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Articles by Gregory Squires
Fair housing advocacy: Mortgage lending transparency matters more than ever
Fair Housing, as we have known it for several decades under Republican and Democratic administrations, is over.
A $400 million price tag for a ballroom? What if we invested in families instead?
The import of budget figures, particularly those large values contained within the federal budget, has become something to which we are numb, or worse, indifferent. A $1.5 trillion request for the U.S. Department of Defense, when all government expenditures total just over $7.5 trillion, is a large number and gets the attention of Congress. But the public is systematically desensitized to expenditures in the billions, and millions barely get noticed. This is not new; it just seems worse.
Black and Latino homeowners in Philly face face appraisal bias
For most families, owning a home is the primary way to accumulate wealth and transfer that wealth to future generations. But in Philadelphia and other U.S. cities, studies have shown that if you live in a Black or Hispanic neighborhood, your home is more likely to be appraised below its market value when compared to homes in non-Hispanic white neighborhoods. This is called home appraisal bias. An appraisal represents an expert opinion of the value of a home.
Black and Latino homeowners in Philly face discrimination when appraisers assess their properties
The appraisal is critical to securing a mortgage to purchase a home or to refinancing an existing mortgage. It can determine whether an applicant gets a mortgage and influence how much the mortgage costs. For example, if a borrower must take out a mortgage for more than 80% of a property’s value, they may be required to pay for private mortgage insurance in some cases.
Black and Latino homeowners in Philly face discrimination when appraisers assess their properties Original
For most families, owning a home is the primary way to accumulate wealth and transfer that wealth to future generations. But in Philadelphia and other U.S. cities, studies have shown that if you live in a Black or Hispanic neighborhood, your home is more likely to be appraised below its market value when compared to homes in non-Hispanic white neighborhoods. This is called home appraisal bias. An appraisal represents an expert opinion of the value of a home.
The Federal Government Won't Stop Home Appraisal Bias. Local Officials Can.
As the election of 2024 has made painfully clear, elections have consequences. One of the consequences of the recent federal election is a shift in the government’s approach to fair housing, especially its enforcement of federal civil rights laws. This includes a shift of federal attention away from home appraisal bias.
Insurance Redlining Is Back-But We Can Fight It
In 1986 a district manager for the American Family Insurance Company in Milwaukee told one of his agents to “quit writing all those blacks. . . . Very honestly, I think you write too many blacks. . . . We cannot afford them. . . .
Appraisal Bias Is the Fair Housing Issue of the Day
This article originally appeared on NextCity.org. Last spring, under the leadership of former city council member Cherelle Parker, the Philadelphia Home Appraisal Bias Task Force released a report documenting racial bias in home appraisal practices nationwide and in Philadelphia. Among the recommendations in the Philadelphia report was a call for greater disclosure of appraisal practices and greater transparency in the industry.
Appraisal Bias Is The Fair Housing Issue Of The Day
Op-ed: Newly released data on home appraisal practices is a step forward in the fight against racially biased appraisals. There's still a long way to go. Last spring, under the leadership of former city councilmember Cherelle Parker, the Philadelphia Home Appraisal Bias Task Force released a report documenting racial bias in home appraisal practices nationwide and in Philadelphia.
How to attack racial bias in home appraisals
Appraisal bias has become one of the core fair housing issues of the day. President Biden created an interagency task force on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE), which released its report in March. The report devoted several pages to the importance of federal agencies doing a more effective job of sharing appraisal information with each other.
Ecological Associations Between Inclusionary Zoning Policies and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Prevalence: An Observational Study
Originally published8 Sep 2021https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.120.007807Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. ;0:CIRCOUTCOMES.120.007807 Abstract Background: Providing an adequate supply of affordable housing has become an increasingly difficult challenge for US cities. Inclusionary zoning (IZ) policies have become an increasingly popular response. Substantial research has demonstrated the health benefits of stable, affordable housing.
Pollution is a form of racial injustice crippling western Louisville
John Hans Gilderbloom, LaGlenda Reed, Dwan Turner, Michael Brazley and Gregory D. Squires Deadly pollution is Louisville’s most urgent problem, making many westside neighborhoods unlivable, unsustainable, unhealthy and unprosperous. It is the number one cause of environmental racial injustice. The powerful want you to believe that pollution is not a problem. In other words, if you can’t see it, it must not exist. Science, data, facts and truth tell a much different story.
Just How Many Cops Are ‘Bad Apples’?
We have long heard how the vast majority of police officers are doing a good job under extremely difficult circumstances. According to Fox News commentator Sean Hannity, the figure is over 99 percent. If we could just weed out the bad apples, the argument goes, we would solve the problem of “police reform.” National Security Advisor Robert C.
