About The Recession Diaries
2009
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EmailAccording to ACORN every 13 seconds a family loses its home. As it’s been made painfully clear a portion of those families are ones of color.
Survey a number of Black neighborhoods and you may find them riddled in a sea of for sale signs.
Last year conservatives placed the blame of the mortgage crisis on poorer minorities who took on loans they know they couldn’t afford to pay back.
Over the weekend, the New York Times published a report that negates such claims. The majority of those who have drowned in their sub-prime loans are not poor and uneducated minorities.
It’s middle and upper income black borrowers who have suffered mainly from these predatory, high cost loans.
In their report they find that in New York City, for example, that black families earning more than $68,000 a year are nearly five times as likely to hold high-interest subprime mortgages as are whites of similar — or in some cases lower — incomes.
Although mortgage delinquencies are rising in white neighborhoods, minorities still carry the bulk of the foreclosure burden.
As a result, many blacks find themselves losing hope on their dreams of home ownership.
We’re aware of the problem, but what are the solutions?
Yesterday, the Applied Research Center released an extensive report called “Race and the Recession” offering answers.
Capturing the experiences of those who have lost their home in this crisis, researchers offer a history of longstanding racial exclusion in lending guidelines and how they have helped pave the way for our current economic woes.
Blacks have been hurt by these practices over a span of generations, and the Applied Research Center argues that by addressing systematic racism we can help stabilize our economy and benefit every American.
You can read the report here.
Have you or someone close you fighting to keep your home? Have you already lost the battle?
Email me at therecessiondiaries@gmail.com
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