Category Archives: Housing

Foreclosure, Housing, Race

Foreclosure Crisis Fueled Dramatic Rise of Racial Segregation: Study

by Sarah Lazare

Displacement of black and Latino households was so dramatic, crisis should be seen as a 'mass migration event' says lead author of paper

The foreclosure crisis that drove approximately 9 million people across the United States from their homes disproportionately displaced black and Latino households and led to a spike in segregation along racial lines, a new study finds.

In fact, displacement was so dramatic that Matthew Hall, assistant professor at Cornell University and lead author of the study, told Common Dreams that the crisis should be seen as a "mass migration event."

"We found that the racial patterns of the foreclosure crisis are shocking and perhaps even more stark than we knew before," said Hall, who is a demographer.

The Cornell University analysis Neighborhood Foreclosures, Racial/Ethnic Transitions, and Residential Segregation was published online in late April and is set to be included in the June issue of American Sociological Review.

Examining foreclosure rates in urban areas between 2005 and 2009, researchers found that black neighborhoods faced 8.1 foreclosures per 100 homes, and Latino neighborhoods faced a rate of 6.2 per 100 homes.

This compared with the average of 2.3 foreclosures per 100 homes in white neighborhoods, meaning that majority black and Latino neighborhoods faced home-loss rates at approximately three times that of white areas.

A report summary explains that "white households were significantly more likely to leave areas with high foreclosure rates, while black and Latino families entered these neighborhoods out of necessity or to seek newly affordable housing options."

This led to the  re-segregation of urban areas.

Researchers concluded that overall segregation jumped dramatically during this period, growing by 50 percent between Latinos and whites and 20 percent between blacks and whites, as people of color moved into neighborhoods vacated by white people.

"This really was a crisis that hit African-Americans and Latinos especially hard," said Hall.

"But the foreclosure crisis has not ended," Hall added. "There are still a large number of foreclosures that are unresolved and homes that are somewhere in the foreclosure process, which can take years. The impacts of the crisis on segregation have therefore not been completely borne out."

Republished with permission under license from CommonsDreams

See other related articles:

53 Percent Of Black Wealth Wiped Out: Foreclosure Crisis Erodes Communities Of Color

The Great Eviction: Black America and the Toll of the Foreclosure Crisis

For The Black Middle Class, Housing Crisis And History Collude To Dash Dreams

Civil Rights, Drugs, Housing, Poverty

When you have nothing, you have nothing to lose

Political leaders, police and news media always seem to be perplexed about violent crime, especially when it happens in unexpected areas. The recent incidents of criminal activity in downtown St. Louis prompted people to ask why some seem to have so little regard for others.

Mayor Slay pledged a crackdown on downtown St. Louis crime, but didn't promise a similar crackdown on crime in other areas. It's as if crime happening in other areas was unimportant or as if suddenly people are now committing illegal acts, but only in areas that matter. Evidently, murders and other crime that occur in some neighborhoods are less urgent than others.

Poverty and crime are related. The United Nations and the World Bank acknowledge poverty, oppression, inequality and lack of economic opportunities results in increased criminal activity. When inequalities are great, crime goes through the roof. When people see vast wealth differences, especially if the wealth disparity is based on injustice, crime becomes even worse. People who have nothing, often feel they have nothing to lose and they aren't that concerned about what others have to lose. 

Before heroin addiction became an epidemic in white middle-class communities, drug addicts, especially black ones were treated as criminals which increased the vicious nature of some crimes. Factor in poverty and drug addiction and increased criminal activity is easy to understand. Common sense tells me that since drug addiction has increased in white communities, crime has already increased or will soon. Those white drug addicts consider their drug of choice a necessity and will do anything to get them. Drug distribution networks that government and law enforcement allowed to flourish during the black crack epidemic are now fully entrenched to supply the white heroin epidemic. Ironically, most of the black heroin addicts that I have learned about recently lived in predominately white communities.

The FBI ranks St. Louis as the top US city for violent crime. St. Louis was ranked as one of the most segregated and the third poorest city with a population over 200,000 in the United States. The City of St. Louis has a legacy of racism and corruption that has contributed to poverty and current crime problems. Ferguson should have been a wake-up call for the region, instead the St. Louis City Police Chief coined the phrase "Ferguson Effect", to indicated increased crime was caused by those complaining about oppression.

