A Message From Realty Collective
Jun 05, 2020
At Realty Collective, we recognize that, as a real estate firm, our business operates within a broken system. One that has historically disenfranchised communities of color and, particularly in Brooklyn, harmed Black and Latinx residents through policies like redlining or predatory lending. We are not blind to the ongoing inequities. As a mission-driven organization, it is imperative that we continue to do business guided by our values—at the company level and as the individuals that make up the company.
We strive to practice our values everyday by serving on community boards and contributing to the resiliency of our neighborhoods. By making our voice heard in those groups, we highlight the ways in which the government, developers, and the city take advantage, perpetuating a broken system that protects and works for a very few. We believe that housing policy is built on systemic racism. We also adamantly refuse to work with developers or those who view real estate as a power grab, thinking only of profit margins.
We do believe that the ability to get on the property ladder in Brooklyn is one of the surest ways to begin and build multi-generational wealth in this city and that’s why we continually offer buyer education services, ongoing support, and outreach. We believe housing is a human right, but one too often endowed unevenly and unjustly across our borough. We all know that affordable housing policies are just a way to justify developers rezoning and destroying neighborhoods.
We understand that recognizing the inequalities and calling them out has not been enough to evoke change within the world of housing policy. But we hope that the movement happening now enables us to create a new system instead of continually applying a band-aid to our broken one. We recognize that these steps and beliefs alone barely make a dent, and that we can only help those with whom we work directly. We don’t yet have all the answers but we also don’t believe that now is the time to be silent. There is so much more work to do.