Why Black Condo Owners Have More Power Than They Think
“Condo” might as well be a four-letter word in Black neighborhoods. We all knew the deal as soon as we hear a new development is popping up in the neighborhood: First come the white folks, then come the upscale businesses to cater to them, then come the higher rents, home prices and property taxes.
We get our gripes off with social media posts — which replace the printed leaflets of yesteryear – and host community meetings with impassioned speakers complaining about how white folks are coming in to take over the place.
But the Powers That Be almost always get their way in the end, and before you know it, Black families are disappearing from the ‘hood they’ve made their home for generations while its new white residents rebuild it in their own image – conveniently keeping at bay the few Black folks who were able to stay.
I’ve personally witnessed the apathy — and antipathy — for Black folks play out: I’ve lived for 23 years in a waterfront condo in a historically white neighborhood of Boston. I’ve been trying to nudge my mostly white complex to hire black entrepreneurs to complete tasks...something that has rarely, if ever, happened.
I recommended a Jamaican immigrant handyman — who has done excellent plumbing and carpentry work for me inside my unit — for a small job on an outer wall. Instead, the job went to the white friend of a trustee. At the last annual meeting, I raised the general issue of hiring black entrepreneurs. I got a single amen.
The condo craze, which has only gained momentum in recent years, which means more predominantly Black neighborhoods will be gentrified at our expense. So, what are we to do…? We should tap our tradition of improvising and making the best out of a bad situation.
White folks own more than 80 percent of condos, and fewer than nine percent of condo owners are Black, but Black owners can leverage their ownership share to direct some of the money that condo associations spend to Black-owned entrepreneurs. Those associations collect annual fees from residents and spend a lot of money — $80 billion last year, if co-ops and homeowner associations are added to the mix.
About 2 million trustees or board members decide where the money goes — why not have more Black folks on those committees in a position to make decisions?
Some expenditures are beyond Black businesses’ reach because we don’t own utility or property insurance companies. But we have insurance brokers, property managers, landscapers, plumbers and carpenters in our pocket. I made a breakthrough when I hired the Jamaican handyman to replace my rusting garage door and swayed white neighbors to have him update theirs, amounting to a week’s work for the handyman.
That expense came out of our own pockets, not the condo budget, but it set an example that Black workers get the job done.
Spreading condo, co-op and homeowner association money around to black entrepreneurs is one way to trim the racial wealth gap. Because of their ownership, black condo residents have financial leverage, not just a plea to do the right thing. I’ll keep working on it and hope other black condo owners give it a shot.
Because if there’s one constant among homeowners of any race or creed, is that we all want to know who will do the best job for the money.
Kenneth Cooper is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist based in Boston
