New Study Shows Home Losses Soaring In Forsyth County's Black Neighborhoods

Less than half of households in Forsyth County are renters, yet evictions account for nearly 90% of all housing loss in the county. That's from a new report that shows a growing vulnerability among renters — many of whom are Black — in the months leading up to the pandemic.

The study by New America, a think tank based in D.C., states that every majority Black census tract in Forsyth County has housing loss above the county median. The highest eviction rates are clustered in East Winston. Data from 2017-2019 show that this problem has been accelerating for some time. 

Winston-Salem Urban League CEO James Perry says the new report shines a light on a pending crisis.

“We were already in emergency status relative to rental housing before the pandemic and while the economy was performing well,” says Perry. “And so it means really clearly that policymakers have to be ready now for the disaster that is looming once we come out of the pandemic and once the eviction moratorium is over.”

Perry says the current housing crisis, while exacerbated by COVID-19, is generations in the making, beginning with the passage of the G.I. Bill created to help veterans of World War II enter the middle class. White veterans received low-interest mortgages and stipends covering tuition and expenses for college and trade schools. Black veterans did not.

“There were billions of dollars invested in creating a white middle class, but it was quite literally illegal for African Americans to use that same funding opportunity to also enter the middle class,” says Perry. “What becomes clear is that all it took to ensure that status was money.”

He says it remains to be seen if the political will exists at the federal and local level to invest money needed to ensure middle class opportunities for all Americans regardless of their race.

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