Eight members of the Shaw family, including a 14 month-old baby, have
been living without gas or electricity for nearly a week, according to
parents Shantisha and Ezekiel. Late last year the Shaw’s landlord was foreclosed upon and Freedom Mortgage Corp. took over the deed for the building. We talked to the Shaw family about their struggles and what may be next for the family affected by the ongoing foreclosure crisis in Chicago.
Bank of America (BOA) serves as a destabilizing force in Chicago’s blighted
communities, according to approximately 50 protesters who took their
message to a downtown branch on Tuesday.
Organized by the Grassroots Collaborative on the eve of Bank of America’s shareholder meeting in North Carolina, demonstrators rallied against policies that, according to protesters, has led to Chicago school closures and community devastation.
“We
have schools that are closing, homes that are abandoned, and
neighborhoods falling apart; this is a time when we need our
neighborhoods to be built up and not destroyed,” said Amisha Patel,
executive director of the Grassroots Collaborative. “It’s time for Bank
of America to do everything they can to strengthen our communities.”
Female mortgage applicants are less likely to have their loans approved than their male counterparts, according to a new report by the Woodstock Institute, prompting researchers to call for further investigation into gender discrimination in lending practices.
After studying 2010 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA)
data for the Chicago six county region, which includes Cook, DuPage,
Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties, the Woodstock Institute found than “female applicants overall were about 8 percent less likely to have
purchase mortgages originated and about 21 percent less likely to have
refinance mortgages originated than were male applicants.”
Derived from a long history of discrimination, a staggering
opportunity gap has widened financial disparities between black and
white Americans, condemning African Americans to less home equity,
according to a new report by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy (IASP) at Brandeis University.
After
studying 1,700 American families for 25 years, the
report examines the major causes of America’s racial wealth gap.
Researchers found that the total wealth gap between white and
African American families had almost tripled during the study, increasing
from $85,000 in 1984 to $236,500 in 2009.
Although the Chicago are saw a year-over-year decrease on homes with
negative equity, there were still almost 645,000 homeowners that owed
more on their mortgages than their homes were worth at the end of
December.
The number of Illinois foreclosues are up a whopping 34 percent between the third quarter of 2012 and quarter three of 2011, according to RealtyTrac, even as foreclosures are down nationally.
A San Francisco-based firm spent the morning trying to sell the Chicago
City Council on the idea that they can use eminent domain to seize
properties in danger of falling into foreclosure. The firm argued that the use of eminent domain, which occurs when government acquires private property in the name of the greater good, could lead to the public benefit of fewer foreclosures. Representatives from Mortgage Resolution Partners LLC had the ear of Ald. Ed Burke (14th), chairman of the City Council Finance Committee, and the backing of Ald. Ray Suarez (31st), head of the Housing and Real Estate Committee.
But the effort was perhaps futile as Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel indicated at a press conference today that he opposes the plan.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Emanuel said that he did not think eminent domain was the “right instrument” to combat foreclosures. Read more »
A racial divide continues to perpetuate among those seeking a
mortgage loan, according to a new study. The report alleges that
mortgage lenders have steered more black and Latino borrowers towards
government-backed home loans by limiting their access to more
conventional financing.
An analysis of mortgage lending in seven cities found that loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
were made to both minority borrowers and those residing in
predominantly non-white neighborhoods at a much higher rate than white
customers.
Bank of America (BOA) serves as a destabilizing force in Chicago’s blighted
communities, according to approximately 50 protesters who took their
message to a downtown branch on Tuesday.
Female mortgage applicants are less likely to have their loans approved than their male counterparts, according to a new 
Derived from a long history of discrimination, a staggering
opportunity gap has widened financial disparities between black and
white Americans, condemning African Americans to less home equity,
according to a new 
A San Francisco-based firm spent the morning trying to sell the Chicago
City Council on the idea that they can use eminent domain to seize
properties in danger of falling into foreclosure. The firm argued that the use of eminent domain, which occurs when government acquires private property in the name of the greater good, could lead to the public benefit of fewer foreclosures. Representatives from 
A racial divide continues to perpetuate among those seeking a
mortgage loan, according to a new study. The report alleges that
mortgage lenders have steered more black and Latino borrowers towards
government-backed home loans by limiting their access to more
conventional financing.