Evanston REALTOR® Mary Rosinski is working to educate real estate professionals about the city’s history of housing discrimination.
The chair of the North Shore-Barrington Association of REALTORS® (NSBAR) Diversity and Fair Housing Committee talks about some of the practices her mother, Cathleen O’Rourke, sought to sidestep during her 40-year real estate career, such as redlining. In the March-April issue of REALTOR® Magazine, Rosinkski explains that many Blacks in Evanston lost their homes through scams and bad policies. Affected families lost generational wealth that could be passed on, and so, she’s in favor of reparations.
“I’m not looking at the impact on my generation,” she said. “I’m not looking at how I benefit. I’m looking at how our grandkids will benefit.”
Read more about Rosinski and about the history of racist housing policies in the U.S. in “Repairers of the breach.”