Health Disparities After Redlining: A Comparative Analysis of Health Outcomes and Health Disparities in Richmond, Virginia and Portland, Oregon

Redlining was a discriminatory housing practice introduced by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation that denied loans and mortgages to Black residents and resulted in a heavily entrenched system of economic discrimination in the U.S. Existing literature points to a strong relationship between redlining and worsened health outcomes in communities of color. For example, redlining is associated with a higher risk of heart failure, a higher risk of death from breast cancer, and a higher risk of COVID-19 infection. While previous research has focused on the relationship between redlining and health outcomes and proposed several possible interventions, there is a lack of research focusing on local health outcomes in formerly redlined cities and the policies these cities have implemented. This study uses data from PolicyMap and the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research to determine whether redlining has a significant relationship with health outcomes in the formerly redlined cities of Richmond, Virginia, and Portland, Oregon. This study also determines which city ultimately has better health outcomes. The findings indicate that Portland has better health outcomes in its formerly redlined census tracts than Richmond. The paper then discusses what policies Portland has implemented to address housing discrimination, introducing possibilities of further research into the policies U.S. cities might consider adopting to improve the health of marginalized residents.