Neil Surgenor: I was a financial advisor in the late 1990s through early 2001, working for a top 10 investment firm. I was also a trader for the largest short-term trading company in the world at that time. I enjoyed Wall Street, but there was some volatility in the financial markets at the time, making … [Read more…]
HSBC Bank USA on Tuesday disclosed that it is facing an investigation from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for alleged redlining practices.
The federal investigation is based on a complaint filed by the non-profit organization National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC).
According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), HUD is investigating whether “HSBC Bank USA violated the U.S. Fair Lending Act by engaging in discriminatory lending practices in majority Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in six U.S. metropolitan areas from 2018 through 2021.”
The NCRC complaint includes six metropolitan areas: New York (NY), Seattle (WA), Orange County (CA), Los Angles (CA), Oakland (CA) and the Bay Area (CA).
A spokesperson for HUD said the agency “Does not comment on investigations or potential complaints.” HSBC did not reply to a request for comments.
A representative for NCRC said in a statement that when “NCRC or our members find evidence of redlining or any other form of lending discrimination, we take prompt action.”
“We are always concerned by data that suggests unfair treatment of disenfranchised communities and individuals, and always glad to help ensure the appropriate authorities have an opportunity to review the facts and pursue any remedies they deem appropriate.”
Per the mortgage tech platform Modex, HSBC originated about $2 billion in mortgages in the last 12 months. Purchases and conventional loans were more than 77% of the total. California and New York are the main markets for the bank.
That was the second time HSBC was questioned about its mortgage lending practices by federal agencies.
In 2016, the bank ended up paying a $601 million settlement to a series of federal agencies and nearly every state over charges that it engaged in mortgage origination, servicing and foreclosure abuses.
In a separate but related settlement, HSBC paid $131 million to the Federal Reserve. According to the Fed, the penalty considers the circumstances of HSBC’s “unsafe and unsound practices and foreclosure activities.”
U.S. regulators are active in investigating redlining cases.
In June, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a $3 million redlining settlement with ESSA Bank & Trust. It followed a $31 million settlement with City National Bank in January. In 2022, settlements were made with Trident Mortgage Co., Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary; and Lakeland Bank.
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In 2022, the national average electric bill was $137 per month, and residents consumed an average of 907 kWh of energy monthly.
If you’re trying to save money, you may be examining your electric bill to see how much you’re spending each month. But how do you know if you’re overpaying and need to decrease your energy usage?
In this article, we take a closer look at the average electric bill in the U.S. and each state to help you determine how much to budget each month.
How Much Is the Average Electric Bill?
According to the U.S Energy Information Administration (EIA), the national average electric bill in 2022 was $137 per month, with residents consuming an average of 907 kWh of energy monthly. After adjusting for inflation, this is a 5% price increase and a 2% energy usage increase from the previous year.
As of the first three months of 2023, the monthly average electric bill was $133 per month, which is a 5% increase from the same time period last year.
Average Electric Bill by State
The average electric bill varies by state based on a number of factors, including local power plant costs, weather conditions, state regulations, electricity transmission and distribution systems, and fuel costs.
Utah has the lowest monthly bill, which costs residents $80.87 on average. Meanwhile, Hawaii has the highest bill, with an average of $177.78 per month, due in part to the cost of importing petroleum fuels.
Reference the chart below to see your state’s average monthly consumption, average unit price, and average monthly bill according to the EIA.
State
Average Monthly Consumption (kWh)
Average Price (cents/kWh)
Average Monthly Bill (Dollar and cents)
AK
594
22.55
133.89
AL
1,140
12.96
147.75
AR
1,098
11.27
123.69
AZ
1,048
12.54
131.35
CA
542
22.82
123.67
CO
704
13.07
91.96
CT
713
21.91
156.21
DE
950
12.52
118.85
FL
1,096
11.90
130.40
GA
1,072
12.51
134.11
HI
531
33.49
177.78
IA
861
12.73
109.63
ID
961
10.16
97.62
IL
728
13.18
95.86
IN
946
13.37
126.51
KS
890
12.98
115.53
KY
1,084
11.50
124.67
LA
1,192
11.02
131.37
MA
596
22.89
136.37
MD
973
13.12
127.62
ME
584
17.02
99.44
MI
670
17.54
117.57
MN
776
13.50
104.76
MO
1,039
11.41
118.55
MS
1,171
11.56
135.31
MT
872
11.22
97.84
NC
1,063
11.32
120.38
ND
1,041
10.85
112.93
NE
1,005
10.75
108.09
NH
631
19.85
125.24
NJ
687
16.35
112.39
NM
646
13.52
87.31
NV
959
11.49
110.17
NY
599
19.48
116.70
OH
879
12.77
112.21
OK
1,088
11.00
119.69
OR
936
11.37
106.49
PA
851
13.76
117.11
RI
585
22.30
130.40
SC
1,078
12.86
138.65
SD
1,019
12.22
124.50
TN
1,183
11.07
130.98
TX
1,094
12.11
132.40
UT
775
10.43
80.87
VA
1,094
11.96
130.92
VT
567
19.26
109.24
WA
984
10.11
99.45
WI
690
14.52
100.18
WV
1,066
12.15
129.61
WY
867
11.17
96.82
What Contributes to a High Electric Bill?
When examining your electric bill, you’ll likely see your charges grouped into two categories: supply and delivery charges.Knowing what these charges mean can help you understand what’s contributing to your high electric bill.
Supply Charges
Supply charges account for the cost of generating the energy you use. The total you are charged each month depends on the amount of energy you use and the cost per kWh of electricity. Your utility provider determines the unit rate (kWh) and should be noted in your contract.
It’s also important to check if you have a fixed-rate or variable-rate electric plan. With a fixed-rate electric plan, your unit rate will remain the same for a set duration. With a variable-rate plan, your unit rate will depend on the cost to supply electricity, which changes minute by minute depending on electricity demand. However, most customers pay a seasonal average rate (a type of variable rate), so they don’t experience these constant fluctuations.
Delivery Charges
Delivery charges are the costs associated with delivering electricity to your home. These charges are categorized into the following rates on your electric bill:
Distribution rate: This charge pays for distributing electricity to your home via power lines. This fee also includes metering services, billing services, and customer service.
Transition rate: This fee helps cover utility companies’ costs in building and maintaining power plants.
Transmission rate: This charge is controlled by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and helps cover the cost of the high-voltage power lines, which transport electricity from the power plants to the utility company.
How Can You Budget for Your Electric Bill?
While it can be difficult to pinpoint exactly how much your electric bill will cost each month, the National Foundation for Credit Counseling suggests spending no more than 10% of your monthly income on utilities. For example, if you earn $3,000 monthly, you shouldn’t be spending more than $300 on utilities each month.
