Civil Rights Organizations File Housing Discrimination Complaint Against Major National Bank

On Tuesday, Sept. 25th, the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) and five of its member organizations will hold an online news conference to announce a federal housing discrimination complaint against a major national bank.  This complaint, the third of its kind this year, will be filed with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and is a result of an undercover investigation into how major American banks are failing to maintain and market Real Estate Owned (REO) properties – bank-owned or foreclosed properties – in African-American and Latino neighborhoods throughout the nation.


NFHA’s investigation of bank-owned homes in major U.S. cities nationwide – including Atlanta, Dallas, Dayton, Grand Rapids, MI, Miami/Fort Lauderdale, Oakland/Richmond/Concord, CA, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Washington, DC – alleges a striking pattern of discrimination in which banks have maintained and marketed foreclosed properties in white communities in a far superior manner to foreclosed properties in communities of color.  Complaints with HUD have been filed against Wells Fargo and U.S. Bancorp.

In April 2012, NFHA issued a report on the findings of its REO investigation, The Banks Are Back, Our Neighborhoods Are Not:  Discrimination in the Maintenance and Marketing of REO Properties.  The report offers disturbing evidence that the same banks that peddled unsustainable loans to communities of color and triggered the current foreclosure crisis are now exacerbating damage to those communities and delaying the housing recovery.

WHAT:           
News conference to discuss findings of an investigation into a major bank’s alleged discriminatory treatment of REO properties in Atlanta, Dallas, Dayton, Grand Rapids, MI, Miami/Fort Lauderdale, Oakland/Richmond/Concord, CA, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Washington, DC

WHO:             
Shanna L. Smith, President and CEO, National Fair Housing Alliance (DC)
Jim McCarthy, President and CEO, Miami Valley Fair Housing Center (Dayton, OH)
Keenya Robertson, President and CEO, Housing Opportunities Project for Excellence (Miami, FL)
Gail Williams, Executive Director, Metro Fair Housing Services (Atlanta, GA.)                        Nancy Haynes, Executive Director, Fair Housing Center of West Michigan (Grand Rapids, MI)
Frances Espinoza, Executive Director, North Texas Fair Housing Center (Dallas, Texas)
Peter Romer-Friedman, Counsel to NFHA and Five Member Organizations, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC

WHEN:           
Tuesday, Sept. 25 at 12:00 pm EDT

CALL IN AND JOIN ONLINE: RSVP to cricks@nationalfairhousing.org for dial-in specifics