National News
By Andre F. Shashaty
Special to the NNPA
from New America
Media
NEWS ANALYSIS
On the surface, the unrest
in Ferguson, Mo., was about
local police using deadly
force on an unarmed young
man. But on a deeper level,
it reflected the increasing
poverty and economic
decline that affects ethnic
communities all over Amer-
ica.
Despite rosy reports in the
media about the end of the
national foreclosure crisis
and the recession that fol-
lowed, all is not well in our
inner cities and suburbs
with largely minority popu-
lations, like Ferguson.
The foreclosure crisis was
hard on many Americans,
but it was a disaster for
communities of color,
including the citizens of
Ferguson.
Half of Ferguson
Homes Underwater
In the zip code that
encompasses Ferguson, half
(49 percent) of homes were
underwater in 2013, mean-
ing the home’s market value
was below the mortgage’s
outstanding balance. This
condition (also called “neg-
ative equity”) is often a first
step toward loan default or
foreclosure, according to
the recent report, “Under-
water America,” from the
Haas Institute for a Fair and
Inclusive Society at the
University of California,
Berkeley.
Mortgage lenders targeted
predominantly black and
Hispanic areas for the high-
est-risk, highest-cost types
were sold risky mortgages
had good credit, decent
incomes and everything
else necessary to qualify for
traditional long-term, fixed-
rate loans. Yet, they were
not offered those kinds of
loans, but instead “steered
into exotic and costly mort-
gages they did not fully
understand and could not
afford,” the commission
said.
This “deliberate targeting
of minority areas for the
sale of risky and expensive
Mortgage lenders targeted
predominantly black and
Hispanic areas for the highest-
risk, highest-cost types of
mortgage loans
of mortgage loans, such as
adjustable-rate mortgages
and loans with high prepay-
ment penalties. This led to
higher-than-average default
rates, according to the
Housing Commission estab-
lished by the Bipartisan
Policy Center in Washing-
ton, D.C.
Many of the families that
loans,” as the commission
described it, wreaked havoc
on the financial wellbeing
of affected families and
undermined the stability of
entire
neighborhoods.
African-American and Lati-
no borrowers were almost
twice as likely to have lost
their homes to foreclosure
as non-Hispanic whites,
We honor the many
accomplishments of African
Americans.
It is our primary goal as a
labor union to better the
lives of all people working
in the building trades
through advocacy, civil
demonstration, and the
long-held belief that work-
ers deserve a "family wage" - fair pay for an honest day's work.
A family wage, and the benefits that go with it, not only strength-
ens families, but also allows our communities to become
stronger, more cohesive, and more responsive to their citizens'
needs.
Our family wage agenda reflects our commitment to people
working in the building trades, and to workers everywhere. In this
small way, we are doing our part to help people achieve the
American Dream. This dream that workers can hold dear regard-
less of race, color, national origin, gender, creed, or religious
beliefs.
The Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters
Representing more than 5.000 construction workers in Oregon State.
Do you want to know more about becoming a
Union carpenter?
Page 8 The Portland and Seattle Skanner August 20, 2014
PHOTO COURTESY SILICON VALLEY DE-BUG
Behind Ferguson’s Unrest: Black-white Housing gap
A local organizer in a town neighboring Ferguson, Mo., shows a typical
“porch.”
according to the Center for Business and Professional among mostly white com-
People for the Public Inter- munities against federal
Responsible Lending.
legal initiatives to enforce
est.
Black-White Housing
Adding to the impact of the fair housing and fair
Divide “Historic”
foreclosures is the ongoing lending laws.
The homeownership rate economic slump and the
‘Arrested Progress’
for
African-American high rate of black unem-
Against Poverty
households peaked at 49 ployment.
