Chicago City Wire

Illinois State Senate District 16 issued the following announcement on June 5.

Following a report by WBEZ showing a vast disparity in mortgage lending between predominantly white and predominantly black neighborhoods in Chicago, State Senator Jacqueline Collins called for action to induce more equitable lending practices.

“WBEZ’s report shows an overhead view of what many families in Chicago have seen from the ground: That banks are denying many mortgage loans to black Chicagoans who are prospective homeowners,” said Collins, D-Chicago. “As they reported, these disparities cannot be explained away by factors as simple as location or a home’s size. Even considering such differences, the report shows this inequality.”

WBEZ’s in-depth report details how prospective homeowners in predominantly black communities have been so shut out of mortgage lending that one single predominantly white neighborhood in Chicago has received more home loans than every black community combined. On the whole, WBEZ’s analysis shows that for every $1 banks loaned in Chicago’s white neighborhoods, they have loaned 12 cents in the city’s black neighborhoods and 13 cents in Latino areas.

“This is redlining through different means, and redlining is the outgrowth of racist policies that continue to undermine communities of color, and in particular the black community,” Collins said. “I will explore legislative means for addressing this disparity. There is no justice until we erase the last red line.”

Original source can be found here.