LATINOS & BLACKS HIT HARD BY HOUSING CRISIS
by Leo E. Laurence, Member: SPJ Nat'l. Committee on Diversity and CCNMA - Latino Journalists of California
Racial minorities have been hit especially hard by the housing crisis, and some newspapers - like The San Diego Union Tribune - are covering this angle.
Minority borrowers accounted for half of the increase in homeowners from 1995 to 2005, according to Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies.
Latinos represented about 46 percent and African-Americans about 55 percent of those who took out risky mortgages. They also got higher-cost loans, as compared with about 17 percent for whites and Asians.
"Many of these people with subprime loans were misled. In some cases, fraud was involved and some just got in over their heads," said Gregg Robinson, co-chair of the Affordable Housing Coalition of San Diego and reported by the Union Tribune's Penni Crabtree. It is one of the few major newspapers that is covering the affect of the housing crisis on racial, minority populations.
Many of the Latinos who took out these subprime loans spoke little or no English. They were relying on the honesty and professionalism of the housing agents with whom they did business.
Cezar Gonzalez saw his neighbors becoming home owners, and he wanted to own his home, too. He trused his realtor and the loan officer.
"But, (Gonzalez) didn't understand what he was doing, said Adelina Enriquez, a counselor at Community Housing Works, a non-profit that offers free counseling to distressed homeowners.
Gonzalez is a constructor worker who speaks little English and dropped out of school after the fifth grade. It's a problem that many Latinos, particularly in Californoa, face as loan officers pushed risky loans.
"But, once you sign the loan papers, you take the responsibility and the risk," added Enriquez.
Latinos and African-Americans make up a disproportionately large number of the thousands in the nation who face losing their homes to foreclosure, and are in default on their loans with adjustable interest rates that are rapidly rising.
Gonzalez, speaking through an interpreter, said he still is uncertain what kind of loan he signed up for on the $565,000 duplex he bought last May.
His monthly income was $3,200, but the loan officer approved mortgage payments of $4,200; so the loan was ill conceived from the beginning.
Recently, his lender, Countrywide (which has figured prominently in the housing crisis), called Gonzalez to ask why he was late on his payments.
The housing crisis is far from over. But, it is hitting racial minorities particularly hard.
Newspapers across the nation should follow the lead of the San Diego Union Tribune in covering this angle of the housing-crisis story.
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Contract Leo E. Laurence at leopowerhere@msn.com