Homeownership,
the marker of progress and wealth in the United States, is now proving
to be the downfall of African-American and Latino families.
African-Americans and Latinos represent a minority of U.S.
homeowners, but bear a disproportionate brunt of the housing
foreclosures, according to a study released by the William C. Velasquez Institute, a national nonpartisan, nonprofit policy and research organization based in Texas.
“The inequalities [between people of color and whites] are
accelerating rapidly, specifically in terms of housing,” said Dr. Raul
Hinojosa Ojeda, as he presented the study to a packed room of community
and city leaders at City Hall on Wednesday, among them Supervisors John
Avalos and David Campos.
Eric Quezada, executive director of Dolores Street Community Services,
said San Francisco’s high number of renters – some 65 percent of the
city’s residents and 82 percent of the Mission District’s residents –
makes the city a “unique situation.”
While home foreclosures aren’t as rampant here as in other areas, an
increasing number of condo foreclosures point to a steady rise.
To attest to the patchwork that is San Francisco’s housing
demographic, others pointed to the struggles they’re facing in their
particular communities.
Joseph Smooke, executive director of the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center, pointed to a homeownership rate of 60-70 percent in Bernal Heights and the Excelsior districts, where Ellis Act evictions accounted for the displacement of families during the dot-com boom. Now, home foreclosures are the big threat.
“Foreclosures are the reason why people are struggling,” said Supervisor Avalos, who represents the Excelsior.
Homeownership itself isn’t the only problem.
“The way they get the loans is the problem,” said Alice Guidry, aide
to Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, whose district has one of the highest
rates of foreclosures in the city and includes Portrero Hill, Bayview
Hunters Point, and Visitacion Valley. Most families there are
African-American and Latino.
“It’s hard and heartfelt to hear the stories of people who’ve worked
hard, who saved their money, and all of a sudden [lost their homes],”
said Guidry.
The study presented Wednesday, titled The Continuing Home Foreclosure Tsunami: Disproportionate Impacts on Black and Latino Communities,
found that the rates of homeownership for African-Americans and Latinos
are still far behind that of whites. Most importantly,
African-Americans and Latinos are especially vulnerable to foreclosures
because they received most of the high-cost sub prime loans.
To corroborate the study’s findings, Angela Blackwell, executive director for Policy Link,
a national research institute based in Oakland, said that according to
their research, 55 percent of African-Americans and 46 percent of
Latino families were given sub-prime loans, when most actually
qualified for regular loans.
“It’s a devastating impact because [homeownership] is the mechanism
by which wealth is generated,” said Hinojosa Ojeda, who is the founding
director of the UCLA North American Integration and Development Center.
The study found that between 2005 and 2008 an estimated 7.6 million
homes have been foreclosed. The states that saw the highest housing
expansion – such as California, Nevada, and Florida – are now facing
the highest rates of foreclosures. San Francisco was among the
metropolitan areas with the highest growth in foreclosure rates between
2007 and 2008.
While the study points to the problem, the purpose of Wednesday’s
briefing was to also find ways at the local, state, and national level
to ameliorate the disproportionate effects of foreclosures on
African-Americans and Latinos.
But with five minutes left and counting – the room had to be vacated for another meeting – solutions had to be hashed out quick.
“The news is that federal policy can be the driver because federal
policy has been the driver in terms of getting us into this situation,”
said Blackwell, who stressed the importance of including subsidies for
renters.
“We must not forget renters,” she said.
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