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December II, 2002
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Banks Work Hard to Accommodate Hispanics
Oregon financers
to implement
culturally sensitive
practices
(A P )— S alvador M arciel never
saw him self as a hom eow ner in
A m erica because financing a house
seem ed im possible, and so did find
ing bankers o r loan officers w ho
spoke Spanish.
But w hen M arciel decided to
inquire about a large loan at Salem -
area banks, Spanish speakers found
him
A nd financing a $ 116,500 house
for his seven-person fam ily was
easier than he thought it would b e —
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thanks to a new push by banks to tap
the buying pow er o f O regon’s fast-
est-grow ing m inority population.
“In the past there w ere not as
m any people w ho helped L atinos
buy a house,” said M arciel, a 55-
year-old M exican w ho began w ork
ing in C alifornia as a m igrant farm er
in the 1970s before moving to Salem
10 years ago and establishing legal
residence.
M arciel is like thousands o f O r
egon H ispanics w hom banks have
catered to in recent years.
“W hen the 2000 C ensus cam e
out, everyone w oke up and sm elled
the burritos,” said Roy Larson o f
L arson N orthw est R esearch and
C onsulting, a firm that focuses on
the H ispanic m arket in the N orth
w est.
T he census co u n ted 2 75,000
H ispanics living in O regon, but
H ispanic officials say the real num
ber could be double that.
M ost H ispanics have been in
the state few er than ,0 years, 75
percent are u nder age 25, and co l
lectively they have an estim ated
T o capitalize on the m arket,
banks h av e launched initiatives
aim ed at getting H ispanics to bor
row m oney. The initiatives have
tw o co m p o n en ts: use bilingual
bankers to actively recruit Hispanic
f When the 2000 Census came out,
everyone woke up and smelled the
burritos.
— Roy Larson o f Larson Northwest Research and Consulting, a
firm th at focuses on the Hispanic m arket in the Northwest
buying pow er o f $2.7 billion a year.
A nalysts say th eir dem ographics
are sim ilar to the baby boom ers o f
the 1960s because they are young
and have large fam ilies.
clients, and m odify banking norm s
to b etter address the financial real
ity o f m any in the H ispanic com m u
nity.
A lack o f credit history is one
such reality.
“It’s a C atch 22,” said A lice
Perez, Hispanic market manager for
U S. Bank. “T o g e t credit you m ust
have a credit history. But how can
you get a credit history if you c a n ’t
get credit?”
Many Hispanics come from coun
tries w here only the elite use the
banks or can access loans. So m ost
do their business, from buying gro
ceries to buy ing a house, w ith cash.
They bring that custom w ith them
to the United States.
Perez said to help H ispanics get
large lo a n s— and o f course, to reap
the benefits o f their business —
U.S. Bank launched a nationw ide
H ispanic initiative this past sum
mer. Thirty-eight of the 380 branches
targeted are in Oregon.
For proof o f identity banks usu
ally require a d riv er’s license or
passport, som ething m any H ispan
ics d o n ’t have. U.S. Bank has al
tered that policy — accepting old
tax form s or certificates from the
M exican C o n su late. C alled the
“m atricula consular,” these certifi
cates are issued to M exican im m i
grants w ho typically d o n ’t have
Social Security numbers or any form
o f U .S.-issued identification.
A nd now instead o f the tradi
tional credit check, w hich might
include looking at a bank account
or a credit card balance, the bank
will also accept copies o f old utility
bills that w ere paid on time.
Banks all over the country have
launched sim ilar initiatives in areas
w ith large H ispanic populations.
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4 L a tin o s F a l l T h r o u g h G a p
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R amon C adsteli . blanch
H ere’s a startling statistics: Each
year, 18,000 people in the U nited State
die prem aturely from lack o f health
insurance, according to recent study
by the Institute o f M edicine. U nin
sured adults w ith diabetes, heart dis
ease, kidney failure or m ental illness
are m uch w orse o ff than their insured
co u n terp arts. A nd ev en w h en the
unisunsured gets care, it is often sub
standard, the institute found.
L ack o f health insurance has dire
consequences fo r the L atino com m u
nity in the U nited State, since nearly
h a lf o f w orking-age L atinos are w ith
o u t health insurance for all o r part o f
the year, according to the C om m on
w ealth Fund.
O ne reason for this crisis is that
r
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L atinos have few er chances o f getting
jo b s w ith health insurance. M any are
i; hired in industries and occupations
•
I that d o n ’t offer available coverage.
