January 2012Foreclosure Crises Lingers in BayviewKatrina SchwartzAccording to the California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC), a nonprofit organization that advocates for fair banking and financial services for low-income individuals, since 2008 roughly 12,400 homes in San Francisco have gone into foreclosure. Many neighborhoods – including Sea Cliff, the Marina and Pacific Heights – survived the collapse of the nation’s real estate market relatively unscathed. Likewise, communities dominated by rental units – such as South of Market and South Beach, where 86 percent of residents are tenants – were less likely to be snagged by toxic mortgages. Fully half of foreclosures in San Francisco have occurred in Supervisorial Districts 10 and 11, which includes Bayview, Excelsior, and Visitacion Valley.“We’ve looked at neighborhoods that are majority-minority communities, mostly communities of color, and it’s become pretty clear that they were disproportionately affected both by receiving bad loans and now through foreclosure,” said Kristina Bedrossian, CRC’s media and development coordinator. According to Grace Martinez, of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), Districts 10 and 11 also house a large number of City employees, union members, and people who hold most of their wealth in their homes. Martinez has countless stories of fraud and manipulation of her clients, mostly Bayview residents. “There’s another senior who is still dealing with her bank. She only had $32,000 left on her house and this bank had refinanced her loan. And now she owes over half a million dollars on her house,” said Martinez. “She’s 82-years-old, never worked a day in her life and she’s living off her husband’s pension who passed away a few years ago.” According to Martinez, many foreclosures result in people losing their homes, which are sold at auction for a fraction of their value. Meanwhile, the former homeowner loses everything, and is marred by a bad credit score that’s hard to shake. It’s easy to wonder why people signed onto loans that seemed suspiciously too-good-to-be-true, like the “pick-a-payment plan” type of loan, in which the borrower could choose their monthly rate for five years, even if the monthly payment wasn’t enough to pay-off the interest accruing on the loan, let alone the principal. Jose Rodriguez works as a housing counselor at the Mission Economic Development Association (MEDA), and has helped a steady stream of Latino families. “Well orchestrated greed compounded with uneducated ambition,” Rodriguez summed up. Rodriguez, along with other community organizers who work on the foreclosure frontlines, including Martinez, believes that the decimation of homeownership in Districts 10 and 11 is no accident. According to Gary Rivlin, writing in The Daily Beast, real estate agents and loan officers received kick-backs to target minorities. The Federal Reserve of San Francisco, as well as CRC, have documented the practice of targeting minorities for predatory loans, in California and nationwide.
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This Month's StoriesSFMTA Temporarily Parks Meter Plan District 10 Supervisor Sees Herself as a “Connector” City Searches for Next Drop of Water Residents Mobilize to Defeat Proposed Parking Plan Herrera to Run for Reelection to City Attorney’s Office Hill Resident Designs Unique Garden Spaces Residents Question Whether Former Klein’s Space Suitable for a Pre-School Oscaryne Williams Infant and Toddler Center Provides Safe Place for Wee Ones to Thrive City College Copes with State Budget Crunch Mendell Plaza: Bayview’s Ailing Heart Third St. Business Corridor a Work-in-Progress Bayview Club Continues to Serve Southside Limon Rotisserie Adds Peruvian Flavors to Third St. Many After-School Programs Available on Potrero Hill Honey Available for Tasting at Thick House On-going Features
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