Woodstock Institute Newsroom

Don't forget--this Thursday, representatives from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, CitiMortgage, National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Community Investment Corporation, and Oak Park Regional Housing Center will debate the impact of proposed changes to the housing finance system on communities of color and low-wealth communities at a panel we're hosting at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Bankruptcy filers in African-American neighborhoods choose potentially risky Chapter 13 more often than filers in white communities

Women in Cook County’s African-American neighborhoods file for bankruptcy at a disproportionately high rate, a new report from Woodstock Institute found. The report also found that bankruptcy filers in African-American communities are far more likely to choose Chapter 13 bankruptcy over Chapter 7, a trend that may indicate limited economic benefits of the bankruptcy process to filers in these communities.

During the last year, your support has proven critical in helping Woodstock pursue its fair lending, wealth creation, and financial systems reform work. We are thankful to have had the opportunity to partner with you to promote foreclosure prevention, payday lending reform, and examining the impact of concentrated, very low credit scores.

Representatives from leading policy and community development organizations met with Senator Dick Durbin on Thursday, February 24 in the Roseland neighborhood to examine ways to stop the scourge of vacant homes on Chicago area communities.

Whether it’s sharing best practices, catching up with colleagues at like-minded organizations, or meeting with policy makers, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition’s 2011 Annual Conference promises to brings together hundreds of community leaders, development experts, bankers, legislators, regulators, academics and others. Participants explore and debate the state of the industry and measures needed to ensure fair access to capital and to bring more people into the financial mainstream.

The Chicago six-county region saw nearly 80,000 new foreclosure filings in 2010, says data released today by Woodstock Institute. This 14 percent increase in new foreclosures from 2009 to 2010 happened in spite of a dip in the fourth quarter of 2010, likely due to the moratoria many mortgage servicers instated after it was discovered that a number of servicers were improperly preparing foreclosure documents.

“Clearly, the foreclosure problem in the Chicago area is not going away anytime soon,” said Senior Vice President Geoff Smith. “Even though many foreclosures were halted for several months in 2010, the region still saw double-digit increases from 2009 to 2010. It is likely that we will see an even larger jump in foreclosures in early 2011.”