The Lines We Do Not See
How redlining affects neighborhood health inequities and access to health care in Birmingham, AL.
Background
What is redlining you ask? Redlining was an illegal discriminatory practice in which a mortgage lender denies loans or an insurance provider restricts services to certain areas of a community, often because of the racial characteristics of the applicant's neighborhood. The term comes from the use of red marks on maps that the loan corporations used to outline mixed-race or African American neighborhoods. Neighborhoods in more-affluent areas which means they were more worthy of loans were outlined in blue or green. So pretty much the areas that had more white people in it were able to get mortgages and other types of loans.
During the 1930's the federal government was facing a housing shortage. So federal programs like the Home Owner' Loan Corporation were established to encouraged home ownership through loans and affordable mortgages. There were a lot of racial repercussions to this practice.
Here are maps of major cities that were affected by redlining. As you scroll through you will see that all these cities have large African American populations. Because of redlining it further the segregation efforts by refusing to insure mortgages in and near African American Neighborhoods
Here is the city of Memphis
Here is the city of Atlanta
Here is the city of Chicago
Here is the city of Detroit
So how does redlining affect us today?
Those currently living in historically relined neighborhoods are highly vulnerable to air, water, and noise pollutants and other health problems. They are also at a increased risk of health issues like preterm birth, cancer, tuberculosis, and maternal depression. It is also linked to an increase risk of diabetes, hypertension, and early mortality due to heart disease. Despite the fact that redlining was outlawed decades ago, the impact of this policy must be taken into account when thinking about health disparities and access to adequate health care.
Birmingham, Alabama
Places and Census Tract Map
In the map above is the city of Birmingham, AL. The light blue areas are called census tracts. This how we count people in a state. The smaller the area the larger the population to an area. And the red dots in the middle of each tract are the health outcomes of each area. The red dots are showing the highest health outcome per population in each census tract. I know you are wondering how does this and redlining go hand in hand.
Redlining vs Health Outcomes
Above is showing the same map from before but with the relined areas of the city. Please feel free to go through the map. As you can see most of the relined have a health outcome in the middle. If you click on some of the dots within the red zones you the have more chronic conditions than the other places on the map. Birmingham is a city that has a majority African American population. Like the cities I showed in the first map have similar population.The history of redlining continues to impact health outcomes and our access to health care, but there are little incentives for hospitals to change. We have to end our unequal reimbursement system, so that all hospitals are compensated equally for the patients they serve. At the same time, hospitals caring for communities of color need more support to provide quality of care on par with wealthier hospitals in better areas.