Housing advocates charge Bank of America with discrimination

Source: Dayton Daily News, OhioSept.儲存倉 25--The National Fair Housing Alliance is turning up the heat on Bank of America for what it says is racial discrimination in failing to maintain bank-owned properties in minority neighborhoods.The national nonprofit alliance, of which the Miami Valley Fair Housing Center is a member, will file an amended complaint today with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development alleging discriminatory practices in Dayton and 17 other cities across the country.The alliance will hold a press conference at noon, on the one-year anniversary of filing the original complaint based on a study of 13 cities.Jim McCarthy, president and CEO of Miami Valley Fair Housing Center and one of the original complainants, said the timing of the amended filing was to "underscore the fact that nothing has happened, and in fact our communities continue to be destabilized.""This should not be news to them," McCarthy said of Bank of America. "We filed this first complaint in 2012, and we actually met with Bank of America a number of times to outline our concerns and to explain to them our methodology."So at the very least, we would expect that they would have their contractors doing a better job of trying to maintain these properties now that they know what our concerns are. We haven't observed that all. In fact, it doesn't look like they've done anything any different."Bank of America categorically denies the allegations, and says the alliance does not understand the requirements of the foreclosure and resale process."There is no factual basis to these allegations," said Jumana Bauwens, a spokesperson for Bank of America. "We apply the same neutral and uniform practices to the management and marketing of vacant bank-owned properties across the U.S., regardless of their location."Just because a property has been foreclosed on, Bauwens said, doesn't mean the bank or its contractor can immediately get into it and make repairs. There is an evictions process, leases can be in effect, the property could be taken over by Fannie Mae or another agency, some could be awaiting repairs or sold to another owner."There has to be an understanding that there's a timeline associated with a property," Bauwens said. "And you have to look at the condition of the property when we get it. That is not accounted for when NFHA goes to these properties."Bauwens said the bank is working with HUD to address the concerns. Despite meetings with the fair housing advocates, she said迷你倉最平 "we are at an impasse."In addition, Bauwens said, it's in the best interests of the bank and its investors to "turn those properties around as quickly as possible" because they are assets."They're worth money," Bauwens said. "And the faster we market it and the faster we sell the property, the faster our investor is able to get their money back on that. So we have no interest in keeping a vacant property vacant and in disrepair."But the fair housing advocates say that's what is happening.The alliance created a checklist of 38 possible maintenance issues -- from broken windows to damaged gutters to broken fences to missing for sale signs -- and inspected scores of homes in predominantly white, black, Hispanic and minority Census tracts in the 18 cities across the country.The study found "stark racial disparities in Bank of America's maintenance and marketing of REO (bank-owned) properties between communities of color and predominantly White communities," according to the original complaint.McCarthy said the study of 24 properties in the Dayton area found "significant racial disparities in many of the objective factors that we measured."Among those, he said, properties owned by Bank of America in predominantly African-American neigbhorhoods were:-- 1.8 times as likely as those in white neighborhoods to have 10 or more maintenance deficiencies.-- 2.5 times as likely to have broken gutters.-- 3 times as likely to have open holes in the structure.-- Twice as likely to have missing gutters.-- Twice as likely to have a broken mailbox."So we feel like the racial disparities are pretty stark both in Dayton and around the country," McCarthy said.The alliance doesn't expect the bank to rehabilitate properties, he said, but to do what's necessary to keep them from deteriorating."By that, we mean they should cut the grass," McCarthy said. "If there is a hole in the wall, they should board it to protect it to keep vermin and other animals from going in and out and causing more damage in the property."If there is a downspout that is broken or torn away, they should repair it so there is not damage to the eve."So this isn't about them improving the value of the asset, or about them doing something extraordinary, but about them maintaining the asset at least in the same condition that they received it in."Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) Visit the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) at .daytondailynews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services儲存