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Grads
Justice Prize
for the last two years. In the beginning he
sent three or four resumes day. But, Bledsoe
said, employers questioned his lack of expe-
rience or the practical worth of his major.
Now he sends a resume once every two
weeks or so.
Bledsoe, currently making just above
‘Simply put, we’re
failing kids coming out
of college’
minimum wage, says he got financial help
from his parents to help pay off student
loans. He is now mulling whether to go to
graduate school, seeing few other options to
advance his career. “There is not much out
there, it seems,” he said.
His situation highlights a widening but lit-
tle-discussed labor problem. Perhaps more
than ever, the choices that young adults
make earlier in life - level of schooling, aca-
demic field and training, where to attend
college, how to pay for it - are having long-
lasting financial impact.
“You can make more money on average if
you go to college, but it’s not true for every-
body,” says Harvard economist Richard
Freeman, noting the growing risk of a debt
bubble with total U.S. student loan debt sur-
passing $1 trillion. “If you’re not sure what
you’re going to be doing, it probably bodes
well to take some job, if you can get one,
and get a sense first of what you want from
college.”
Andrew Sum, director of the Center for
Labor Market Studies at Northeastern Uni-
versity who analyzed the numbers, said
many people with a bachelor’s degree face
a double whammy of rising tuition and poor
job outcomes. “Simply put, we’re failing
kids coming out of college,” he said,
emphasizing that when it comes to jobs, a
college major can make all the difference.
“We’re going to need a lot better job growth
See JOBS on page 6
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
continued from page 1
Mothers for Police Accountability Director Rev. Harriett Walden presents
Rick Williams the Unity and Peace award at the 15th Annual Paul Robeson
Peace and Justice Awards Celebration April 21 at the Central Area Senior
Center. Other Peace and Justice recipients included Oscar Desper,
Attorney of the Year and the John T. Williams Organizing Coalition, Coalition
Partner of the Year.
Vets
continued from page 1
progress, but we need to do more,” the
statement read.
Doctors and other mental health staff told
investigators that they’re particularly hav-
ing trouble hiring and retaining psychia-
trists. Investigators visited four medical
centers. At a medical center in Salisbury,
N.C., investigators found that patients had
to wait an average of 86 days to see a psy-
chiatrist. Staff told investigators that the
hospital was trying to replace three psychi-
atrists who had moved to the private sector
within the past year.
The department plans to add about 1,600
clinicians, including psychologists, psychi-
atrists, nurses, social workers and profes-
sional counselors, and about 300 support
staff to an existing mental health staff of
roughly 20,590. Still, the inspector general
is recommending that the department
undertake a comprehensive staffing analysis
to determine just how much vacancies are
hurting its ability to meet its standards for
timely mental health care.
The department says that analysis has
been underway since last year, leading to
the decision to increase its workforce.
Under the VA’s protocol, patients seeking
mental health care are supposed to get an
initial evaluation within 24 hours in case
care is urgently needed. Barring an emer-
ple, if a patient is referred on Sept. 15 and
the evaluation is scheduled and takes place
on Oct. 1, then the VA would show that the
veteran waited zero days, when in reality
the patient had waited 15. Investigators
called the VA’s tracking as “having no real
value.”
Investigators said that the VA also over-
The VA also overstated how long it took to treat
new patients
gency, the department seeks to provide a
full evaluation within 14 days. However,
the VA measures how long it took to con-
duct the evaluation, not how long a patient
waited to receive an evaluation. For exam-
stated how long it took to treat new patients
after they got an evaluation. Such treatment
is supposed to take place within 14 days of
the date sought by the patient, but only two-
thirds of veterans were are treated within
white communities than in black or Latino
communities. In Dayton, 90 percent of
Wells Fargo properties and 94 percent of all
US Bank properties located in minority
areas had no signage at all. In Washington,
DC, Wells Fargo had four times as many for
sale signs in white neighborhoods than in
neighborhoods of color.
“Wells Fargo’s disregard for homes in
communities of color has severely damaged
these communities,” said Shanna L. Smith,
NFHA President and CEO. “The company
has also hindered this nation’s efforts to
promote fair housing and is in clear viola-
tion of the Fair Housing Act.”