If you’d prefer to take the guesswork out of budgeting for utilities, you can sign up for budget billing through your utility company, which involves paying a set amount for monthly utilities based on your average usage. Contact your utility company to learn more about budget billing.
Tips to Lower Your Electric Bill
If you’re spending too much on your electric bill, try incorporating these tips to save money:
Unplug appliances you don’t use: Walk around your house and unplug anything you don’t frequently use. For example, if you only make a smoothie once a week, you don’t need to leave the blender plugged in 24/7.
Get smart power strips: Smart power strips work by automatically shutting down the power to devices not in use. This is a great option if you frequently forget to unplug your devices.
Switch to LED light bulbs: LED bulbs use approximately 75% less energy than incandescent lighting, according to Energy.gov.
Limit your hot water usage: Heating water requires a lot of energy, so avoid washing your clothes or running the dishwasher using hot water. You could also try taking cooler showers, too.
Avoid running appliances until they’re full: When it comes to doing laundry or running the dishwasher, hold off until you have a full load.
Adjust the temperature when you’re not home: Heating and cooling are typically one of the main culprits for high energy bills. While you don’t need to set your thermostat to 80 degrees in the dead of summer, adjusting the temperature when you’re not home can help lower your bill. You can even program your thermostat to turn off automatically during times of the day you’re not home.
Regularly change your air filters: According to the Department of Energy, replacing a dirty air filter can lower your AC’s energy usage by up to 15%.
Get an energy audit: An energy audit involves a professional reviewing your electric bills and assessing your home to provide specific recommendations on how to lower your energy costs.
Does Paying Utilities Build Credit?
Typically, paying your utility bill doesn’t build credit since most utility companies don’t report payment history to the three credit bureaus. However, if you’re making timely payments and want to build credit, you can use a third-party service to report your utility payments for you.
ExtraCredit®’s Build it tool helps youreport utilities and rent and provides other services to help you manage your credit. Try it for free today.
The share of refinances in mortgage origination volume dipped below 50% for the first time in 15 months in March, according to Black Knight‘s new monthly data report, the Originations Market Monitor. With interest rates continuing to tick up, the purchase mortgage market is where most lenders will focus operations over the next year.
Since December 2019, millions of homeowners have been able to save hundreds of dollars a month in mortgage payments by refinancing to record-low mortgage rates, often in the 2% range. Thanks to the Fed’s intervention to lower the cost of borrowing, many homeowners shaved 125 basis points or more on their mortgages over the past year. That was a boon for mortgage lenders, the vast majority of which rode the refi wave to historic origination volume and record profits in 2020.
But the strengthening U.S. economy and acceleration of COVID-19 vaccines has pushed interest rates back up dramatically over the last quarter. By mid-January, mortgage rates began to rebound from historic lows, and by the end of March, Black Knight estimated the average 30-year mortgage rate sat near 3.34%. That was up 60 basis points from February, though still down 20 basis points from the same time last year.
In March, the share of refinancings fell to 48%, forcing many lenders to quickly pivot away from refis and toward the purchase market.
“Recent – and sharp – upward movements in interest rates have shifted the mortgage originations landscape very quickly,” said Scott Happ, Black Knight’s president of secondary marketing technologies. “The wave of refinance activity of the last year and some months has suddenly given way to a purchase-heavy mix. The implications of this shift touch nearly every area of mortgage lending, which in turn has implications for the wider economy.”
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Despite refi activity in freefall, overall rate lock volume was up 2.5% in March, with purchase locks jumping 32% from February. Cash-out refinance locks also rose 4% month-over-month.
The three metropolitan areas with the greatest percentage of lock volume was the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro, New York-Newark-New Jersey metro and the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro. In the NY-NJ-PA metro in particular, rate lock data was up 11.7% month-over-month, and refis still took more than half of the origination volume.
But the top 20 metros were neck-and-neck for whether purchases or refis made up more of the lending pie.
“This marks the first time – but almost certainly not the last – that purchase loans have made up a majority share of monthly mortgage lending since December 2019,” said Happ. “We also saw credit scores pull back, a trend that’s likely to continue among refis as high-credit borrowers, who have been largely driving record volumes, exit the market.”
If these homeowners do slowly exit the market, credit availability will continue to open up for borrowers with lower credit scores and options for higher LTV products. Zillow‘s senior economist Jeff Tucker estimates this next wave of buyers will be millennials.
“More affordable, medium-sized metro areas across the Sun Belt saw significantly more people coming than going – especially from more expensive, larger cities farther north and on the coasts,” said Tucker. “The pandemic has catalyzed purchases by millennial first-time buyers, many of whom can now work from anywhere.”
On average, Black Knight estimated a typical credit score for a conforming loan was around 751 in March, six points lower than a year ago. On the other hand, credit scores averaged close to 666 for FHA loans, around four points higher year-over-year. According to the report, Black Knight said it’s seen year-to-date increases in the share of FHA and non-conforming originations, while conforming volumes – though still representing the lion’s share of March lending – are down.
The Jefferson Avenue commercial district in Buffalo, New York, is anchored by a supermarket.
There are dozens of other businesses and services along the 12-block corridor — a couple of bank branches, a library, a coffee shop, gas stations, a small plaza with a dollar store and a primary care clinic and a business incubator for entrepreneurs of color.
But Tops Friendly Markets, the only grocery store on Buffalo’s vast East Side, is the center of activity. More than just a place to buy food, pick up medications and use an ATM, the store is a communal gathering space in a predominantly Black neighborhood that, for generations, has been segregated, isolated and disenfranchised from the wealthier — and whiter — parts of the city.
Which explains how it came to be the site of a mass shooting on a spring day in May of last year. On that Saturday, a gunman, who lived 200 miles away in another part of the state, drove to Jefferson Avenue and went into Tops, and in just a few minutes killed 10 people, injured three and inflicted mass trauma across the community.
It is a scenario that has sadly, and repeatedly, played out in other parts of the country that have experienced mass shootings. But this one came with a twist: The gunman’s intention was to kill as many Black people as possible.
To achieve that, he specifically targeted a ZIP code with one of the highest percentages of Black residents in New York state. All 10 who died that day were Black.
“The mere fact that someone can research, ‘Where will the greatest number of Black people be … on a Saturday morning,’ that’s not by chance,” said Franchelle Parker, a community organizer and executive director of Open Buffalo, a nonprofit focused on racial, economic and ecological justice. “That’s not a mistake. It’s a community that’s been deeply segregated for decades.”