The entire St. Louis Region appears to be in denial about racial and economic injustice and oppression. St. Louis has the Delmar Divide, a street that divides communities by race which gained international attention a few years ago. St. Louis has a reputation of being a racist city. In the short documentary film, "Racism in St. Louis", one film creator explained that even a homeless man in New York mentioned how racist St. Louis was.

Many of the U.S. Supreme Court Decisions concerning St. Louis involved racial issues including the Dred Scott Case which was one of the major issues leading the country to Civil War. In fact, in 1847, William W. Brown stated, "no part of our slave-holding country, is more noted for the barbarity of its inhabitants, than St. Louis". Racial restrictive covenants were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in the St. Louis case of Shelley vs Kraemer.

Even the standard test of racial employment discrimination by the U.S. Supreme Court was created in the St. Louis case of Green vs McDonnell Douglass. Until St. Louis takes steps to correct past injustices, this city and region will continue to decline. 

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory

Just about every college student learns about a motivational theory developed by Abraham Maslow in the 1940's. His theory is taught in a variety of subjects including education, psychology, business management and marketing.

Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory proposed that motivation is the result of a person's attempt at fulfilling five basic needs: physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualization.

Physiological needs are those needs required for human survival such as air, food, water, shelter, clothing and sleep. A person will do just about anything to meet these needs; including violent crime.This doesn't mean that only poor people commit crimes, but the motivation for committing those crimes are different.  

People of means often commit crimes of greed, so-called "white-collar crime".

White collar crime is usually financially motivated, nonviolent crime committed by business and government professionals such as bribery, kickbacks, corruption, fraud, embezzlement, insider trading and a variety of other crimes. These are not victimless crimes. A single scam can destroy a company, devastate families by wiping out their life savings, or cost investors billions of dollars (or even all three). Today’s fraud schemes are more sophisticated than ever. 

Poor people often commit crimes of need, based on perceived necessity or survival. 

When a person can't feed himself or his family and can't find work what do you think they'll do? Starve? No, depending on their level of desperateness, they will do whatever is necessary. Some will borrow, some will seek public assistance if they qualify or beg, others will steal. Some time ago, the media was reporting how theft of Tide laundry detergent had dramatically increased and most recently, a shoplifter was shot trying to steal steaks and toilet paper. Those people were stealing food and other basic need items.

Many people facing hunger or homelessness believe they have nothing to lose, and nothing is more dangerous to society than a person who has nothing to lose. St. Louis needs to start addressing the causes of crime instead of just reacting to it. 

Housing

St. Louis Residents Are Battling the City to Keep Their Homes

by Natalie Johnson
Republished with permission from the Daily Signal

Residents in a North St. Louis, Mo., community are battling to keep their homes as city officials pursue eminent domain proceedings for a federal project that may not even take hold in the area.

Eminent domain enables the government to take private property for public use as long as the government provides just compensation.

St. Louis officials have begun purchasing property and assessing the value of homes in the region to make way for the potential relocation of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

The federal government has not yet decided whether it would move the building to the area, leaving residents uncertain about the future of their homes.

The NGA currently resides in South City St. Louis, but officials are hoping the federal government will relocate the building to the city’s north side in an attempt to reverse “decades of divestment.”

John Wright, a policy researcher at the Show-Me Institute, which is based in Missouri and advocates for free-market solutions, said residents he’s spoken to “feel like they’re being thrown under the bus.”

Others have told Wright the project is nothing more than a land clearance project to rid certain types of people from the predominantly black, working-class community.

“What they say is that they want to revitalize the community,” Wright told The Daily Signal. “I don’t know how you revitalize a community by getting rid of everybody who lives in the community and replacing it with a federal spy agency.”

City officials have begun evaluating homes, offering some residents $20,000 to $30,000 for their property, according to Wright. He said that is not nearly enough compensation for individuals to afford another home in a similar low-crime community.

