Association between historical redlining and current environmental quality in the Los-Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim Metropolitan Statistical Area
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Environmental quality (EQ) varies between neighborhoods, with poorer EQ observed in neighborhoods with lower income levels and/or lower proportion of White residents. In the 1940’s, the Home Owners Loan Corporation created maps showing neighborhoods rated as high risk for mortgage lending, which denied residents, usually racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, the opportunity to become homeowners and accumulate wealth. We explored if designation as a high risk/ redlined neighborhood in 1940 predicted more contemporary (2006-2010) census tract-level air and built EQ within one California Metropolitan Statistical Area (Los-Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, LALBA). To create the exposure, a census tract shapefile layer was with overlayed high-resolution digital maps of historical redlining. These maps include the 1940 neighborhood assignment of redlining ratings, which include Best, Still Desirable, Declining, and Hazardous, which were combined to create a two-category exposure as follows: Best or Still Desirable (desirable) and Declining or Hazardous (redlined). Linear models estimated the associations between historical redlined ratings and air, built, and the combined air/built index EQ. Higher air, built, and combined index scores (outcome) indicate poorer EQ. We observed poorer combined EQ (0.25 change in index score [95% CI: 0.19, 0.31]) and built EQ index score (0.36 [0.28, 0.45]), and no difference in air EQ index score when comparing redlined areas to desirable areas. This suggests, on average, historically redlined areas have a current combined EQ index score which is 0.25 points higher (worse in EQ) than areas which were historically considered desirable in the LALBA metropolitan area. These results suggest that the United States’ historic racist policies, including redlining neighborhoods, are associated with poorer EQ up to 70 years later and may contribute to disparities in exposure to detrimental environments. This abstract does not reflect EPA policy.