Foreclosures Hit NYC's Minority Communities

According to WNYC, "Homeowners in New York are defaulting on their mortgages in record numbers as the nationwide housing crisis has hit the city harder than anyone predicted. Data suggests that foreclosures will reach at least 15,000 by the end of the year, more than double those filed in the city in 2005 as the number of new cases continues to increase."

The stats also show that most of the foreclosures are in the heavily Black and Latino communities of Brooklyn: Bedford Stuyvesant, Bushwick, East New York and Flatbush lead the city in foreclosures.

Data provided by Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, "shows a disturbing trend among victims of the housing crisis in New York. Many of them are elderly or disabled, and the majority are African American or Latino."

According to the report, "these newly vulnerable areas have traditionally been the backbone of New York’s middle class minority communities. But for decades they have been underserved by traditional banking institutions, which opened the door to independent brokers and loan sharks."
Will this crisis erode the thriving middle class of Brooklyn in these areas? Some experts would argue that without a middle class, these communities may not be able to survive the onslaught of gentrification. Time will tell.
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