On April 29, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Tax practices that amplify racial inequities: Property tax treatment of owner-occupied housing, was cited by StreetSense:
A 2018 report by the D.C. Policy Center stated that provisions such as the homestead deduction and property tax cap, which give large tax breaks to homeowners in gentrified areas but no relief to renters, “result in amplified inequalities which are sharper along racial lines.” A 2019 D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute report also highlighted property tax differences as an example of racial inequity in D.C.’s tax code, emphasizing that “some 56% of D.C. homeowners are white, while 36% are Black and 7% are Latinx,” which the think tank attributed to D.C.’s long history of redlining, racial covenants, housing discrimination, and other policies precluding BIPOC residents from homeownership.
Read more: ‘D.C.’s richest residents pay lower taxes than everyone else,’ report finds | StreetSense