Public Hearing on Racial Disparities in Home Lending

Posted by City Council on March 26, 2018

From Jojy Varughese, Urban Affairs Coalition

Several articles involving racial discrimination and redlining came out in the past few weeks, specifically looking into lending patterns in the Philadelphia region.

“Why White Homeowners in Philadelphia can get Federal Mortgages Meant for Black Neighborhoods” – The Philadelphia Inquirer, 2/14/2018
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/real_estate/federal-mortgage-home-loans-racial-disparity-philadelphia-community-reinvestment-act-20180215.html

“Struggle for Black and Latino Mortgage Applicants Suggests Modern-Day Redlining” – PBS, 2/15/2018
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/struggle-for-black-and-latino-mortgage-applicants-suggests-modern-day-redlining

“Modern-Day Redlining: Banks Face Probes for Refusing Home Loans for People of Color” – Democracy Now!, 2/27/2018
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/2/27/modern_day_redlining_banks_face_probes

“Councilman Kenyatta Johnson to Introduce Bill for a Hearing on Racial Disparities in the Philadelphia Home Loan Market” – Whyy, 2/16/2018
https://whyy.org/articles/councilman-kenyatta-johnson-introduce-bill-hearing-racial-disparities-philadelphia-home-loan-market/

“3 Investigations Opened After Reveal Uncovers Redlining in Philly” – Reveal News, 2/22/2018
https://www.revealnews.org/blog/3-investigations-opened-after-reveal-uncovers-redlining-in-philly/

“How Reveal identified lending disparities in federal mortgage data” – Reveal, 2/17/2018
https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/revealnews.org/uploads/lending_disparities_whitepaper_180214.pdf

In response to these articles and the Reveal report they are based off of, Councilman Kenyatta Johnson has scheduled a hearing on racial discriminatory lending, confirmed to be held on Thursday, March 29th at 10am. UAC has been invited to testify regarding our program and services that have worked to make banking services more accessible to the community.

We encourage you all to take part in this Public Hearing on Racial Disparities in Home Lending on March 29th, to provide broader insight into the systems that can be changed and improved around this issue. If you would like to testify at this hearing, please reach out to the office’s Director of Legislation, Joshua Harris, with your availability. (215.686.3412) Full details are below:

Public Hearing on Racial Disparities in Home Lending
Thursday, March 29
10am – 1pm
Room 400
City Hall, Philadelphia