Title: Redlining - CityArchives | seattle.gov
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Redlining
Content: Redlining - CityArchives | seattle.gov
Seattle Municipal Archives Anne Frantilla, City Archivist - Office of the City Clerk
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Redlining
In 1976, Seattle City Council took a stand against redlining, a discriminatory practice targeted at African-Americans and others of color, by which banks, insurance companies, and other institutions, refused or limited loans, mortgages, and insurance within specific geographic areas. Redlining also included the practice of banks not reinvesting funds they received from low income neighborhoods back into those communities. A six-month study by the Central Seattle Community Council Federation released in July 1975, "Redlining and Disinvestment in Central Seattle," examined 1,150 property transactions in Seattle. The study found that eight major banking institutions did not make more than two loans each in the Central Area and Rainier Valley from 1970 to 1974. Prompted by this report, the Mayor established a Reinvestment Task Force to propose policies to eliminate redlining, or disinvestment, as it was also called. The final report from community members of the Mayor's Reinvestment Task Force was completed on June 3, 1976. In August, Councilmembers Paul Kraabel and John Miller, together with Mayor Wes Uhlman, announced a series of meetings to discuss proposed anti-redlining legislation. Public hearings and meetings of the Planning and Urban Development Committee were held during the fall of 1976, and the Public Reinvestment Board was established by Ordinance 105987 that November to help reverse discriminatory practices in lending. At the September 1, 1976, meeting of the Planning and Urban Development Committee, several people spoke about the proposed Public Reinvestment Board. Karen Morgan, a member of the Mayor's Reinvestment Task Force, spoke in favor of the ordinance establishing the Public Reinvestment Board.