The Greater Boston Partnership to Close the Racial Wealth Gap
Established in late 2022 as part of the Boston Foundation's commitment to racial equity, the Greater Boston Partnership to Close the Racial Wealth Gap is a uniquely powerful effort to close racial wealth gaps in the city and region by increasing homeownership in communities of color.
Why homeownership?
The Wealth Gap Partnership's initial focus on homeownership is based on two simple facts:
- Homeownership is the largest driver of intergenerational wealth for Americans across virtually all racial and demographic groups.
- The United States, and Greater Boston in particular, have a significant and measurable gap in homeownership between white households and Black, Asian and Latino households.
With a data-informed and mission-driven approach to advance racial and economic equity, the Wealth Gap Partnership brings together housing, financial, nonprofit, philanthropic and civic leaders to develop approaches to support, strengthen, and expand the current landscape of affordable homeownership, and through it, build intergenerational wealth for communities of color.
Who We Are
The Wealth Gap Partnership is a broad-based group of more than 40 members representing sectors including banking and finance, housing, issue advocacy, government, healthcare and life sciences, and education.
The partnership is convened and anchored by the Boston Foundation, including by its Director and leadership staff from across the organization, representing the Foundation's significant commitment to this issue.
Partnership Priorities:
Increasing Housing Supply
Lack of adequate housing supply is a fundamental, underlying cause of the affordable housing crisis in Massachusetts. There simply are not enough housing units to meet the demands of Massachusetts residents, especially those with low or moderate incomes.Expanding Down Payment Assistance
Coming up with the down payment and closing costs for a home is a major hurdle to homeownership. Expansion of these programs and other forms of subsidy can help families overcome these obstacles and save their cash reserves for expenses associated with being a new homeowner, like unexpected repairs.Increasing Access to Affordable Mortgage Products
Access to affordable mortgage products allows prospective homebuyers the opportunity to make affordable monthly payments resulting in significant cost savings. These cost savings can save families hundreds of dollars a month that they can use for short-term disposable income and long-term savings.Tools and Avenues for Change:
Policy &
Advocacy
We believe that our laws must play a pivotal role in addressing the significant and longstanding wealth gaps that exist in communities of color. As a result, our work includes efforts to influence and shape policymaking on the local, municipal, and state level.Research & Communications
The Partnership’s work is data informed and mission driven. Our work is shaped not only by the importance of our cause, but also by the qualitative and quantitative information we collect, receive, and analyze as well as our communication and engagement of these learnings (and the actions that come from them) to our external stakeholders and target communities.Programming &
Interventions
Tackling individual, systems, and root-level causes of inequity requires the support of and investment in programs and institutions that work within communities of color to improve their lived circumstances. The Partnership believes our role is to find opportunities to identify such programs and uncover ways to amplify and expand their efforts.Wealth Gap Partnership Members:
Amplify Latinx
Mirian Alvarez, Executive Administrator
Tomás Gonzalez, Director of Community and Advocacy
Eneida Roman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Asian Community Development Corporation
Angie Liou, Executive Director
Julia Zhu, Building Blocks Manager
Asian Community Fund
Danielle Kim, Executive Director
Bank of America
A.J. Barkley, Head of CRA & Neighborhood and Community Lending
Miceal Chamberlain, President of Bank of America Greater Boston
Michelle Swindell, SVP and Senior Business Development Manager, Bank of America
The Barr Foundation
Jim Canales, President and Trustee
Lisette Le, Director of Racial Wealth Equity Initiative
Black Economic Council of Massachusetts (BECMA)
Alyssa Benalfew-Ramos, Chief of Policy
Nicole Obi, President and CEO
The Boston Foundation
Brian Conway, Finance Committee Chair, Board of Directors
Linda Mason, Chair, Board of Directors
Lee Pelton, President and CEO
Boston Indicators
