Opinion
Foreclosures Hurt Our Communities
“Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now”
B ERNIE F OSTER
Founder/Publisher
B OBBIE D ORE F OSTER
Executive Editor
T ED B ANKS
Advertising Manager
J ERRY F OSTER
Account Executive
L ISA L OVING
News Editor
H ELEN S ILVIS
Multimedia Editor
D AVID K IDD
Graphic Designer
M ONICA J. F OSTER
Seattle Office Coordinator
J ULIE K EEFE
S USAN F RIED
Photographers
The Skanner Newspaper, established
in October 1975, is a weekly publica-
tion, published each Wednesday by
IMM Publications Inc.,
415 N. Killingsworth St.,
P.O. Box 5455, Portland, OR 97228.
Telephone (503) 285-5555.
E-mail: info@theskanner.com
World Wide Web site:
http://www.theskanner.com
Fax: (503) 285-2900
The Skanner is a member of the
National Newspaper Pub lishers Associ-
ation and West Coast Black Pub lishers
Association.
All photos submitted become the
property of The Skanner. We are not re -
spon sible for lost or damaged photos
either solicited or unsolicited.
© 2012 The Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE SERVED.
REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART
WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED.
To see The Skanner
News on your smart
phone go to
theskannermobile.com
or scan this QR code
with your app.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Local news
Opinions
Jobs, Bids
Sports
Entertainment
Music reviews
Bulletin board
RSS feeds
E
very time a family loses a
home to foreclosure, the
negative
effects
flow
through the community, especially
nearby neighbors who lose value
in their own properties. Among the
10.9 million homes that went into
foreclosure between 2007 and
2011, over half of the “spillover”
cost to nearby homes have led to a
$1 trillion loss in home equity for
African-American and Latino
families. This key finding from a
new report by the Center for
Responsible Lending found that
high concentration of foreclosures
in neighborhoods of color perpetu-
ate these disproportionate burdens
in America’s continuing foreclo-
sure crisis.
The report entitled Collateral
Damage: The Spillover Costs of
Foreclosures, said, “Families
impacted in minority neighbor-
hoods have lost or will lose on
average, $37,084 or 13 percent of
their home value.” By compari-
son, the overall average American
homeowner affected by nearby
foreclosures will lose only seven
percent of their home value, or
$21,077.
The most recently-available cen-
sus
data
shows
that
African-Americans and Latinos
comprise less than 30 percent of
the nation’s population. Yet
R ESPONSIBLE
L ENDING
Charlene
Crowell
together, neighborhoods of color
shoulder over half of the $1.95
trillion in the drain on neighboring
property values due to foreclo-
sures.
vicers – have been practically
drowning. Until policymakers get
serious about reducing foreclo-
sures and restoring meaningful
home ownership in all communi-
ties, a full economic recovery
will likely remain out of reach.”
In addition, communities of
color still suffer from stark
wealth gaps compared to whites.
Earlier this year the U.S. Census
Bureau found that African-Ameri-
cans,
Latinos
and
Asian-Americans together lost
Earlier this year the U.S. Census Bureau
found that African-Americans, Latinos
and Asian-Americans together lost
nearly 60 percent of median
household net worth from 2005-2010
“CRL’s report is troubling evi-
dence of how much the economic
cost of foreclosures are spilling
over into communities all over
America,” said Wade Henderson,
president and CEO of the Leader-
ship Conference on Civil and
Human Rights. “Communities of
color – which have been targeted
for years by predatory lenders, and
abused for years by mortgage ser-
nearly 60 percent of median
household net worth from 2005-
2010. During these same years,
median net worth for white fami-
lies dropped by 23 percent. With
fewer investment portfolios and
lower earnings, the hope to build
wealth for communities of color
often rests with the value of their
home investment.
As troubling as the report’s find-
ings are, the report also acknowl-
edges that it does not even cover
all the negative impacts of foreclo-
sures. In addition to reducing
nearby property values, foreclo-
sures also result in myriad other
costs such as lost revenues to local
governments,
neighborhood
blight, and increased crime.
“Families who lose a home can-
not tap home equity to start a new
business, pay for higher education
or secure their retirement. Loss of
a home also removes a financial
cushion against unexpected finan-
cial hardships such as job loss,
divorce or medical expenses, and
eliminates the main vehicle for
transferring wealth inter-genera-
tionally”, said the report.
Janet Murguia, president and
CEO of the national Council of
LaRaza agrees: “The wealth drain
triggered by foreclosures is con-
tinuing unabated, hurting Latino
families and other vulnerable
communities the hardest. We’re
calling on policymakers to show
strong leadership in stopping the
foreclosure crisis and making fair
and sustainable housing a national
priority.”
Charlene Crowell is a communi-
cations manager with the Center
for Responsible Lending.