Pollution, Place, and the Unnecessary Tragedy of Premature Death
Louisville, Kentucky. Recent studies show that life expectancy varies by 10 years for low-income Black residents who live in neighborhoods adjacent to a chemical industry park known as Rubbertown and low-income Black residents who live in the rest of the city. Photo by Frederick Olson via flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0 As Brown University sociologist John Logan bluntly observed in 2003, “Some neighborhoods are likely to kill you.” In 2020, we can confirm that some neighborhoods have indeed killed people.
Pollution, Place, and the Unnecessary Tragedy of Premature Death: Lessons for COVID-19?
Protesters gathered in Jefferson Square Park on Tuesday night to fight for climate justice and Black lives. “Bluntly put,some neighborhoods are likely to kill you,” observed Brown University sociologist John Logan in 2003. In 2020, we can confirm that some neighborhoods have killed people. Far too many communities are facing environmental degradation today.
Opinion: Pollution in Black neighborhoods part of Louisville's systemic racism
John Hans Gilderbloom, Gregory D. Squires, Robert P. Friedland and Dwan Turner Thousands of Black and white protesters got a taste recently of what it is like to feel the agony of being gassed by the police. It was painful, sickening and scary. But citizens in western Louisville are regularly “gassed,” causing long-term health problems. The mayor’s own office admits this truth, with people dying an average of 10 years earlier in western Louisville compared to the rest of the city.
Housing - Routledge
15% discount available Use code VAV19 at checkout to activate your discount! Planning & Urban Design On these pages you will find information on the Routledge list which covers City and Urban Planning, Housing and Communities, Planning and Sustainability, Planning History, Planning Theory, Spatial and Regional Planning, Transport Planning, Urban Design and more in the subject of Planning & Urban Design. Find out More Discount cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or discount.
The Right to Stay Put
When anything goes wrong in a city, policymakers all too often just want to move Black people around, asserted Mindy Fullilove, a clinical psychiatrist at the New School, to an audience at a 2015 conference on equitable development in Washington D.C. This has certainly been the formula in the District, going back at least to the redevelopment (what we would today call gentrification and serial displacement) of the Georgetown neighborhood in the 1940s, Foggy Bottom in the 1950s, several...
Opinion | The right to stay put
When anything goes wrong in a city, policymakers all too often just want to move black people around, asserted Mindy Fullilove, a clinical psychiatrist at the New School, to an audience at a 2015 conference on equitable development in the District.
There is No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster | Race, Class, and Hurricane Katrina
There is No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster is the first comprehensive critical book on the catastrophic impact of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans. The disaster will go down on record as one of the worst in American history, not least because of the government’s inept and cavalier response. But it is also a huge story for other reasons; the impact of the hurricane was uneven, and race and class were deeply implicated in the unevenness. Hartman and.
Five decades after Fair Housing Act, segregation continues
Many Americans undoubtedly recognize Norman Rockwell’s 1967 painting, “New Kids in the Neighborhood.” It shows three white and two black children checking each other out as movers unload the black family’s possessions into their new suburban home. The kids’ faces reflect curiosity, along with a sense of optimism about the future of race relations.
Commentary: Five decades after Fair Housing Act, segregation continues
Many Americans undoubtedly recognize Norman Rockwell's 1967 painting, "New Kids in the Neighborhood." It shows three white and two black children checking each other out as movers unload the black family's possessions into their new suburban home. The kids' faces reflect curiosity, along with a sense of optimism about the future of race relations.
Commentary: Five decades after Fair Housing Act, segregation continues
Many Americans undoubtedly recognize Norman Rockwell’s 1967 painting, “New Kids in the Neighborhood.” It shows three white and two black children checking each other out as movers unload the black family’s possessions into their new suburban home. The kids’ faces reflect curiosity, along with a sense of optimism about the future of race relations.
Harvey Is Not a Natural Disaster
It is long past time to stop calling events like Hurricanes Sandy, Katrina, and now Harvey, and likely Irma, natural disasters. There is no such thing. These may be natural events. But many of the costs of recovery—and who pays those costs—are the results of decisions people make. There is nothing natural about the catastrophic consequences of these choices.
Race, Opportunity and Uneven Development in Urban America
When 10-year-old Lafayette Rivers described his hopes in Alex Kotlowitz’ award-winning book, There Are No Children Here, he began, “If I grow up, I’d like to be a bus driver.” Rivers lived in a West Side Chicago public housing complex. Children growing up in more privileged neighborhoods often ponder what they will do when they grow up, but not if they will grow up.
Does consumer protection have a future?
Recent attacks on financial regulation reveal a collective amnesia about the 2008 financial crisis and, more importantly, ignorance of its continuing costs. Particularly with the election of Donald Trump Donald TrumpTrump mulling GOP senator for intel chief: report How the Electoral College changes the value of a person, a bit like slavery did Trump puts companies on notice with Carrier deal MORE, this is contested terrain, and no outcome is certain.
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