Bring Our Wealth Home!

Bring Our Wealth Home! is a project of the Mass. Alliance Against Predatory Lending (MAAPL) — working to reverse illegal predatory loans and foreclosures and the damage they have created.

Bring Our Wealth Home! is led by a team of a dozen and a half leaders of color from different, diverse communities across the state; most fought foreclosure themselves.

Download our 2-page brochure ( PDF ) now to print, read and share with your friends and neighbors!

Reading and Resources

NEW! MAAPL and BOWH File Amicus Brief in Alton King Reconsideration Case

BOWH and MAAPL recommend the following recent articles highlighting the dramatically decreased levels of Black homeownership in the wake of the financial crisis, as well as the impact of mortgage discrimination on Black homebuyers.

BOWH letter to the MA Supreme Judicial Court regarding the Alton King decision, which denies indigent homeowners their constitutional rights by holding that the courts can price such homeowners out of their appeals ( dowload PDF ).

An Open Letter to Speaker DeLeo and the MA House of Representatives Regarding Senate 2015 ( download PDF )
S.2015 was a bill that was intended to help clear title to foreclosed properties. However, it does this by dramatically shortening the amount of time a homeowner has to sue for the return of their property if illegally taken, rather than by taking steps to truly clear the title. This open letter spells out the harms to homeowners and communities of color caused by this bill passing into law.

The Targeting of Subprime Loans to Communities of Color: The Evidence is Clear

The map above shows the clear targeting of subprime loans — never meant to be affordable — to geographic areas with a high density of people of color, and the dramatic foreclosure rate in 2007.

The maps below show an in-depth look at the neighborhoods of Boston and the concentration of Black and Latino households, and the geography of 2007 pre-foreclosure petitions. Based on the 1990 statute outlawing the practice of targeting adverse loans to people of color and communities with higher percentages of people of color, these loans and their foreclosures are presumptively illegal.

Map of pre-foreclosure petitions:

Map of Black household density by Census Tracts:

Map of Latino household density by Census Tracts:

Citation:
Community-based Nonprofits and Neighborhood Distress in Boston, Massachusetts. Prepared for the The Barr Foundation, Boston, Massachusetts, February 2009. James Jennings, Tufts University Medford, Massachusetts.
james.jennings@tufts.edu