The home of Charlesetta Taylor, that she has lived in for 70 years may be torn down by the city of St. Louis

The houses in the North St. Louis neighborhood were built of brick in the late 19th century. Wright said purchasing a similar Victorian house in the city would cost between $300,000 and $400,000.

“People don’t want to move; they don’t want to leave their community,” he said. “Some of these people have had these houses for generations; some were purchased back in the ’60s. We have retired people on a fixed income who live in these houses, and now they’re going to have to pick up and move, and they don’t know where to go.”

City officials have already begun excavating properties to survey the land and have prevented a grocery store from moving into the area.

Paul Larkin, director of The Heritage Foundation’s project to counter abuse of the criminal law, said even eminent domain proceedings can destroy the value of the land.

“If you have a house and it’s worth $100,000 and the government decides it’s going to take your house, in theory they’re supposed to pay you $100,000,” Larkin told The Daily Signal.

“But if on Jan. 1 they announce they may be taking it, but they’re not sure and they’ve started the eminent domain process, you may no longer have a $100,000 house … because if you sell it to someone, that person is going to be subject to whatever the state wants to do with it.”

Residents in the North St. Louis community have posted anti-eminent domain and anti-NGA signs along with Bible verses around the neighborhood. Wright said one woman posted a biblical verse reading, “Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s house.”

Wright said the neighborhood, which is already depressed from leveled houses and a shrinking population, is a tight-knit, family-oriented community. Dozens of homeowners could lose their property as early as this summer, forcing families and retired individuals to relocate.

“If they do this here, you’re kicking people out. You’re destroying a community,” he said. “These people don’t know where they’re going to go or what they’re going to do.”

Larkin said residents are never fully compensated for the loss of their homes because the government doesn’t pay for the personal value placed on property.

“Where you live is an important part of who you are. It’s how you define yourself,” he said. “It’s not simply a place that protects you from the elements, it’s not simply a place that has memories for you, but it has a way of becoming a part of who you are as a person, and now they’re going to take this person’s home away from them.”

Criminal Law, Housing

Castle Doctrine protects people not property

Missouri Castle Doctrine is based on Missouri Revised Statutes 563.031, Use of force in defense of persons.

A castle doctrine is a legal concept that a person's home or any legally occupied place; a vehicle or workplace, that person has certain protections and immunities permitting him or her, in certain circumstances, to use force up to and including deadly force to defend themselves against an intruder.

The castle doctrine removes the duty to retreat when the victim is assaulted in a place where the victim has a right to be, such as within one's own home. Deadly force may be considered justified, and a defense of justifiable homicide applicable, in cases "when the actor reasonably fears imminent peril of death or serious bodily harm to him or herself or another".

On Sunday, November 29th, a 13-year-old child was killed while trying to steal change from a car. Obviously, all the details are not known, but so far it doesn't seem as if the three kids, ages 11, 13 and 14 posed any type of danger to the person that shot and killed the 13-year-old.

Over the years, I have had cars stolen and broken into several times. My windows have been broken out at times simply for the change in an ashtray, I've had parts stolen from my vehicle including a radio and even my catalytic converter (part of the muffler system). As frustrating and upsetting as those events were, I did not then and still do not consider that theft worth someone's life.

As a society, we are placing too little value on life and seem to believe that making a bad decision or a very poor choice is an excuse to kill. The kids involved made very stupid choices and they should have known that they were placing themselves in danger by going into someone else's car, but should we authorize the death penalty for breaking into a car or even car theft.

That child's death is a tragedy and I would bet that the person if given a second chance, would choose not to pull the trigger. My heart goes out to both the family of the child who died and the 60-year-old man who shot the child. I'm certain he was devastated once he learned he had killed a 13-year-old child.

Hopefully, this situation will make thieves think twice before stealing and make people think before pulling the trigger over property. That vehicle could have been how the man made his living, making the car more valuable in his mind than for most. However, stealing from cars should not be punishable by death!

The primary purpose of the castle doctrine is to allow people to protect themselves from harm, not their property.  Had the thieves not been kids, but armed criminals, the property owner may have been the one killed.

All kids have the potential to do stupid things and make bad choices. I made a bad decision in the past and I'm sure others reading this have as well.