10 Best Redlining Tools for Founders [2026 Updated]

1. ArcGIS Living Atlas (Redlining layer)

• Type: Paid
• URL: https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/living-atlas/overview
• Overview: ArcGIS Living Atlas includes a ready-to-use historical redlining layer (HOLC maps) that can be combined with current demographic and marketing data to visualize legacy disinvestment at neighborhood scale. It provides GIS tools and styling options for marketers to overlay redlining boundaries with customer, sales, or ad-performance data to assess coverage and equity.

2. Mapping Inequality — Digital Scholarship Lab (University of Richmond)

• Type: Free
• URL: https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/
• Overview: Mapping Inequality publishes digitized HOLC redlining maps and descriptive survey notes for 148+ U.S. cities, enabling precise historical boundary lookups for addresses and neighborhoods. Marketers can use the site to identify historically redlined areas and export shapefiles or screenshots to inform outreach, community engagement, and equitable targeting strategies.

3. PolicyMap (HOLC / redlining data)

• Type: Paid
• URL: https://www.policymap.com/
• Overview: PolicyMap integrates HOLC redlining boundaries with current socio-economic, housing, and lending indicators, offering multi-layer maps and report generation for market analysis. It helps marketers and planners overlay historical redlining with present-day consumer and lending patterns to design compliant, equitable campaigns and service areas.

4. SparkMap — Historic Redlining Scores

• Type: Paid
• URL: https://sparkmap.org/data-info/historic-redlining/
• Overview: SparkMap offers derived historic redlining scores mapped to census tracts and designed for integration with demographic and market indicators to quantify structural disadvantage. The dataset and mapping tools let marketing teams segment or evaluate territories against historic redlining intensity for equitable planning and outreach.

5. ICPSR / Historic Redlining Scores (OpenICPSR distribution)

• Type: Paid (some open access)
• URL: https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/project/122117/version/V2/view
• Overview: The ICPSR-distributed Historic Redlining Scores dataset provides tract-level continuous measures of HOLC-era redlining for use in quantitative analysis and mapping. Analysts and marketers can merge these scores with consumer or sales data to test for legacy effects and to design data-driven, non-discriminatory outreach.

6. EPA EJScreen (Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool)

• Type: Free
• URL: https://www.epa.gov/ejscreen
• Overview: EJScreen is EPA’s public mapping and screening tool combining environmental and demographic metrics down to block-group level to reveal communities with cumulative burdens often overlapping historically redlined areas. Marketers can use EJScreen to identify vulnerable communities and to tailor outreach responsibly, ensuring campaigns do not inadvertently exclude or harm affected neighborhoods.

7. HUD AFFH Data & Mapping Resources (Fair Housing / mapping toolkit)

• Type: Free
• URL: https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/fair_housing_equal_opp/affh
• Overview: HUD’s AFFH resources include data, guidance, and an interactive mapping framework to analyze historical and current housing disparities and to meet fair housing obligations. Marketing teams and financial services can use HUD guidance and data to design compliant campaigns and analyze geographic targeting to avoid discriminatory practices.

8. Social Explorer (historical maps & HOLC layers)

• Type: Paid
• URL: https://www.socialexplorer.com/
• Overview: Social Explorer provides historical and contemporary mapping, including HOLC/redlining layers and time-series demographic data useful for market segmentation and trend analysis. The platform allows exportable maps and datasets so marketers can combine redlining context with consumer demographics for equitable territory planning.

9. SafeGraph (location and POI data for equitable footprint analysis)

• Type: Paid
• URL: https://www.safegraph.com/
• Overview: SafeGraph supplies detailed foot-traffic and points-of-interest datasets that marketers can layer over redlining boundaries to assess service reach and access disparities. By combining SafeGraph location analytics with historic redlining maps, teams can identify underserved areas for inclusive marketing and site-selection decisions.

10. NCRC / Redlining Interactive Maps and Reports (National Community Reinvestment Coalition)

• Type: Free
• URL: https://ncrc.org/holc/
• Overview: NCRC provides interactive redlining maps, downloadable reports, and analysis demonstrating long-term economic impacts of HOLC grades across U.S. cities to inform policy and outreach. Marketers and community engagement teams can use NCRC resources to understand legacy segregation and to shape responsible, equity-focused marketing strategies.