Taxation, Black Americans, and the Environment: What Altadena Teaches Us

This article is the second in a three-part series, Quiet Violence: How the Tax System Works Against Black Americans, co-produced by The Maven Collaborative and NPQ. This series explores how the taxation system’s “quiet violence” enacted against Black Americans leads not only to financial inequality but also to stolen legacies, futures, peace, and health—and presents solutions for equitable change.

Climate change is many things, but in a financial sense it serves as a dangerous tax on much of what we hold dear: homes, health, safety, wealth. This is doubly true for Black people. Tragically, the Eaton fire in Altadena, CA, claimed 17 lives, and The Guardian reported that “nearly half” of Black-owned homes in Altadena “were either destroyed or severely damaged by the fire.”

For thousands of affected families—9,400 structures are said to have been destroyed—the dream of passing on family wealth, largely concentrated in those now burned-down homes, has been shattered, due in no small part to environmental injustice.

A Tale of Disparate Impact

Research conducted immediately after the fires found that Black homeowners in Altadena were nearly 1.5 times more likely to have suffered major damage or complete destruction of their homes, compared to their non-Black neighbors. In many cases, these homes were families’ most significant assets and their only source of generational wealth.

It remains to be seen how many Black homeowners may be able to reclaim their homes, but rising insurance rates and a foreboding economic situation makes it unlikely that Altadena will soon return to its remarkably high rate of Black homeownership, which was more than twice the California average.

Those who do have the ability to rebuild will also have to consider the impact on their health. A significant part of rebuilding after a wildfire is land remediation. Ash and wildfire debris contain highly toxic substances that can pose health risks to residents and cause long-term harm to the environment if not adequately cleaned up and cleared away.

Black homeowners in Altadena were nearly 1.5 times more likely to have suffered major damage or complete destruction of their homes.

To prevent this, the Army Corps of Engineers traditionally removes three-to-six inches of topsoil as part of cleanup and tests the soil to ensure that any contaminants that remain are at or below the standards that California deems safe. This process, called confirmation sampling, is intended to prevent residents from rebuilding on land that may be unsafe. Exposure to heavy metals and arsenic, for instance, can exacerbate respiratory illnesses and contribute to cancer and neurological disorders.

However, in the wake of the Eaton and Palisades fires, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has said that it will not test soil for toxic contaminants after the initial debris removal, nor reimburse homeowners for soil tests, despite the fact that such testing after similar fires has uncovered dangerous levels of chemicals still remaining after clearing initial topsoil.

An Indirect Tax

Refusing to test for soil contamination is a clear instance of environmental injustice. It is also a glaring example of indirect taxation, where the state passes the financial responsibility for what was previously a public service onto individuals, usually to their detriment.

As with most indirect taxes, Black people stand to lose the most. Even before the fires, Black homeowners in Altadena struggled more with housing costs than their non-Black neighbors. An estimated 45 percent of Black homeowners in Altadena were cost-burdened—meaning they spent 30 percent or more of their household income on housing costs, compared to 28 percent of their neighbors. Twenty-eight percent of those cost-burdened Black homeowners spent half or more of their income on housing, compared to just 13 percent of their neighbors. Having to pay for their own environmental testing will hit poorer families hardest.

The costs will be especially difficult for elderly homeowners, who are more likely to live on a fixed income or to have insufficient or incomplete home insurance coverage. Fifty-seven percent of Black homeowners in Altadena are 65 or older. The share is so significant, and the concerns about their ability to navigate the rebuilding process so profound, that Black Altadenans began organizing mutual aid and legal assistance for elderly homeowners almost immediately after the fire, weeks before FEMA announced its decision about soil testing.

If Black families cannot afford to test their soil, and it is indeed contaminated, they could get sick. The food they grow in their gardens could be laced with carcinogens. Their children could run in their yards and kick up dirt that makes it hard for them to breathe. They could also unintentionally and permanently devalue their most substantial financial asset, and often the only real material inheritance they have to bequeath—another indirect tax.

Even in a middle-class, mixed-race neighborhood like Altadena, Black people are more likely to live in older housing stock, to have their homes undervalued by appraisers, and to have less income to devote to the renovation and maintenance, especially as they age, all of which make it more likely that land accounts for a disproportionate share of their property value. But home insurance policies typically cover only the value of the building, not the value of the land.

Environmental Racism’s Health Cost

Black Altadenans may still be able to escape the burden of toxic pollution, thanks to new initiatives that will provide free soil testing to fire victims.

It is shocking how often Black Americans are forced to pay, effectively, to be poisoned.

But millions of Black Americans nationwide are not so fortunate. Black Americans are 75 percent more likely than others to live near facilities that produce hazardous waste and are subjected to 1.5 times more air pollution than White Americans, regardless of their income level. In Louisiana, for instance, communities of color are exposed to 7 to 21 times more industrial pollution than White communities.

Similarly, in Detroit, many Black neighborhoods that were historically redlined have been exposed to significantly more environmental hazards than neighborhoods that were not redlined, including particulate matter, higher volumes of traffic, and hazardous road noise. They were also 1.7 times more likely to be located near hazardous waste sites and twice as likely to live near industrial facilities that use hazardous chemicals.

In West Virginia, where nearly 93 percent of the state’s population is White, the Union Carbide plant—one of the country’s most dangerous chemical facilities—is located in Institute, one of only two census tracts in West Virginia where the majority of residents are Black.

Forced to Pay

Given the rates of exposure, it is no surprise that Black people are significantly more likely to die from causes related to air pollution. But it is shocking how often Black people are forced to pay, effectively, to be poisoned.

Environmental injustice is not merely a tax on Black communities; it is a systemic form of oppression that robs Black Americans of their future.

In Detroit, Black residents who lived near the city’s former incinerator faced the highest asthma rates in Michigan. Nevertheless, they still had to pay additional property taxes to cover the $1.2 billion debt that the city incurred to build and operate the incinerator. As city residents, they also paid higher rates to send their trash to the incinerator than residents in neighboring counties.

Black residents in Cancer Alley, on the other hand, have seen their property values plummet so deeply because of nearby pollution that Black residents are essentially trapped financially—stuck in homes that they cannot sell in communities where there are few opportunities for economic development.

More Than a Tax

Environmental injustice is not merely a tax on Black communities; it is a systemic form of oppression that robs Black people of their future. The impacts of climate change and environmental racism on Black populations are far-reaching, deeply entrenched, and extend beyond immediate health concerns to affect generational wealth, community stability, and long-term wellbeing. This quiet violence threatens to widen the racial wealth gap further, as homes often represent the primary source of generational wealth for Black families.

The fight for environmental justice is inseparable from the broader struggle for racial and financial equity, demanding not only policy changes but a fundamental shift in how the nation values and protects all communities.

Redressing environmental injustice requires fair housing policies, equitable disaster recovery, and a realignment of tax policies in Black communities to build resilience against future environmental threats, as well as new approaches to pollution and waste that prevent Black communities from being treated like US landfills.

By addressing these systemic inequities, it becomes possible to build a future where environmental burdens are not a tax disproportionately borne by Black people—and where the promise of a clean, safe environment is realized for all.