Title: Redlining was banned 50 years ago. It’s still hurting minorities today. - The Washington Post
Headings: Redlining was banned 50 years ago. It’s still hurting minorities today.
Redlining was banned 50 years ago. It’s still hurting minorities today.
The Senate rolls back rules meant to root out discrimination by mortgage lenders

Content: The Senate rolls back rules meant to root out discrimination by mortgage lenders
Researchers compared the HOLC maps, the most comprehensive documentation of discriminatory lending practices, with modern-day census data to determine how much neighborhood demographics have changed in 80 years. The findings have implications for today’s political debates over housing, banking and financial regulation, as well as civil rights, as Congress seeks to weaken the government’s ability to enforce fair-lending requirements. Policies that influence access to capital and credit have long-lasting effects on residential patterns, neighborhoods’ economic health and household accumulation of wealth, the report said. Advertisement
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In the 1930s, government surveyors graded neighborhoods in 239 cities, color-coding them green for “best,” blue for “still desirable,” yellow for “definitely declining” and red for “hazardous.” The “redlined” areas were the ones local lenders discounted as credit risks, in large part because of the residents’ racial and ethnic demographics. They also took into account local amenities and home prices. Neighborhoods that were predominantly made up of African Americans, as well as Catholics, Jews and immigrants from Asia and southern Europe, were deemed undesirable. “ Anyone who was not northern-European white was considered to be a detraction from the value of the area,” said Bruce Mitchell, a senior researcher at the NCRC and one of the study’s authors. White families have nearly 10 times the net worth of black families. And the gap is growing.