For Wells Fargo, the NFHA discrimina-
tion complaint is not the first time this large
lender has been identified with discrimina-
tory lending practices. In recent years both
the cities of Baltimore and Memphis have
alleged discriminatory mortgage practices
by this same bank.
As HUD reviews the NFHA complaints, it
is useful to remember that these new allega-
tions are consistent with broader research
findings by the Center for Responsible
Lending:
· Racial and ethnic differences in foreclo-
sure rates persist even after accounting for
differences in borrower incomes. Among
borrowers with a FICO score of over 660
(indicating good credit), African Americans
and Latinos received a high interest rate
loan more than three times as often as white
borrowers.
· African Americans and Latinos were
much more likely to receive high interest
rate (subprime) loans and loans with fea-
tures that are associated with higher fore-
closures, specifically prepayment penalties
and hybrid or option adjustable-rate mort-
gages.
· Between 2004 and 2008, African-Amer-
ican families were almost twice as likely to
have been impacted by the crisis. As of Feb-
ruary 2011, approximately one quarter of all
African-American borrowers had either lost
their home to foreclosure or were seriously
delinquent, compared to less than 12 per-
cent for white borrowers.
These findings are also mirrored in a
series of settlements negotiated by the Jus-
tice Department’s Civil Rights Division. In
2011 alone, this division filed a record eight
lending-related federal law suits, and
obtained eight settlements providing for
that timeframe. The remaining third waited
40 days on average.
The record was better for follow-up treat-
ments. About 88 percent get follow-up
appointments within 14 days of the desired
date, but that still leaves about 1.2 million
appointments during the year that exceed
the timeframe. The department has been
reporting that 98 percent of veterans were
getting timely follow-up appointments.
“Clearly the VA scheduling system needs
a major overhaul,” Murray said. “The VA
also needs to get serious about hiring new
mental health professionals in every corner
of the country.”
Murray’s committee is conducting a hear-
ing on the inspector general’s report on
Wednesday morning. The VA said it con-
curred with the findings and has already
begun taking steps to address the findings,
including establishing a new office with
oversight of the mental health program.
Housing
continued from page 1
the complaints, black neighborhoods are
getting short shrift. The investigation
involved foreclosed homes in Atlanta, Bal-
timore, Dallas, Dayton, Miami/ Fort Laud-
erdale, Philadelphia, Oakland and
Washington, DC.
NFHA determined that while properties in
predominantly white areas were consistent-
ly well-maintained with signage indicating
the homes were available for sale, fore-
closed homes in minority communities typ-
ically had multiple maintenance and
marketing deficiencies such as substantial
amounts of trash, overgrown grass and
shrubs, broken doors or locks, peeling or
chipped paint and holes in the structures. In
Atlanta, Baltimore and Washington, DC,
nearly 75 percent of foreclosed homes held
by US Bank in minority neighborhoods had
substantial amounts of trash.
The availability of “for sale” signs on
homes in these eight markets also revealed
a racial divide. Signage is significant as it
represents a marketing tool and contact
information for neighbors who could want
to report any problems with the property. In
both Philadelphia and in Oakland, NFHA
found almost twice as many for sale signs in
more than $350 million in relief to the vic-
tims of illegal lending practices. This figure
includes the settlement with Countrywide
Financial Corporation, the largest lending
discrimination case ever brought by the
Department of Justice, as well as a record
settlement under the Servicemembers Civil
Relief Act.
In the approximately 24 months since this
administrative adjustment, the division has
filed or resolved 16 lending matters. By
way of contrast, from 1993 to 2008, the
department filed or resolved 37 lending
matters, an average of a little more than two
cases per year.
Fair housing may have been the law for
44 years; but its letter and spirit have yet to
be fully embraced. Ironically the theme for
the 2012 national observance is “Live
Free”. — If only it were so.
Charlene Crowell is a communications
manager with the Center for Responsible
Lending. She can be reached at: Char-
lene.crowell@responsiblelending.org
April 25, 2012 The Seattle Skanner Page 3