The day of the shooting, Parker, who grew up in nearby Niagara Falls, was driving to Tops, where she planned to buy a donut and an unsweetened iced tea before heading into the Open Buffalo office, which is located a block away from Tops. The mother of two had intended to complete the mundane task of cleaning up her desk — “old coffee cups and stuff” — after a busy week.
She saw the news on Twitter and didn’t know if she should keep driving to Jefferson Avenue or turn around and go back home. She eventually picked the latter.
When she showed up the next day, there were thousands of people grieving in the streets. “The only way that I could explain my feeling, it was almost like watching an old war movie when a bomb had gone off and someone’s in, like, shell shock. That’s how it felt,” said Parker, vividly recounting the community’s collective trauma in a meeting room tucked inside of Open Buffalo’s second-story office on Jefferson Avenue.
Almost immediately following the May 14, 2022, massacre, which was the second-deadliest mass shooting in the United States last year, conversations locally and nationally turned to the harsh realities of the East Side and how long-standing factors that affect the daily life of residents — racism, poverty and inequity — made the community an ideal target for a white supremacist.
Now, more than a year after the tragedy, there is growing concern that not enough is being done fast enough to begin to dismantle those factors. And amid those conversations, there are mounting calls for the banking industry — whose historical policies and practices helped cement the racial segregation and disinvestment that ultimately shaped the East Side — to leverage its collective power and influence to band together in an effort to create systemic change.
The ideas about how banks should support the East Side and better embed themselves in the neighborhood vary by people and organizations. But the basic argument is the same: Banks, in their role as financiers and because of the industry’s history of lending discrimination, are obligated to bring forth economic prosperity in disinvested communities like the East Side.
I know banks are often looked upon sort of like a panacea, but I don’t particularly see it that way. I think others have a role to play in all of this.
Chiwuike Owunwanne, corporate responsibility officer at KeyBank
“Banks have been very good at providing charitable contributions to the Black community. They get an ‘A’ for that,” said The Rev. George Nicholas, an East Side pastor who is also CEO of the Buffalo Center for Health Equity, a four-year-old enterprise focused on racial, geographic and economic health disparities. “But doing the things that banks can do in terms of being a catalyst for revitalization and investment in this community, they have not done that.”
To be sure, banks’ ability to reverse the course of the community isn’t guaranteed — and there is no formula to determine how much accountability they should hold to fix deeply entrenched problems like racism. Several Buffalo-area bankers said that while the Tops shooting heightened the urgency to help the East Side, the industry itself cannot be the sole driver of change.
“There are a lot of institutions … that can certainly play a part in reversing the challenges that we see today,” said Chiwuike “Chi-Chi” Owunwanne, a corporate responsibility officer at KeyBank, the second-largest bank by deposits in Buffalo. “I know banks are often looked upon sort of like a panacea, but I don’t particularly see it that way. I think others have a role to play in all of this.”
A long history of segregation
How the East Side — and the Tops store on Jefferson Avenue — became the destination for a racially motivated mass murderer is a story about racism, segregation and disinvestment.
Even as it bears the nickname “the city of good neighbors,” Buffalo has long been one of the most racially segregated cities in the United States. Of the 114,965 residents who live on the East Side, 59% are Black, according to data from the 2021 U.S. Census American Community Survey. The percentage is even higher in the 14208 ZIP code, where the Tops store is located. In that ZIP code, among 11,029 total residents, nearly 76% are Black, the census data shows.
The city’s path toward racial segregation started in the early 20th century when a small number of job-seeking Black Americans migrated north to Buffalo, a former steel and auto manufacturing hub at the far northwestern end of New York state. Initially, they moved into the same neighborhoods as many of the city’s poorer immigrants and lived just east of what is today the city’s downtown district. As the number of Blacks arriving in Buffalo swelled in the 1940s, they were increasingly confronted with various housing challenges, including racist zoning laws and restrictive deed covenants that kept them from buying homes in more affluent white areas.
Black Buffalonians also faced housing discrimination in the form of redlining, the practice of restricting the flow of capital into minority communities. In 1933, as the Great Depression roiled the economy, a temporary federal agency known as the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation used government bonds to buy out and refinance mortgages of properties that were facing or already in foreclosure. The point was to try to stabilize the nation’s real estate market.
As part of its program, HOLC created maps of American cities, including Buffalo, that used a color coding scheme — green, blue, yellow and red — to convey the perceived riskiness of making loans in certain neighborhoods. Green was considered minimally risky; other areas that were largely populated by immigrant, Black or Latino residents were labeled red and thus determined to be “hazardous.”
“The goal was to free up mortgage capital by going to cities and giving banks a way to unload mortgages, so they could turn around and make more mortgage loans,” said Jason Richardson, senior director of research at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, an association of more than 750 community-based organizations that advocates for fair lending. “It was kind of a radical concept and it has evolved over the decades into our modern mortgage finance system.”
The Federal Housing Administration, which was established as a permanent agency in 1934, used similar methods to map urban areas and labeled neighborhoods from “A” to “D,” with “A” considered to be the most financially stable and “D” considered the least. Neighborhoods that were largely Black, even relatively stable ones, were put in the “D” category.
The result was that banks, which wanted to be able to sell mortgage loans to the FHA, were largely dissuaded from making loans in “risky” areas. And Buffalo’s East Side, where the majority of Blacks were settling, was deemed risky. Unable to get loans, Blacks couldn’t buy homes, start businesses or build equity. At the same time, large industrial factories on the East Side were closing or moving away, limiting job opportunities and contributing to rising poverty levels.
“Today what we’re left with is the residue of this process where we’ve enshrined … a pattern of economic segregation that favors neighborhoods that had fewer Black people in them and generally ignores neighborhoods that had African Americans living in them,” Richardson said.
Case in point: Research by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition shows that three-quarters of neighborhoods that were once redlined are low- to moderate-income neighborhoods today, and two-thirds of them are majority minority communities.
Adding to the division between Blacks and whites in Buffalo was the construction of a highway called the Kensington Expressway. Built during the 1960s, the below-grade, limited-access highway proved to be a speedy way for suburban workers to get to their downtown jobs. But its construction cut off the already-segregated East Side even more from other parts of the city, displacing residents, devaluing houses and destroying neighborhoods and small businesses.
As a result of those factors and more, many Black residents have become “trapped” on the East Side, according to Dr. Henry Louis Taylor Jr., a professor of urban and regional planning at the University at Buffalo. In 1987, Taylor founded the UB Center for Urban Studies, a research, neighborhood planning and community development institute that works on eliminating inequality in cities and metropolitan regions. In September 2021, eight months before the Tops shooting, the Center for Urban Studies published a report that compared the state of Black Buffalo in 1990 to present-day conditions. The conclusion: Nothing had changed for Blacks over 31 years.
