The study finds that if minority families owned homes at the same rate as whites of a similar age and income, there would be an additional 3.5 million homeowners today. A major factor contributing to this gap is that minority and lower income famimlies experience continuing, and in many cases growing, inequalities in obtaining the financing necessary to purchase a home.

Because the West Branch area has been left alone, it has a chance to recover and become a part of the larger Paseo de las Iglesias project, and a cornerstone of a more extensive effort at ecological restoration involving the mesic coorridors of Pima County, the Santa Cruz, Rillito, and Pantano.