Obama Can Win Without the Popular Vote
E
ven if President Obama
loses the popular vote on
Nov. 6, as some national
polls are projecting, he could still
get re-elected by winning in the
Electoral College, where he cur-
rently holds an edge over
Republican challenger Mitt Rom-
ney.
If that scenario plays out, it
would mark the third time that has
happened in the nation’s history
and the first since George W. Bush
entered the White House in 2000
after losing the popular vote to
Former Vice President Al Gore, Jr.
by 500,000 votes.
“The Electoral College is a
process, not a place,” the U.S.
Electoral Colleges notes on its
Web site. “The founding fathers
established it in the Constitution
as a compromise between election
of the President by a vote in Con-
gress and election of the President
by a popular vote of qualified citi-
zens.”
States have the same number of
electors as they have members in
their congressional delegation. In
addition to the 535 members of
Congress, the 22nd Amendment
provides that the District of
Columbia is allocated three elec-
tors and treated like a state under
this process.
A majority – 270 of the 538 elec-
tors – is needed to become
president and vice president. Gen-
erally, electors are selected by the
candidate’s political party and can
be counted on to support the
party’s nominee. With the excep-
tion of Maine and Nebraska, all
states have a winner-take-all sys-
tem. That’s important for large
states, such as California, which
has 55 electors or 20 percent of the
votes needed for victory.
The names of electors generally
Page 4 The Portland Skanner October 31, 2012
T HE C URRY
R EPORT
George E.
Curry
appear on the presidential ballots
in most states. States tabulate the
votes of electors in December of
an election year before forwarding
results to Congress for a final
count.
A 2009 report by the Congres-
sional Research Service (CRS),
titled, “Electoral College Reform:
111th Congress Proposals and
election because no candidate had
an electoral vote majority.”
Unlike Gore, who accepted the
results after the Supreme Court
halted the counting of ballots in
Florida and handed down a deci-
sion favoring Bush, House
Republicans would likely use the
outcome to increase their partisan
attacks on President Obama. They
would most likely call for abolish-
ing the Electoral College, a
position they did not take when
Bush assumed the presidency after
losing the popular vote.
By design, the U.S. Constitution
is not easily amended. Proposed
amendments must be approved by
a two-thirds vote in the House and
Senate and passage by three-
fourths of the states, usually
George W. Bush entered the White
House in 2000 after losing the popular
vote to Former Vice President Al Gore,
Jr. by 500,000 votes
Other Current Developments,”
stated: “…This system has elected
the candidate with the most popu-
lar votes in 48 of the 52
presidential elections held since
the 12th Amendment was ratified
in 1804. The four exceptions have
been negatively characterized by
some commentators as Electoral
College ‘misfires.’
“In three instances (1876, 1888
and 2000), the Electoral College
awarded the presidency to candi-
dates who won a majority of
electoral votes, but gained fewer
popular votes than their principal
opponents. In a fourth case (1824),
the House of Representatives
decided the contest by contingent
within seven years. Over the past
200 years, more than 700 propos-
als have been introduced in
Congress to reform or eliminate
the Electoral College. None have
been passed by Congress and sent
to the states for ratification.
The CRS report noted, “In the
final analysis, given the high hur-
dles – both constitutional and
political – faced by any proposed
amendment, it seems unlikely that
the Electoral College system will
be replaced or reformed by consti-
tutional amendment unless its
alleged failings become so com-
pelling that large concurrent
majorities in Congress, the states,
and among the public, are dis-
posed to undertake its reform or
abolition.”
Under the present system, a joint
session of Congress will be con-
vened on Jan. 6 to officially count
the electoral votes. The vice presi-
dent and president of the Senate
preside over the session and
announce the official tally.
In the unlikely event that neither
Obama nor Romney receives the
270 electoral votes needed to
become president, the Republican-
led House of Representatives
would pick the president and the
Democratic-controlled
Senate
would select the vice president.
That means Romney would proba-
bly be elected president and Joe
Biden would likely remain as vice
president. Few political scientists
expect that to happen. Going into
this week, Obama was leading in
11 polls taken in battleground
states, Romney was ahead in four
and two were tied.
Every president re-elected in the
last 50 years returned to office
with a larger share of the popular
vote than they had received in
their first term. If Obama loses the
popular election to Romney, he
would be the exception. And if he
loses the election and wins in the
Electoral College, the strained
relations between Republicans and
the White House is likely to grow
worse.
Mark Mckinnon, a political
strategist for George W. Bush, told
the Washington Post, that if
Obama returns to the White House
in that manner, “the Republican
base will be screaming that Rom-
ney should be president, and
Obama doesn’t represent the coun-
try.” He added, “It’s going to
encourage more hyperpartisan-
ship.”