As of 2019, the Black unemployment rate was 11%, the average household income was $42,000 and about 35% of Blacks had incomes that fell below the poverty line, the report said. It also noted that just 32% of Blacks own their homes and that most Blacks in the area live on the East Side.
“Those figures remain virtually unchanged while the actual, physical conditions that existed inside of the community worsened,” Taylor told American Banker in an interview in his sun-filled office at the center, located on the University at Buffalo’s city campus. “When we looked upstream to see what was causing it, it was clear: It was systemic, structural racism.”
Banks’ moral obligations
As the East Side struggled over the decades with rampant poverty, dilapidated housing, vacant lots and disintegrating infrastructure, banks kept a physical presence in the community, albeit a shrinking one. In mid-2000, there were at least 20 bank branches scattered across the East Side, but by mid-2022, the number had fallen to around 14, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s deposit market share data. The 14 include four new branches that have opened since early 2019 — Northwest Bank, KeyBank, Evans Bank and BankOnBuffalo.
The first two branches, operated by Northwest in Columbus, Ohio, and KeyBank, the banking subsidiary of KeyCorp in Cleveland, were requirements of community benefits agreements negotiated between each bank and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. In both cases, Northwest and KeyBank agreed to open an office in an underserved community.
Evans Bank opened its first East Side branch in the fall of 2021. The office is located in the basement of an $84 million affordable senior housing building that was financed by Evans, a $2.1 billion-asset community bank headquartered south of Buffalo in Angola, New York.
Banks have been very good at providing charitable contributions to the Black community. They get an ‘A’ for that. But doing the things that banks can do in terms of being a catalyst for revitalization and investment in this community, they have not done that.
The Rev. George Nicholas, an East Side pastor who is also CEO of the Buffalo Center for Health Equity
On the community and economic development front, banks have had varying levels of participation. Buffalo-based M&T Bank, which holds a whopping 64% of all deposits in the Buffalo market and is one of the largest private employers in the region, has made consistent investments in the East Side by supporting Westminster Community Charter School, a kindergarten through eighth-grade school, and the Buffalo Promise Neighborhood, a nonprofit organization focused on improving access to education in the city’s 14215 ZIP code.
Currently, Buffalo Promise Neighborhood operates four schools. In addition to Westminster, it runs Highgate Heights Elementary, also K-8, as well as two academies that serve children ages six weeks through pre-kindergarten. Twelve M&T employees are dedicated to the program, according to the Buffalo Promise Neighborhood website. The bank has invested $31.5 million into the program since its 2010 launch, a spokesperson said.
Other banks are making contributions in other ways. In addition to the Jefferson Avenue branch and as part of its community benefits plan, Northwest Bank, a $14.2 billion-asset bank, supports a financial education center through a partnership with Belmont Housing Resources of Western New York. Meanwhile, the $198 billion-asset KeyBank gave $30 million for bridge and construction financing for Northland Workforce Training Center, a $100 million redevelopment project at a former manufacturing complex on the East Side that was partially funded by the state.
BankOnBuffalo’s East Side branch is located inside the center, which offers KeyBank training in advanced manufacturing and clean energy technology careers. A subsidiary of $5.6 billion-asset CNB Financial in Clearfield, Pennsylvania, BankOnBuffalo’s office opened a month after the shooting. The timing was coincidental, but important, said Michael Noah, president of BankOnBuffalo.
“I think it just cemented the point that this is a place we need to be, to be able to be part of these communities and this community specifically, and be able to build this community up,” Noah said.
In terms of public-private collaboration, some banks have been involved in a deeper way. In 2019, New York state, which had already been pouring $1 billion into Buffalo to help revitalize the economy, announced a $65 million economic development fund for the East Side. The initiative is focused on stabilizing neighborhoods, increasing homeownership, redeveloping commercial corridors including Jefferson Avenue, improving historical assets, expanding workforce training and development and supporting small businesses and entrepreneurship.
In conjunction with the funding, a public-private partnership called East Side Avenues was created to provide capital and organizational support to the projects happening along four East Side commercial corridors. Six banks — Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America, the second-largest bank in the nation with $2.5 trillion of assets; M&T, which has $203 billion of assets; KeyBank; Warsaw, New York-based Five Star Bank, which has about $6 billion of assets; Northwest and Evans — are among the 14 private and philanthropic organizations that pledged a combined $8.4 million to pay for five years’ worth of operational support, governance and finance, fundraising and technical assistance to support the nonprofits doing the work.
Laura Quebral, director of the University at Buffalo Regional Institute, which is managing East Side Avenues, said the banks were the first corporations to step up to the request for help, and since then have provided loans and other products and education to keep the program moving.
Their participation “is a signal to the community that banks cared and were invested and were willing to collaborate around something,” Quebral said. “Being at the table was so meaningful.”
Richard Hamister is Northwest’s New York regional president and former co-chair of East Side Avenues. Hamister, who is based in Buffalo, said banks are a “community asset” that have a responsibility to lift up all communities, including those where conditions have arisen that allow it to be a target of racism like the East Side.
“We operate under federal charters, so we have an obligation to the community to not only provide products and services they need but also support when you go through a tragedy like that,” Hamister said. “We also have a moral obligation to try to help when things are broken … and to do what we can. We can’t fix everything, but we’ve got to fix our piece and try to help where we can.”
In the wake of a tragedy
After the massacre, there was a flurry of activity within banks and other organizations, local and out-of-town, to respond to the immediate needs of East Side residents. With the community’s only supermarket closed indefinitely, much of the response centered around food collection and distribution. Three of M&T’s five East Side branches, including the Jefferson Avenue branch across the street from Tops, became food distribution sites for weeks after the shooting. On two consecutive Fridays, Northwest provided around 200 free lunches to the community, using a neighborhood caterer who is also the bank’s customer. And BankOnBuffalo collected employee donations that amounted to more than 20 boxes of toiletries and other items that were distributed to a nonprofit.
At the same time, M&T, KeyBank and other banks began financial donations to organizations that could support the immediate needs of the community. KeyBank provided a van that delivered food and took people to nearby grocery stores. Providence, Rhode Island-based Citizens Financial Group, whose ATM inside Tops was inaccessible during the store’s temporary closure, installed a fee-free ATM near a community center located about a half-mile north of Tops, and later put a permanent ATM inside the center that remains there today. And M&T rolled out a short-term loan program to provide capital to East Side small-business owners.
One of the funds that benefited from banks’ support was the Buffalo Together Community Response Fund, which has raised $6.2 million to address the long-term needs of the East Side.