A nd the 1996 w elfare-reform act de
nies M edicaid to legal im m igrants,
m any o f w hom are Latinos. N ot having
( insurance sickens and kills those w ith
I high blood pressure, according to the
Institute o f M edicine report. T he unin
1 sured have their blood pressure m oni
f tored less frequently, and w hen their
disease is diagnosed, they are less
by
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Nearly a Million Kids Missed in Census
vices.
They may also use the data to lobby for a
bigger share o f federal funding. Last year, the
C ensus Bureau decided the unadjusted count
w ould be used for congressional redistricting,
and to plug into federal funding form ulas for
program s such as M edicaid and foster care,
w hich total about $ 185 billion.
The Suprem e C ourt in 1999 said only the
raw, unadjusted count could be used for reap
portioning H ouse seats am ong the states.
The bureau in M arch 2001 said there w as a
net undercount o f about 1.2 percent o f the
population - roughly 3.2 m illion people, with
one-third o f them children.
The data provided from the C ensus Bureau
was based on research done in M arch 2001.
Preston Jay W aite, an associate census direc
tor, said m ore research has been conducted
since then w hich show s the national net
undercount may have been reduced to less
than one-tenth o f 1 percent.
O pponents o f adjusted data, mainly R epub
licans, have said the com plicated statistical
m ethods used to determ ine the undercount
w ould add m ore error into a census that the
bureau deem ed to have one o f the low est
national undercount rates ever.
C ritics also have said that w hile adjust-
m ents count m issed people, they may not
allocate them to the proper neighborhoods
because the form ula is less accurate on the
local level.
(A P )— M ore than 1.1 million children were
not tallied in the 2000 census, nearly half o f
them black and H ispanic, according to newly
released governm ent estim ates.
Nearly 29 percent of the children missed were
black, though they made up nearly 15 percent of
the total population kids under 18. Hispanics
were about 20 percent o f the child undercount,
and 17 percent o f the total child population.
About 45 percent o f those children missed
were white, less than their 60 percent share of the
total population o f children. T he C ensus
Bureau’s adjusted data using statistical sam
pling also show ed a slight overcount o f Asian
children.
T he bureau released the data only after a
federal court ordered it to do so, follow ing a
successful law suit brought by O regon State
Sen. M argaret C arter o f Portland and State
School S uperintendent-elect Susan Castillo.
T he agency said F riday the new figures
w ere flaw ed and had no official use.
M any D em ocrats and civil rights groups
have disagreed, contending the state-by-state
breakdow n o f the undercount w ould show
that m inorities and children were more likely to
be m issed.
D espite the governm ent cautions, state
and local law m akers m ay - if their laws allow -
use the adjusted data to redraw m unicipal
political districts, or allocate billions in gov
ernm ent dollars controlled by states for things
such as school construction or social ser
likely to be begin, or stay under, needed
treatm ent, A s a result, uninsured people
w ith hypertension are m ore likely to
suffer heart attacks and strokes.
L ack o f health insurance has taken
the lives o f m any L atinos w ith breast
cancer. W hen they are insuranced, they
are less likely to have tim ely screening.
T heir diagnoses are also delayed. W hen
the cancer is finally found, it is m ore
likely to be at an advanced stage. U n
insured w om en w ith breast cancer have
a 30 percent to 50 percent higher risk o f
dying then w ith insurance, according
to the in stitu te’s finding.
A ccelerating health-insurance costs
and em ployer resistance to paying for
the increase, threaten to force m any
insured w orkers o ff o f their health co v
erage. T olls from heart disease, cancer, Ramon Castellblanch
A ID S and m any oth er deadly diseases put a stop to the plague brought on by
m ay start to rise. It’s tim e for C ongress lack o f m edical insurance. U ntil w e do
to q uit fooling around in the face o f this it, m edical crisis that is already stalking
grow ing disaster. In every oth er indus m any in our L atino com m unities will
trialized country in the w orld, the g o v in c re a sin g ly e n d a n g e r th e re st o f
ernm ent ensures that all people have America.
health insurance.
R am on C astellblanch is director o f
In o ur country, M edicare and M ed the und erg ra d u a te h ea lth -m a n a g e
icaid system s have done a good jo b at m ent program , a n d an assistant p ro
h e lp in g s e n io rs a n d m illio n s o f fe s s o r a t Q uinnipiac U niversity in
ch ild ren ’s receive coverage. But these H am den. Conn. H e can be reached a t
program s need to be expanded to cover p m p ro @ progressive, o r g
the rest o f the popululation. It’s tim e to
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