Report: Access to home ownership encouraging for Blacks, Latinos in Riverside County

Black, Mexican families to address reparations for Palm Springs evictions

By City News Service By City News Service

of color, which could worsen as the economy slows and rates remain elevated this year, CAR said.

Housing affordability was better for Asians but also declined from the prior year, with the index registering 31% of Asian home buyers who could afford the median-priced home in 2022, down from 38% in 2021, according to the association’s Housing Affordability Index.

CAR reported that, statewide, the housing affordability gap between Blacks and the overall population in California improved from 11.7 percentage points in 2021 to 9.8 percentage points in 2022, while the gap for Latinos improved from 10.5 percentage points in 2021 to 9.4 percentage points in 2022.

According to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, the 2021 homeownership rate for all Californians was 55%, 63% for whites, 60% for Asians, 44% for Latinos and 37% for Blacks.

Supporters of hundreds of Black and Mexican families who were forcibly evicted from the Palm Springs Section 14 neighborhood in the 1950s and 1960s will speak about their case for reparations later this month in Palm Springs.

The open community meeting will be held from 2-5 p.m. on April 16 in the United Methodist Church of Palm Springs at 1555 East Alejo Road, according to publicist Wyllisa Bennett.

Attendees will include Areva Martin, an attorney for the Section 14 survivors and descendants; economist and Cal State LA dean Julianne Malveaux; Cal State Chico assistant professor of African American Studies Robert Jiles; and Cheryl Grills, LMU professor, director of the Psychology Applied Research Center and a member of the California Reparations Task Force.

Section 14 — a one-square-mile neighborhood owned by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians — was the primary residential area for people of color from 1930 to 1965. The evictions began in late 1954 and continued through 1966. An estimated 200 homes were destroyed in the mass eviction process, according to the city.

“Over the past two years, the City Council and staff have set out on a course aimed at making right what happened during that period,” former Palm Springs Mayor Lisa Middleton said in November 2022. “While this process may seem to be taking longer than some might like, the

Riverside County was among the most affordable counties statewide for Black and Latino home buyers, even as home prices soared and interest rates jumped throughout California, the California Association of Realtors reported Wednesday.

The affordability factor for both groups bucked a trend seen throughout the state, where just 12% of Black and Latino households could afford an $822,320, median-priced single-family home in 2022, based on a 20 percent down payment, the association found.

In Riverside County, a minimum annual income of $139,600 was needed to qualify for the purchase of a $615,000 median-priced, existing single- family home in 2022. The monthly payment, including taxes and insurance on a 30- year, fixed-rate loan, would be $3,490, CAR determined.

The association found that, with an affordability index of 31% for Black people — the same figure as whites — Riverside was among the most attractive counties in the state for the Black home buyers. Asians and Latinos, too, had high affordability numbers, at 36 and 24, respectively. The index measures the degree to which a typical family can afford the monthly mortgage payments on a typical home.

Throughout the state, 21% of residents earned the minimum income needed to purchase an $822,320, median-priced home in 2022, down from 27% in 2021. At the same time, housing affordability for white/non-Latino households fell from 32% in 2021 to 26% last year, according to the association.

Meanwhile, 12% of Black and Latino households could afford the same median-priced home in 2022, down from 16% and 17% in 2021, respectively. The significant difference in housing affordability for Black and Latino households illustrates the homeownership gap and wealth disparity for communities

A minimum annual income of $186,800 was needed to qualify for the purchase of the $822,320 median-priced, existing single-family home in 2022 in the state, CAR determined.

The monthly payment, including taxes and insurance on a 30-year, fixedrate loan, would be $4,670, assuming a 20% down payment and an effective composite interest rate of 5.47%. The 2022 California median income for whites was $105,640, $120,040 for Asians, $76,310 for Latinos and $64,190 for Blacks — an income gap of nearly onethird that of the overall population, which was $93,380, CAR reported.

City of Riverside receives $25M to renovate César Chávez Community Center

By Staff

Major renovations to the César Chávez Community Center at Bobby Bonds Park are on imminent following the Riverside City Council’s unanimous vote on Tuesday to accept $25 million from the state.

The funding was included in the state budget last year and received support from former Assemblyman Jose Medina, Assemblywoman Sabrina Cervantes and the Riverside Arts Academy, according to an announcement from the city of Riverside. The council’s action Tuesday was to approve an agreement with the state that allows the money to come to the city for the purpose of renovating the Chávez center.

“This project will transform the center as a gathering place for our community, including students of the Riverside Arts Academy,” Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson said in a