Foreclosed properties in racially distinct neighborhoods are not maintained to the same standards as those in white middle-class neighborhoods, according to a lawsuit filed Monday against Fannie Mae by the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA).
Hartford’s Connecticut Fair Housing Center and 19 local fair housing groups across the country also are party to the housing discrimination lawsuit filed in federal district court in San Francisco.
Fannie Mae is an arm of the Federal Housing Finance Agency charged with buying and selling mortgages from lenders.
The result of a multi-year investigation, the lawsuit alleges that Fannie Mae deliberately fails to maintain its foreclosures, also known as real-estate owned or REO properties, in middle- and working-class African American and Latino neighborhoods to the same level of quality it does for foreclosures it owns in white middle- and working-class neighborhoods.
The data supporting the federal lawsuit, which includes substantial photographic evidence, illustrate a pattern of discriminatory conduct by Fannie Mae, the plaintiffs contend.
In Hartford, the plaintiffs state, communities of color had fewer than five maintenance problems only 7.7 percent of the time, 53.8 percent had damaged steps and handrails and 46.2 percent had trash visible on the property, as opposed to 20 percent of the time for white neighborhoods, among other findings.
During the past several years, NFHA says it notified Fannie Mae many times of this failure. Despite many meetings to address the issues, Fannie Mae continued to neglect its properties in African American and Latino neighborhoods, the lawsuit states.
