From Foreclosure to Fair Lending: Advocacy, Organizing, Occupy, and the Pursuit of Equitable Credit

Description

This book informs a renewed movement for fair lending and fair housing. Leading advocates and specialists examine strategic initiatives to realize objectives of the federal Fair Housing Act as well as state and local lawsWell-known fair housing and fair lending activists and organizers examine the implications of the new wave of fair housing activism generated by Occupy Wall Street protests and the many successes achieved in fair housing and fair lending over the years. The book reveals the limitations of advocacy efforts and the challenges that remain. Best directions for future action are brought to light by staff of fair housing organizations, fair housing attorneys, community and labor organizers, and scholars who have researched social justice organizing and advocacy movements. The book is written for general interest and academic audiences.Contributors address the foreclosure crisis, access to credit in a changing marketplace, and the immoral hazards of big banks. They examine opportunities in collective bargaining available to homeowners and how low-income and minority households were denied access to historically low home prices and interest rates. Authors question the effectiveness of litigation to uphold the Fair Housing Act's promise of nondiscriminatory home loans and ask how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is assuring fair lending. They also look at where immigrants stand, housing as a human right, and methods for building a movement. Contents Foreword: Undoing the Bitter Legacy of Segragation and Discrimination | Douglas S. Massey 1. Introduction: Occupy Wall Street: A New Wave of Fair Housing Activism? | Gregory D. Squires and Chester Hartman THE ACTIVISTS 2. The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: Race, Risk, and Access to Credit in a Changing Market | Debby Goldberg and Lisa Rice 3. Onward and Upward: The Fight to Ensure Equal Access to Credit via the Federal Housing Administration | David Berenbaum and Katrina S. Forrest 4. Five Lessons Offered by but Not Learned from the Recent Collapse of the US Economy and the Housing Market | James H. Carr and Katrin B. Anacker 5. Opportunity Lost: How Low-Income and Minority Households Were Denied Access to Historically Low Home Prices and Interest Rates | M. William Sermons 6. Finding a Home for the Occupy Movement: Lessons from the Baltimore and Memphis Wells Fargo Litigation | John P. Relman 7. A Tale of Two Recoveries: Discrimination in the Maintenance and Marketing of REO Properties in African American and Latino Neighborhoods across America | Shanit Abedin and Shanna L. Smith THE ORGANIZERS 8. Building the Power to Win the Battle of Big Ideas and Advance a Long-Term Agenda | George Goehl and Sandra Hinson 9. Forcing Banks to the Bargaining Table: Renegotiating Wall Street's Relationship with Our Communities | Stephen Lerner and Saqtb Bhatti 10. Housing as a Human Right: Where Do Immigrants Stand? | Janis Bowdler, Donald L. Kahl, and Jose A. Garcia THE SCHOLARS 11. The Limits of Litigation in Fulfilling the Fair Housing Act's Promise of Nondiscriminatory Home Loans | Robert G. Schwemm 12. Housing, Race, and Opportunity | John A. Powell 13. Winning Battles and Losing the War: The Progressive Advocacy World | Mike Miller 14. Building a Movement for Fair Lending, Foreclosure Relief, and Financial Reform | Peter Dreter Contributors Acknowledgments Index