Bank of America and Evans Bank each donated $100,000 to the fund, whose list of major sponsors includes four other banks — JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, M&T and KeyBank. Thomas Beauford Jr., a former banker who is co-chair of the response fund, said banks, by and large, directed their resources into organizations where the dollars would have an immediate impact.
“Banks said, ‘Hey, you know … it doesn’t make sense for us to try to build something right now. … We will fund you in the work you’re doing,'” said Beauford, who has been president and CEO of the Buffalo Urban League since the fall of 2020. “I would say banks showed up in a big way.”
Fourteen months later, banks say they are committed to playing a positive role on the East Side. For the second year, KeyBank is sponsoring a farmers’ market on the East Side, an attempt to help fill the food desert in the community. Last fall, BankOnBuffalo launched a mobile “bank on wheels” truck that’s stationed on the East Side every Wednesday. The 34-foot-long truck, which is staffed by two people and includes an ATM and a printer to make debit cards, was in the works before the shooting, and will eventually make four stops per week around the Buffalo area.
Evans has partnered with the city of Buffalo to construct seven market-rate single family homes on vacant lots on the East Side. The relationship with the city is an example of how banks can pair up with other entities to create something meaningful and lasting, more than they might be able to do on their own, said Evans President and CEO David Nasca.
The bank has “picked areas” where it can use its resources to make a difference, Nasca said.
“I don’t think the root causes can be ameliorated” by banks alone, he said. “We can’t just grant money. It has to be within our construct of a financial institution that invests and supports the public-private partnership. … All the oars [need to be] pulling together or this doesn’t work.”
‘Little or no engagement with minorities’
All of these efforts are, of course, welcomed by the community, but there is still criticism that banks haven’t done enough to make up for their past contributions to segregating the city. And perhaps more importantly, some of that criticism centers on banks failing to do their most basic function in society — provide credit.
In 2021, the New York State Department of Financial Services issued a report about redlining in Buffalo. The regulator looked at banks and nonbank lenders and found that loans made to minorities in the Buffalo metro area made up 9.74% of total loans in Buffalo. Overall, Black residents comprise about 33% of Buffalo’s total population of more than 276,000, census data shows.
The department said its investigation showed the lower percentage was not due to “excessive denials of loan applications based on race or ethnicity,” but rather that “these companies had little or no engagement with minorities and generally made scant effort to do so.”
“The unsurprising result of this has been that few minority customers or individuals seeking homes in majority-minority neighborhoods have made loan applications … in the first instance.”
Furthermore, accusations of redlining persist today, even though the practice of discriminating in housing based on race was outlawed by the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
In 2014, Evans was accused of redlining by the New York State Attorney General, which said the community bank was specifically avoiding making mortgage loans on the East Side. The bank, which at the time had $874 million of assets, agreed to pay $825,000 to settle the case, but Nasca maintains that the charges were unfounded. He points to the fact that the bank never had a fair lending or fair housing violation, no specific incidents were ever claimed and that the bank’s Community Reinvestment Act exam never found evidence of discriminatory or illegal credit practices.
The bank has a greater presence on the East Side today, but that’s because it has grown in size, not because it is trying to make up for previous accusations of redlining, he said.
“Ten years ago, our involvement [on the East Side] certainly wasn’t what you’re seeing today,” Nasca said. “We were looking to participate more, but we were participating within our means and our reach. As we have grown, we have built more resources to be able to do more.”
Shortly after accusations were made against Evans, Five Star Bank, the banking arm of Financial Institutions in Warsaw, New York, was also accused of redlining by the state Attorney General. Five Star, which has been growing its presence in the Buffalo market for several years, wound up settling the charges for $900,000 and agreeing to open two branches in the city of Rochester.
KeyBank is currently being accused of redlining by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. In a 2022 report, the group said that KeyBank is engaging in systemic redlining by making very few home purchase loans in certain neighborhoods where the majority of residents are Black. Buffalo is one of several cities where the bank’s mortgage lending “effectively wall[ed] out Black neighborhoods,” especially parts of the East Side, the report said.
KeyBank denied the allegations. In March, the coalition asked regulators to investigate the bank’s mortgage lending practices.
Beyond providing more credit, some community members believe that banks should be playing a larger role in addressing other needs on the East Side. And the list of needs runs the gamut from more grocery stores to safe, affordable housing to infrastructure improvements such as street and sidewalk repairs.
Alexander Wright is founder of the African Heritage Food Co-op, an initiative launched in 2016 to address the dearth of grocery store options on the East Side, where he grew up. Wright said that while banks’ philanthropic efforts are important, banks in general “need to be in a place of remediation” to fix underlying issues that the industry, as a whole, helped create. (After publication of this story, Wright left his job as CEO of the African Heritage Food Co-Op.)
Aside from charitable donations, banks should be finding more ways to work directly with East Side business owners and entrepreneurs, helping them with capital-building support along the way, Wright said. One place to start would be technical assistance by way of bank volunteers.
“Banks are always looking to volunteer. ‘Hey, want to come out and paint a fence? Want to come out and do a garden?'” Wright said. “No. Come out here and help Keshia with bookkeeping. Come out here and do QuickBooks classes for folks. Bring out tax experts. Because these are things that befuddle a lot of small businesses. Who is your marketing person? Bring that person out here. Because those are the things that are going to build the business to self-sufficiency.
“Anything short of the capacity-building … that will allow folks to rise to the occasion and be self-sufficient I think is almost a waste,” Wright added. “We don’t need them to lead the plan. What we need them to do is be in the community and [be] hearing the plan and supporting it.”
Parker, of Open Buffalo, has similar thoughts about the role that banks should play. One day, soon after the massacre, an ATM appeared down the street from Tops, next to the library that sits across the street from Parker’s office. Soon after the ATM was installed, Parker began fielding questions from area residents who were skeptical of the machine and wanted to know if it was legitimate. But Parker didn’t have any information to share with them. “There was no outreach. There was no community engagement. So I’m like, ‘Let me investigate,'” she said. “I think that’s a symptom of how investment is done in Black communities, even though it may be well-intentioned.”
As it turns out, the temporary ATM belonged to JPMorgan Chase. The megabank has had a commercial banking presence in Buffalo for years, but it didn’t operate a retail branch in the region until last year. Today it has four branches in operation and plans to open another two by the end of the year, a spokesperson said.
After the Tops shooting, the governor’s office reached out to Chase asking if the bank could help in some way, the spokesperson said in response to the skepticism. The spokesperson said that while the Chase retail brand is new to the Buffalo region, the company has been active in the market for decades by way of commercial banking, private banking, credit card lending, home lending and other businesses.
