Business
Black Economic gains reversed in Great Recession
BALTIMORE (AP) – For the black community, where unemployment continues to rise, job loss has knocked them out of the middle class and back into poverty…
Black homeownership hit an all-time high in 2004, with 50 percent of African-Americans owning their homes, according to census data.
Today, the black homeownership rate is 45 percent, compared with 74 percent for whites. Nearly 8 percent of African-Americans who bought homes from 2005-2008 have lost them to foreclosure, compared with 4.5 percent of whites, according to an estimate by the Center for Responsible Lending.
Goldring remembers that when she got the foreclosure notice from the bank, “I bawled.”
Her son, Chris Fredericks, says she was “vulnerable, more than I have ever seen her, but she still kept moving.”
He was incredulous that his mother was in such a position. “At any point, you can slip back. It’s just the way the economy is going,” he says. “Once you get into a spiral, there’s no telling how far down you could go.”
One day, at a counseling session on how to prevent foreclosure, Goldring learned about a new Maryland program that offered help to people who were behind on their mortgages due to layoffs or medical bills.
She thought it was too good to be true. It wasn’t.
The Emergency Mortgage Assistance program, financed by federal money, offered a zero-interest loan of up to $50,000. The money would pay off up to a year of back mortgage payments, plus up to two years of regular payments. All Goldring had to do was pay 31 percent of her current gross income, or the full mortgage payment if she got a new job close to her original salary.
And so on a sweltering June day, Goldring stood before a podium in her freshly mulched back yard, flanked by a congressman, the mayor, the lieutenant governor, and other officials. The sound of chirping birds filled the air. Cameras rolled as the dignitaries told Goldring’s story, using her as an example to spread word of the Emergency Mortgage Program to other struggling homeowners.
“I want to thank you for your courage,” said the lieutenant governor, Anthony Brown.
“I know you did everything right,” Brown said. “You worked hard, you saved diligently, but challenges never overtaking our will sometimes overtake our wallets.”
Goldring stood in front of the microphone and exhaled.
“After this,” she said, “the only good thing would be to be employed, once again.”
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
