There’s no place like home, as the old cliché goes, but for some African American and Latino communities, the appreciation of a roof over one's head becomes much more than an old saying.

In cities around the United States, redevelopment has hit the urban way of life with housing projects unaffordable for the normal low-income family. It’s no secret that Latinos and African Americans are still on the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to being financially stable in America.

Communities that grow into sectors of specific ethnic racial make-up have come under fire. Instead of more suburban developments in the outskirts of major cities, the new redevelopment that is going on today is creating and building new housing projects that are centered in downtown metropolitan areas.

Major cities, such as Los Angeles, Harlem, and San Francisco in the Fillmore, Hunters Point and Mission districts are seen as direct examples of gentrification. But these are just some of the places that are forcing residents to move because of illegal city practices, a hike in rent or cost of living in the area. The epidemic of gentrification is nothing new - perhaps one of the largest black communities ever created, Freedmen’s Town in Texas, has had to fight to save its identity since its first residents settled there.

First established in the 1800s after the emancipation, Freedmen’s Town was home to some of the first freed slaves and black troops from World War 1. The black community is the oldest in Houston and the town is a registered historic site of the United States and the largest intact freed slave establishment in the nation, according to Freedmen’s Town Association. Today, only 40 of the town's 80 blocks are protected and it is dominated by the tall buildings of Houston.

The hand-laid brick roads, the first steel-framed house, and original trolley tracks show that the city is one of a kind, according to H Texas online. There is also a housing project, the foundation of which is on top of the original burial grounds of townspeople from over a century ago.

Protest from the residents and supporters is no match for the destruction of the town and its new identity. This machine of new development in urban communities has become the next big thing - a force that can’t be reckoned with and could have the same problematic issues as after WWII, when African American soldiers were denied home loans, hence the beginning of the American ghetto.