In addition to the ATM, the bank provided funding to local organizations including FeedMore Western New York, which distributes food throughout the region.
“We are committed to continuing our support for Buffalo and helping the community increase access to opportunities that build wealth and economic empowerment,” the spokesperson said in an email.
In the year since the massacre, there has been some progress by banks in terms of their interest in listening to the East Side community and learning about its needs, said Nicholas. But he hasn’t felt an air of urgency from the banking community to tackle the issues right now.
“I do experience banks being a little more open to figuring out what their role is, but it’s slow. It’s slow,” said Nicholas. The senior pastor of the Lincoln Memorial United Methodist Church, located about a mile north from Tops, Nicholas is part of a 13-member local advisory committee for the New York arm of Local Initiatives Support Coalition, or LISC. The group is focused on mobilizing resources, including banks, to address affordable housing in Western New York, specifically in the inner city, as well as training minority developers and connecting them to potential investors, Nicholas said.
Of the 13 members, seven are from banks — one each from M&T, Bank of America, BankOnBuffalo, Evans and KeyBank, and two members from Citizens Financial Group. One of the priorities of LISC NY is health equity, and the fact that banks are becoming more engaged in looking at health disparities is promising, Nicholas said. Still, they have more work to do, he said.
“I need them to think more on how to strengthen and build the economy on the East Side and provide leadership around that, not only to provide charitable things, but using sound business and banking and community development principles to say, ‘OK, if we’re going to invest in this community, these are the types of things that need to happen in this community,’ and then encourage their partners and other people they work with … to come fully in on the East Side.”
Some bankers agree with the community activists.
“Putting a branch in is great. Having a bank on wheels is great,” said Noah of BankOnBuffalo. “But if you’re not embedded in the community, listening to the community and trying to improve it, you’re not creating that wealth and creating a better lifestyle for everyone.”
What could make a substantial difference in terms of banks’ impact on the community is a combination of collaboration and leadership, said Taylor. He supports the idea of banks leading the charge on the creation of a comprehensive redevelopment and reinvestment plan for the East Side, and then investing accordingly and collaboratively through their charitable foundations.
“All of them have these foundations,” Taylor said. “You can either spend that money in a strategic and intentional way designed to develop a community for the existing population, or you can spend that money alone in piecemeal, siloed, sectorial fashion that will look good on an annual report, but won’t generate transformational and generational changes inside a community.”
Banks might be incentivized to work together because it could mean two things for them, according to Taylor: First, they’d have an opportunity to spend money in a way that would have maximum impact on the East Side, and second, if done right, the city and the banks could become a model of the way to create high levels of diversity, equity and inclusion in an urban area.
“If you prove how to do that, all that does is open up other markets of consumption all over the country because people want to figure out how to do that same thing,” Taylor said.
Some of that is already happening, at least on a bank-by-bank case, said KeyBank’s Owunwanne. Through the KeyBank Foundation, the company is able to leverage different relationships that connect nonprofits to other entities and corporations that can provide help.
“I see this as an opportunity for us to make not just incremental changes, but monumental changes … as part of a larger group,” Owunwanne said “Again, I say that not to absolve the bank of any responsibility, but just as a larger group.”
Downstairs from Parker’s office, Golden Cup Coffee, a roastery and cafe run by a husband and wife team, and some other Jefferson Avenue businesses are trying to build up a business association for existing and potential Jefferson-area businesses. Parker imagined what the group could accomplish if one of the banks could provide someone on a part-time basis to facilitate conversations, provide administrative support and coordinate marketing efforts.
“In the grand scheme of things, when we’re talking about a multimillion dollar [bank], a part-time employee specifically dedicated to relationship-building and building out coalitions, it sounds like a small thing,” Parker said. “But that’s transformational.”
Having to file a claim against an insurance policy can be stressful. Whether it’s your homeowners insurance, car insurance, or health insurance, filing a claim means that something went wrong.
You hope that your claim will be handled quickly and professionally and you’ll get the desired outcome, compensation related to your claim. When our area was hit by an inland hurricane a few years back, our house took on a lot of damage. Our entire area was hit, so we made sure to call our insurance company immediately to make sure we were first on the list. Luckily, our insurance company was quick to respond and we got everything taken care of promptly.
Note: You can see my post on the storm that hit our area: How to be Ready for an Emergency.
However, sometimes things go wrong and your agent or insurance agency mishandles your claim or you don’t get the fair result you expected. In this case you don’t have to just settle for what you get, you can report a bad insurance agent or agency through a claim with your state.
The first step when you get a decision that you don’t agree with is to try to negotiate a better settlement amount or claim amount with the agent. If you can reach a satisfactory agreement that is often better then the time and energy that will be invested in filing a claim against the agent. However, if your case was just handled poorly or you just can’t reach an agreement, then filing a claim with the state is necessary.
Where to Start
Search the state department of insurance website to locate the name and address of who to contact in your state. Some states like NY and CT have consumer complaint forms available for you to use in conjunction with their formal insurance department claim center. You can print and complete these forms to get started. If your state doesn’t have forms available online, you can print one from a state that does and use it as a template for your complaint.
If you are having trouble figuring out who to contact in your state you can look up the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and their site will direct you to the appropriate contact in your state.
Filing the Claim
You will want to complete the claim against your agent thoroughly and accurately. This means thinking with a clear head and detailing facts only. It is important to list all events and contacts in chronological order. Include any contact you had with the agent, police, insurance company, doctors or anyone pertinent to your case.
Attach any necessary documents. This could be health records in terms of a health care claim or an accident report if it was a vehicle claim. It’s important to hold on to the original documents and just send in photo copies in case they get misplaced and you need to furnish additional copies.
Remember to sign and date your claim before you send it in. Then you will want to send it to your state department of insurance claims.
Follow Up
If you want to achieve satisfactory results, it is important to follow up. Usually two weeks after you submit your claim is sufficient time for follow up. Keep following up ever week until your claim is handled.
Follow Up, Follow Up
A friend of mine who is industry read my post and wanted to add their two cents. I thought it was a good perspective, so I wanted to share…..
Saw you post a few days ago about insurance claims. Being in the business, it struck a chord with me. I could ramble on with many things but a few that stuck out to me about your article/post/whatever was that it assumed everyone who has an issue with the way their claim is handled had a covered loss? Admittedly, I didn’t research the context of your article but am assuming you’re trying to educate the public. Just wanted to ensure that it was objective! Naturally, email/written text doesn’t allow me to provide non-verbals and context to this message. It is all in good fun and nothing that I am losing any sleep over – or you either for that matter. Just some food for thought.
