Systemic racism in Illinois home loan and banking industries

[TexasTowelie]

In Illinois and around the country, an increasing number of universities, investigators and researchers are turning up evidence of systemic racism in the financial sector that has plagued Black Americans for decades

In June, a report from Chicago radio station WBEZ-FM and the nonprofit news organization City Bureau found that for every dollar banks loaned in a white Chicago neighborhood, they only invested 12 cents in Black neighborhoods. A 2019 Duke University study estimates Black Chicagoans lost between $3 billion and $4 billion in the 1950s and 60s due to predatory housing contracts. A 2013 Pew report shows that nationally, African Americans lost 53 percent of their wealth between 2005 and 2009 due to the collapse of the housing market.

On Oct. 15 the Illinois Senate Executive and Commerce and Economic Development committees held a joint hearing on racial equity in lending and home ownership. The hearing was the latest in an ongoing series of hearings prompted by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus agenda to end systemic racism.

"The time is long overdue for Black households to be met with policies that uplift them and provide them with access to better credit and lending opportunities," said state Sen. Mattie Hunter, a Chicago Democrat who chairs the Executive Committee. "It's imperative that we work to close the wealth gap and level the playing field."

Read more: https://www.illinoistimes.com/springfield/systemic-racism-in-illinois-home-loan-and-banking-industries/Content?oid=12722766

[Southpaw at Law]

1. It is everywhere and affecting Black and other communities of color

Mortgage lenders do engage in systemic racism. They try to disguise it as the “risk” factor for repayment.

Certain groups, primarily those of color or who have difficulty understanding English (because it is not their primary language) are offered higher interest loan rates than Caucasians. With the language barrier, lenders hide balloon payments in the mortgage documents (this is a big problem in the Hispanic community in California). Interest free loans are offered and lenders promise the borrowers can refinance later to avoid the larger payments, but it is an empty promise and the bank takes their homes.

The problem is that systematic racism exists in the employment sector as well. So lenders can claim a borrower’s employment has gaps in it, and the lender can classify the borrower as a higher risk.

I am glad there is renewed interest in it but it seems that it has been a glaring problem for decades.

[Backseat Driver]

2. So when that happened to non-POC families, the GOP & bankers were just doing them

some sort of a favor so they'd be saved from, what, a POC-targeted zip code and a non-living wage? Now I'm triggered, so here goes:

Manged to send the kids off for college degrees. One would have thought TPTB would have wanted to keep ALL the indebted employed to meet student loan debt - Well that didn't happen either, of course! I didn't have any debt on my lowly Associate degree due to savings and a full-time job, not career, JOB, but TPTB ended all the follow-on BS programs in the State, and paid employers, like hospitals and insurance companies a bonus (BAD THING) to hire those that got their education, the same program I was privileged to totally pay out of pocket, on the taxpayer's welfare dime (that part, a good thing).

Should we have uprooted the family away from the kids' aged grandparents and moved out-of-state when one of us is an only child and elderly "fiscal responsibility" is codified?

For three generations at least, as of this date, a month out from our 50th, there have been no broken marriages; neither absent Baby Daddies. Of course, one should never penalize the victims of domestic violence, abuse, or the newborn and the single parent; everyone gets that reward of forgiveness for one bad judgment! Maybe if you play, you get paid more?

Never used childcare either - unavailable and expensive - we worked out schedules to meet the need! Hahaha, about those GOP/RW fundie grandparents - don't get me started!

Certainly I'd be more grateful for mental health care, too, if that could have/would have stopped the never-ending stress of unemployment, self-loathing, and subsequent loss issues; it did not.

My single daughter wants to buy a home and has been pre-approved; she's convinced she hasn't won a bid yet due to misogyny, specifically because she is still single and without kids. Tick-tock and all. As prices climb, I'm worried about her generation getting the $$ squeeze too! Both kids have been working at home and furloughed a portion of their income! Can't wait to find out their employers' plans going forward. Yes, I'm worried the cycle will repeat!

Time marches on, one birthday at a time, until it doesn't... is it any wonder America's age discrimination is on full display and politicians are now coming for the "useless eater" boomer senior citizens' Social Security and Medicare? With DH an essential worker going out into the wild, we make the bills but it would be a toss up to eat, have HVAC, have reliable transportation (both currently used and old), and/or most importantly, an apartment, or have those add-on supplemental health, dental, vision policies and a family doctor too! Wonder if we'll be left out in Joe's revamped/tweeked healthcare insurance/accessibility programs going forward too! Yes, I know about Advantage plans, but, but, and more buts. Meanwhile, we dodge CoVid-19 as best we can! Another stimulus would help, for sure!

Maybe, churn of any kind just made more cream available to be skimmed off the top for the greedy, into the pockets of our GOP representatives, via all those "corporate personhood" 1%ers and wannabes? or would that land me as a non-POC into trouble as a systemic racism denier?