Paul who has become a avid reader of the blog asked that you consider this today and tomorrow, it is an unfortunate reality.
US blacks see 'financial apartheid' in subprime crisis
Jan 27 02:19 PM US/Eastern
They had small means and big hopes of owning a house. But African-Americans snared in the US mortgage crisis have seen the American dream turn into a nightmare many call "financial apartheid."
The storm triggered by risky "subprime" loans has left many in ruins, forced out of their modest homes and furious at falling victim to financial dealings that have taken a particular toll on minority families.
"People of color are more than three times more likely to have subprime loans," concluded the organization United for a Fair Economy in a recent report which estimated that minorities have seen between 163 billion and 278 billion dollars of their equity go up in smoke since 2000.
With its weakened economy and a large black population more used to renting, Cleveland has become a poster child of the subprime crisis in a country where some 2.1 million borrowers are behind on their mortgage payments.
City officials estimate that foreclosures have swallowed some 70,000 homes and turned entire neighborhoods into ghost towns.
The city has responded by suing lenders, accusing them of targeting black borrowers and steering them to the loans granted with few formalities and at hefty interest rates to people with poor credit histories.
In this city where nearly 27 percent of the population lives under the poverty line -- about 20,000 dollars a year for a family of four -- many have a friend, a cousin, a brother, a co-worker or a neighbor who lost a home because they could no longer make their monthly payments once their adjustable rates jumped.
"Cleveland, Detroit, Baltimore (are) cities where lots of people of color live and what do they have in common? They are hit by the foreclosures meltdown. Is it a coincidence?" said Jesse Tinsley, who lives in the low-income Mount Pleasant neighborhood.
"When the wave of foreclosures blighted our neighborhood, members of our community rang the alarm. Nobody did anything. Now that white suburbs are hit, the city hall discovered foreclosures," he said.
"The mayor didn't do anything for our community for four years, they said 'they deserved it.' Now everybody noticed that we have been targeted by greedy people."
Second part tomorrow
More to come
Lonny
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2 comments:
Surely someone will comment one way or the other as this raises some issues the PC will not address. As I am the source, I think it is obvious how I feel about it.
Of course the loans were originated by loan people who sold the loans to the institutions. Anybody done any surveys to give us the statistics on the ethniticity of those loan people?
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