Reveal, March 30, 2018: Community groups propose redlining solutions to Philadelphia City Council
Community groups proposed a long list of solutions to roll back endemic lending discrimination Thursday in a special oversight hearing of the Philadelphia City Council to wipe out modern-day redlining.
Reveal found that African Americans in the Philadelphia area were nearly three times as likely as white applicants to be turned down for conventional home purchase loans, even when they made the same amount of money, sought to take out the same size loan or wanted to buy in the same neighborhood. It was one of 61 metros where Reveal’s analysis, independently confirmed by The Associated Press, exposed a troubling pattern of mortgage denials to people of color.
Though blacks and whites represent similar shares of the population in the Philadelphia metro area, Reveal found white borrowers received 10 times as many conventional home loans as black ones.
Councilman Kenyatta Johnson said he was exploring the idea of directing city deposits to the banks that best serve the community. Other speakers suggested the city create a series of metrics that banks should have to meet to retain government deposits.
Stella Adams, the head of civil rights for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, said such a system should include a threshold number of home rehabilitation loans to people of color, small business loans, and home purchase loans to low income and minority residents.