As
a
After the riots in 1965,
percent in 2004, according consequence, poverty and
to Harvard’s Joint Center the despair and anger that 1966 and 1967, the National
for Housing Studies report, go with it, are increasing in Advisory Commission on
“The State of the Nation’s suburbs like Ferguson. Civil Disorders (known as
Housing 2013.” The rate of Between 2000 and 2011, the the Kerner Commission)
black home ownership–with impoverished population in issued a report saying, “Our
all the potential for upward suburbs grew by two- nation is moving toward
mobility it offers–fell to thirds—more than twice the two societies, one black,
43.9 percent in 2012. The rate of growth in cities, one white—separate and
homeownership rate among according to Confronting unequal. Segregation and
white households declined Suburban Poverty in Ameri- poverty have created in the
during that time, too, but ca, a 2013 book from the racial ghetto a destructive
totally
remained at 73.5 percent.
Brookings Institution Press. environment
unknown to most white
“The black-white gap [in 50 Years Since Watts
homeownership rates] has
The year 2015 will mark Americans.”
Today, ethnic communi-
reached historic propor- the 50th anniversary of the
tions,” Harvard’s report beginning of an explosive ties are suffering setbacks
said.
series of urban events in again. Even as our popula-
There has also been a American history. An tion is becoming more
powerfully negative ripple August 1965 traffic arrest in diverse, our communities
effect on other property South Central Los Angeles are becoming more segre-
owners who never had a lit the fuse on one of the gated and income inequality
increasing.
problem making their mort- most devastating civil is
gage payments but owned upheavals in American his- “Arrested progress in the
fight against poverty and
property near people who tory.
did. The losses in household
African-American resi- residential segregation has
wealth that resulted from dents of the Watts section of helped concentrate many
foreclosures and abandon- Los Angeles
rebelled African Americans in some
ment of nearby properties against a mayor and a police of the least desirable hous-
have disproportionately hurt force many considered to be ing in some of the
communities of color, racist. The fires and the vio- lowest-resourced communi-
according to many sources lence raged for six days, ties in America,” according
that have studied the issue.
resulting in 34 deaths and to a 2013 report from the
In ethnic neighborhoods, the destruction, damage or Economic Policy Institute
(EPI).
the average decline in home looting of 1,000 buildings.
In addition to much higher
prices from 2006 to 2013
After more rioting in 1966
was 26 percent, according and 1967, a presidential poverty rates, African
to Harvard’s 2014 report. commission on urban prob- Americans suffer much
That’s roughly three times lems was convened and more from the concentra-
the decline experienced in Congress enacted programs tion of poverty. Nearly half
white areas.
to provide affordable hous- (45 percent) of poor black
Nationwide, about 27 per- ing and revitalize cities. In children live in neighbor-
cent of homeowners in 1968, equal access to hous- hoods with concentrated
minority areas had negative ing regardless of race poverty, but only one in
equity compared to about became the law of the land. eight low-income white
15 percent of owners in
To a very large extent, children live in similar
white areas.
most of those programs neighborhoods, EPI said.
If the recent trends contin-
worked
as
intended,
Little Prospect for
ue,
the unrest in Missouri
improving conditions for
Recovery
may
not be an isolated reac-
Lower-income areas have millions of Americans, tion to a tragic shooting, but
little prospect for home many of them ethnic fami- a harbinger of things to
prices to recover soon, or lies.
Unfortunately, the United come.
for businesses or banks to
Andre Shashaty is presi-
start reinvesting in hard-hit States government’s com- dent of the nonprofit
mitment to housing and
neighborhoods.
Partnership for Sustainable
“In some communities cities has waned in recent Communities and author of
with many foreclosed prop- years. The decline in fund- “Rebuilding a Dream:
erties, the crisis threatens to ing and elimination of America’s New Urban Cri-
doom the entire neighbor- certain key programs could sis, the Housing Cost
hood to a cycle of not have come at a worse Explosion, and How We
disinvestment and decay,” time. Meanwhile, there has Can Reinvent the American
according to Chicago’s been a powerful backlash Dream for All.”