The second in a series highlighting ideas and insights from the 2026 OpportUNITY Summit.
At the 2026 OpportUNITY Summit, Dr. Andre Perry of the Brookings Institution, author of The Black Power Scorecard, said something that surprised most people in attendance. Compared with other cities where Black Americans live, Perry said, Philadelphia ranks in the 85th percentile for homeownership and the 76th percentile for business ownership, with incomes well above average. “Relative to other places, there is strength here,” he told panel host Pennsylvania State Representative Jordan Harris, “and you can build upon those strengths.”
Deficit narratives, Perry warned, only tell part of the story. Strength-based narratives attract investors. “When you only focus on the deficit, you’ll get other people to fix the deficit, and you’ll fix people, instead of investing in the strength and the people that are already here,” he said. He pointed to tools that already exist: special purpose credit programs for the “invisible prime borrowers” who earn enough for a mortgage but cannot save a down payment, and SEC-approved crowdfunding that lets neighbors invest as little as $1,000 in local commercial real estate. One Baltimore developer, he noted, signed up 200 local investors in under a year.
Government, Perry argued, has chosen corporations over people. United Way, he said, is the exception. “I’ve seen your record. I know what United Way is doing all across the country. They’re investing in people.”
He closed by arguing that lifting one part of the community could positively impact another. “When you improve the well-being of anyone in the lower wealth quintile, it actually improves the well-being for everyone else. There is no zero-sum game here.” For Perry, that is what investing in strength means: recognizing that prosperity grows when opportunity is shared.
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