Luc Schuster, Executive Director
Boston Medical Center
Thea James, Vice President of Mission and Associate Chief Medical Officer
Citizens Bank
Lisa Murray, President
Reza Aghamirzadeh,EVP, Head of Community Development
Citizens’ Housing & Planning Association (CHAPA)
Rachel Heller, CEO
City of Boston
Tiffany Chu, Chief of Staff, Office of the Mayor
Sheila Dillon, Chief of Housing
Segun Idowu, Chief of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion, Office of the Mayor
Arthur Jemison, Chief of Planning and Director of Boston Planning and Development
Eastern Bank
Bob Rivers, Chief Executive Officer and Chair, Board of Directors
Eastern Bank Foundation
Jeff Fuhrer, Foundation Fellow
Nancy Huntington Stager, President and CEO
Embrace Boston
Imari Paris Jeffries, Executive Director
FHL Bank Boston
Kenneth Willis, Senior Vice President
Fidelity Investments
Pamela Everhart, Senior VP, Head of Regional Public Affairs and Community Relations
Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce
Jim Rooney, President and CEO
Amber Haskell, Director, Economic Inclusion
HSBC Bank USA
Michael Viazzoli, Corporate Banking Executive, New England Region
Inquillinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA)
Vanessa Calderón-Rosado, CEO
M & T Bank
Grace Lee, Regional President of Eastern MA
Jim Moore, Loan Officer
Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance (MAHA)
Symone Crawford, Executive Director
Massachusetts Housing Partnership
Elliot Schmiedl, Director of Homeownership
Clark Ziegler, Executive Director
Massachusetts Life Sciences Center
Kenn Turner, President and CEO
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company
Roger Crandall, Chairman, President, & CEO
Sucharita S.K. Varanasi, Head of Public Policy
MassDevelopment
Dan Rivera, President and CEO
MassHousing
Mounzer Aylouche, Vice President of Homeownership Programs
Chrystal Kornegay, Executive Director
Tony Richards, Vice President of Equitable Business Development
MIT School of Architecture and Planning
Karilyn Crockett, Professor
New Commonwealth Racial Equity and Social Justice Fund
Makeeba McCreary, President
OneUnited Bank
Teri Williams, President and COO
Preservation of Affordable Housing
Aaron Gornstein, President and CEO
State Street
Ron O’Hanley,Chairman and CEO
State Street Foundation
Joan Christel, President
Advisors
Advisors provide the partnership members with insight, advice, and expertise, but do not take part in the Partnership's actions and activities.
JPMorgan Chase
Roxann Cooke, Regional Director / Managing Director, Chase Private Client and Chase Investments
Richard Macdonald, Managing Director, Commercial Bank
Rafia Zahir-Uddin, Vice President, Global Philanthropy
Understanding the Racial Wealth Gap
To highlight research and resources about the dimensions of the racial wealth gap, Boston Indicators and the Boston Foundation, with the support of the Barr Foundation, have established the Racial Wealth Equity Resource Center at rwerc.org. The site tracks research on aspects of the wealth gap and innovations designed to address these gaps locally and nationally.
Inquiries about the Partnership:
Interested in learning more about the Wealth Gap Partnership and how to join the effort? Click here to contact Courtney Brunson, Director of the Wealth Gap Partnership.TBF Staff:
In addition to President and CEO M. Lee Pelton and Board Chair Linda Mason, the Wealth Gap Partnership includes a number of Boston Foundation senior staff bringing research, policy, communications and housing experience to the Partnership and its work.
Courtney Brunson serves as Director of the Greater Boston Partnership to Close the Racial Wealth Gap. Brunson comes to the role with experience in law and economic policy, having worked as the President of Harvard’s Legal Aid Bureau, a policy advisor for the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts and in the office of Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, where she advanced the Senator’s priorities of investing in affordable housing, enforcing fair housing protections, and expanding homeownership opportunities.
In addition to Brunson, Boston Foundation staff involvement includes:
Mariella Da Silva
Executive Assistant
Leigh Gaspar
Vice President and Special Assistant to the President & CEO
Kate Guedj
Senior Vice President and Chief Philanthropic Officer
Soni Gupta
Associate Vice President, Neighborhoods and Housing
Keith Mahoney
Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs
Ted McEnroe
Associate Vice President, Communications and Digital Media
Orlando Watkins
Vice President and Chief Program Officer