. The rates of emergency calls during dangerous heat waves, and low-income patients in the city's hot spots visited the hospital more often than low-income patients in cooler areas.
The people in neighborhoods who experience higher temperatures are often the same people suffering from food deserts, diabetes, asthma, air pollution, and housing vulnerability. And while local activists are working to create more green spaces and fight inequities in housing and public health, these organizations “really need the partnership of decision makers to enact policies that are in response to the ideas that we have.” As climate change creates more dangerous weather conditions and extreme heat waves, the ability to stay cool must be addressed as a public health issue.
" https://www.npr.org/2020/01/14/795961381
Learn: “open wide our Hearts, the enduring call to love, a pastoral letter against racism.”open-wide-our-hearts_0.pdf (usccb.org) Racism and Housing ( 2 pages)
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Pray for communities who suffer higher rates of heat-related illnesses and deaths due to the legacy of redlining and unequal economic development.
Act Research groups in your city who are working to reduce urban heat islands or learn about the Groundwork USA Climate Safe Neighborhoods Project
S. Gen Cassani, SSND
