New study suggests that Baltimore's ugly history of racial redlining isn't just history

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Tuesday November 17, 2015 · 9:16 AM PST

2015/11/17 · 09:16

Baltimore, Maryland is one of many cities in America with an ugly history of redlining. Redlining, the term for racist housing and mortgage denial practices espoused by the Home Owner’s Loan Corporation (HOLC) and other entities, became a key tool during the Great Migration to keep northern, Midwestern, and Mid-Atlantic cities segregated as waves of black people moved from the South. This ugly legacy shaped much of what we know about race, poverty, crime, and space in major American cities, from the development of historic black neighborhoods to gentrification to drug epidemics, and Baltimore’s history of racial tension, drugs, and police tyranny in the wake of 1960s riots has been a case study in that legacy.

A study released today by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition adds to evidence that this legacy not only still shapes life in Baltimore, but may be actively renewed in the case of current redlining practices. Among a number of findings that indicate redlining, the report shows that race is the stronger predictor of lending activity within Baltimore City, while poverty is the strongest predictor in surrounding areas. This helps tease out the relation between race and poverty in the city and indicates that race is a key independent factor to the likelihood of qualifying for a loan. The study found that approval rates in 2013 for white borrowers were 75%, as opposed to only 61% for black borrowers. The study also found that white borrowers received approvals at over twice the rate that their population size in the city would suggest, while black borrowers received just over a third of the expected rate.

On a neighborhood level, the NCRC study shows that white neighborhoods in Baltimore City, independent of poverty, are areas of investment and revitalization, while black neighborhoods are “islands of decay in a sea of renewal.” In a cycle familiar to many cities undergoing cycles of gentrification and displacement, disinvestment leaves black and other minority neighborhoods to crumble.

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For the past few decades, much of that cycle involved “reverse redlining,” or the process by which banks and lenders targeted minorities and minority communities for subprime loans. Banks like Wells Fargo created special divisions just to pitch subprimes to black borrowers. During the Great Recession, black communities across Maryland and the District of Columbia suffered drastic reductions in net worth as many defaulted en masse. In 2012, the City of Baltimore won a suit against reverse redliners on behalf of aggrieved black citizens.

But this episode was just one in an epic of black citizens in Baltimore caught in alternating cycles of hope and despair. The Baltimore in which Freddie Gray was killed was ravaged by drugs and police hypervigiliance in turns, enabled by the erosion of black communities from disinvestment and a housing crash. Segregated black communities faced obvious safety risks from crime and police, but also suffered public health crises, like lead poisoning in children and pollution-mediated lung disorders. In each chapter, Baltimore’s black community ends up with the short end of the stick.

This study adds to evidence that Baltimore is returning to a chapter of redlining after the Recession. Maps of Baltimore’s current demographics superimposed over HOLC maps show a stubborn pattern of poverty and segregation that persists from old redlining policies. New policies may continue to ossify these patterns while creating a Baltimore that succeeds in depriving black communities while shunting growth to white communities. And while Baltimore is a key example in these complex processes, it is important to note that it is only a microcosm of trends across urban America.

This content was created by a Daily Kos Community member.

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New study suggests that Baltimore's ugly history of racial redlining isn't just history

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