Alongside her staff, Bailey regularly sees older Black homeowners and renters struggling to cover mortgage payments, rent, or property taxes. For them and many older Black Americans, the roots of their housing insecurity trace back decades to discriminatory policies like those that upended Bailey’s childhood community. A Black 70-year-old has likely experienced housing discrimination over decades, at nearly every stage of homeownership. Redlining, the Federal Housing Administration’s practice of deeming Black neighborhoods too risky for government-backed mortgages, had begun a few decades earlier. It’s a downward spiral that occurs far less often in comparable white neighborhoods, housing advocates say.