If you didn’t receive remarkable customer service or were denied coverage for a covered loss, then there are grounds to file complaints. If the top insurance companies mess up, although I know that with respect to the people I work with and what I believe in my company, it isn’t malicious. More so, human error or misinterpretations. I wouldn’t bat an eye to file a complaint myself as a consumer if I thought I was treated unjustly or unfairly, especially when I’ve entered into a contract. But, if you expect insurance to cover general maintenance on your property when your roofer uncovered rotted roof decking once they take hail damaged shingles off your roof – there may not be anything a judge or the department of insurance can do to help you – maintenance isn’t covered. Also, there are areas in most insurance policies that outline alternative dispute resolutions – be it appraisal, arbitration, or filing suit. Often times, these are measures sought outside of asking the DOI to step in which is often viewed as the final option when others didn’t suffice (I think often times the DOI would agree).
One other thing I thought was interesting was that you filed your claim quickly to get to the top of the list. Certainly can’t speak for all insurance companies, but can say based on my experience, this is a general misconception. Most companies assign claims based on severity. The people with more damage generally get inspected first. But there are a lot of subjective items that go into it as well – namely the schedule/location of the assigned adjuster. There are other factors but but just because you file a claim quickly doesn’t mean you’re going to get inspected quicker – relatively speaking.
Anyway, that is my 2 cents – or a quarter based on the amount I’ve typed out here! I just sort of felt like reading it, that you were maybe supporting filing a compliant when you didn’t get what you thought you deserved when the general concept of insurance is confusing for many. I am by no means saying all insurance companies have unwavering ethics or morals. Since USAA is giving you some props – check out there article about myths in insurance. They list some common ones that any insurance company would agree are out there. Wow – I thought this would be a few sentences and this turned into a book. Now I need to go back and read it again and make sure I’ve covered everything! Anyway, I seriously wanted to more so give you props for what you’re doing and jab at you a little and this turned heavy on the jab (in good fun) and less on the props.
Have you had a bad experience with an insurance agent? If so, share your experience in the comments below.
News that Amazon.com is reconsidering putting a second headquarters in New York City has dealmakers wobbling their heads. According to the news, a wave of public outcry and political maneuvering may well force the company to look elsewhere.
Amazon’s highly publicized search for a second headquarters appeared to be over as billionaire Jeff Bezos’ company seemed all set to create 25,000 jobs at a new campus in New York City. Real estate professionals close to the potential deal were anticipating new life being breathed into the stagnant NY market. Then a 29-year old congresswoman named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (above) pointed out what should have been obvious from the start. The subsidies and sweet offers New York offered Amazon were just too sweet. A political firestorm ensued, and the community lashed out at local politicians and dealmakers.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo (D) and Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) have been singing the praises of the Amazon deal, calling it an economic triumph. At the end of the day, citizens of the state do not feel like giving giant subsidies to the world’s most valuable company at this moment in time is a good idea. Amazon has now hired an independent PR firm to try and sooth the deal over, but Ocasio-Cortez’s support base is solid. Sen. Michael N. Gianaris (D-Queens), appointed recently to the Public Authorities Control Board that will decide on the deal, has accused Amazon of extortion the past. The deputy senior majority leader was cited by the Washington Post commenting:
“Amazon has extorted New York from the start, and this seems to be their next effort to do just that. If their view is, ‘We won’t come unless we get three billion of your dollars,’ then they shouldn’t come.”
Many see this Amazon-NY struggle as one of populism versus the corporate elites, some calling the deal a “tipping point” in a kind of class struggle. Back in November Amazon dangled a huge carrot in front of New Yorkers and Long Island City residents by promising salaries of $150,000 a year to as many as 50,000 workers. The Jeff Bezos run company had originally planned a single headquarters but instead split the new development in two in between New York and Long Island. Now Amazon is threatening to pull out.
At the end of the day Amazon and supporters of the new HQ deal are claiming a $3 billion dollar subsidies package taxpayers will have to deal with. However, an Intercept report recently shows the actual amount of the subsidies is closer to $5 billion. And this does not include a Federal tax loophole that will save Amazon and cost truckloads of revenue. It turns out the Amazon location in Long Island City, in the New York City borough of Queens, puts the new Amazon HQ in a tax zone that lets the company defer income tax until many residents are dead or in old folks homes. The so-called “Tax Landing” zones let companies defer their taxes until 2026. Under the tax overhaul signed into effect by President Donald Trump last year, investors in opportunity zones can defer payments of capital gains taxes until 2026, and exclude 15 percent of the gains from taxation if they hold them for 7 years.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her constituents are bringing to light much of the hyperbole the Amazon PR teams have set in motion to create this deal. This Good Jobs First report also reveals Amazon PR people shorting potential workers by almost $40,000 a year. The “rabbit hole” of Amazon’s deal seems endless now that Freedom of Information Act disclosures show the under the table maneuvers of Amazon. One big question opponents of the deal have is, “What else is underneath?” Not much publicity has been given to the fact that the cities making the biggest known subsidy offers did not win the deal. Few people realize that Montgomery County, Maryland offered an $8.5 billion subsidies package or the St. Louis wagered $7.3 billion. Some say Amazon owner Jeff Bezos wants the HQs close to his three listed residences, and other experts contend the Virginia HQ is close to the Pentagon, a big customer for Bezos’ company. Whatever the case is, odds seem good the New York deal will turn sour fast as more revelations are brought into the limelight.
In conclusion, big companies taking huge subsidies for dangling the carrot of more jobs has cost Americans untold billions in potential revenue. Companies like Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Foxconn promise jobs, but those jobs end up costing taxpayers more than they are worth. This The Guardian story peels back the veil on this aspect of corporate dealmaking. The companies typically overstate the positive impacts like the number of jobs and the overall community aspects, and they end up paying little or no tax at all. The Guardian report shows that local schools and other infrastructure in need of financial help, suffer an inestimable loss on account of the long tail of corporate subsidies. No wonder some experts are calling this high profile Amazon case a battle between populism and the corporate elites.
Phil Butler is a former engineer, contractor, and telecommunications professional who is editor of several influential online media outlets including part owner of Pamil Visions with wife Mihaela. Phil began his digital ramblings via several of the world’s most noted tech blogs, at the advent of blogging as a form of journalistic license. Phil is currently top interviewer, and journalist at Realty Biz News.
On Thursday, attorneys for the former employees, Sprout’s affiliated company Recovco Mortgage Management and Michael Strauss, an industry veteran who founded the lender, requested that the court to continue its review of the settlement.
“The bankruptcy proceeding was commenced only against Sprout, so consistent with the approach adopted by some cases under similar circumstances as those presented here, the parties request that the automatic stay only applies to the action against Sprout, not Recovco or Strauss,” an attorney for the former employees wrote in court filings.
In addition, the parties requested that the judge allow the distribution of funds currently escrowed under the settlement reached before the involuntary bankruptcy petition. They claim that the escrowed funds are not the property of Sprout’s estate for bankruptcy.
According to the document, Sprout has “nearly fully complied with the terms of the class settlement agreement, but for the last $300,000 payment.”
The document states that Recovco and Strauss are not admitting any liability but believe that under the circumstances present, it is in the interest of all parties for the settlement process to continue.
Scott Simpson, one of the attorneys for the former employees at Menken Simpson & Rozger LLP, said he had no comment.
“Our clients still have no comment,” Marc Wenger, an attorney for the defendants Sprout, Recovco and Strauss at Jackson Lewis P.C., said.
Also due to the involuntary bankruptcy petition, Sprout’s attorneys moved to adjourn “without date” a pending motion and a hearing scheduled for August 3 on a lawsuit filed by Merchants Bank of Indiana.
Sprout’s lawyers mentioned in court filings Section 362 of the Bankruptcy Code, which gives debtor protection from creditors, among other things, from “the commencement or continuation of any judicial, administrative, or other action or proceeding” that was or could have been commenced before the bankruptcy court case.
Merchants Bank of Indiana claims in its lawsuit that it purchased a mortgage loan from Sprout, and the underlying borrowers subsequently tendered a full payoff of the mortgage loan to Sprout. Still, the company failed to remit it to Merchants as the parties’ written agreement required. The total value was $1.2 million.
A representative for Merchants said the company had no comment.
Long Island-based Sprout informed hundreds of workers and business partners it was closing its doors on July 6, 2022, when a sharp rise in rates saddled the company with loans it could not sell to investors in the secondary market at par.
Ex-employees alleged the company did not pay their last paychecks and severance package. The company also canceled health insurance coverage retroactively to May 1, resulting in several lawsuits against the lender. The lender is also the target of lawsuits from former business partners.
Strauss is reportedly trying to sell a property at 610 Park Avenue in New York for $19.9 million and has started a new mortgage company. But Strauss and his new company, Smart Rate Mortgage,appealed in April a decision from an Illinois regulator to suspend their licenses to operate in the state. Meanwhile, the licenses remain active.
Housing discrimination continues to be a serious problem plaguing renters, homebuyers, and homeowners throughout America.
There were more than 31,200 fair housing complaints filed in 2021, the most recent year where data was available, according to the National Fair Housing Alliance’s 2022 Fair Housing Trends Report. That was the most complaints filed in at least 25 years. The majority, 82%, involved rentals.
“Housing discrimination is pervasive in housing markets across the country,” says Morgan Williams, general counsel of NFHA. “Discrimination is significantly underreported. It’s hard to get good data.”
In 1968, the federal Fair Housing Act was passed to make the rampant discrimination in the housing market illegal. It initially protected people based on race, color, national origin, and religion. Familial status, disability, and sex, which includes sexual orientation and gender identity, have since been added as protected classes.
This is meant to ensure that everyone is treated equally when renting or buying homes, receiving home loans or insurance, and having their homes appraised. However, people are still being denied housing based on their race or sexual orientation, and pregnant women are being denied mortgages.
The NFHA commissioned a report in 2004 that estimated that there were likely more than 3 million fair housing violations against Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Native Americans in the rental and for-sale housing market. This didn’t include violations against other protected groups or in the mortgage, appraisal, and other facets of the real estate industry. When adding those in, he expects there are more than 4 million victims of housing discrimination a year.
Much of the discrimination goes unreported. Many people don’t realize they are victims or are unaware of how to file a fair housing complaint. Those who do often face an uphill battle in proving that they are victims. And some worry about losing their housing if they complain.
“It is a real problem in the market,” says Williams.
What are the most common fair housing complaints?
The bulk of the fair housing complaints received in 2021 were related to disability, according to the NFHA report. These made up about 54.2% of complaints. It was followed by race, familial status, sex, national origin, color, and religion. The report captured complaints filed with nonprofit fair housing organizations and government agencies, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“There is still a tremendous amount of ignorance, as well as conscious and unconscious bias regarding people who are differently abled,” says Stephen Beard. He is an Oakland, CA, real estate agent with Keller Williams who specializes in working with people with disabilities. “Some landlords and other decision-makers do the minimum they can get away with.”
Some of the issues faced by those in the disabled community include being denied rentals because of the way they are perceived, not receiving reasonable accommodations for ramps, chairlifts, and closer parking spaces, as well as landlords not allowing service support animals. Sometimes light fixtures and countertops are out of reach for those in wheelchairs, or kitchens aren’t wide enough to accommodate a chair.
“There simply is not enough accessible housing stock for people with physical challenges, as well as bias against people with cognitive challenges such as autism or who have mental health issues,” says Beard. Many people “can’t find housing. If they have housing, they sometimes can’t afford to move or make their own homes accessible.”
Securing housing is also often a challenge for members of protected classes. For example, families might report that their landlords illegally prohibit their children from accessing amenities in their complexes. People of color are denied mortgages or charged higher fees for loans compared with white borrowers with similar financial pictures. Transgender renters report being evicted due to their gender identity.
“Housing affects absolutely everything you do,” says Marlene Zarfes, executive director of Westchester Residential Opportunities. The civil rights agency works on fair housing complaints in Westchester County, NY, which is located just north of New York City. “If you don’t have suitable housing, how do you get to your job? How do your kids go to school?”
One word: sparingly. Radiant Orchid, we have to admit: it’s been a little hard to figure out what to do with you. But we think we’ve finally got it.
We can be in support of you hanging around in small doses. You certainly make these modern chairs pop.
You can also be rather fun when you’re being a bit cheeky. A saturated classic portrait and traditional Victorian sette suddenly feel new.
Playing with your close cousins on each side of the color scale will help you feel a bit more relevant. Lighter lavenders play on the latest pastel trends and deep dark eggplants look dramatic and lush in places like Turkish rugs, wall art and maybe a pillow or two.
Radiant Orchid, we were afraid you were going to be a wallflower, but perhaps you can be the life of the party…only the rest of the year will tell how well you catch on.
What about you, friends? Have you been convinced you too can add purple to your life? We’d love to know!
image 1 via Agent Bauer // 2 via Gubi // 3 via The Klein // 4 via NY Mag // 5 via Flos // 6 via O’Connor & Houle // 7 via A Creative Mint // 8 via Interior Magasinet // 9 via Old Brand New Blog // 10 via Stadshem