Queens foreclosure homes are clustered in minority neighborhoods, according to a housing report from the New York University Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy.
Based on the report, nearly 95 percent of all foreclosure filings in New York City in the first nine months of the year occurred in outer boroughs where there are a lot of minorities like Jamaica in Queens. The report also said that total foreclosure postings in the first 3 quarters have risen by two percent compared to the same period last year.
According to Furman Center, there were almost 1,600 foreclosure postings in Jamaica from January to September this year. In the nearby Queens Village, there were 1,077 filings. In Canarsie and Flatlands, there were nearly 800 postings, almost 5 times the level of foreclosure postings in the Brooklyn Heights area.
In neighborhoods in East New York and Bedford Stuyvesant, the pace of foreclosure filings was 12 times the foreclosure pace in Midtown.
According to Furman Center analysts, the concentration of Queens foreclosure homes in minority neighborhoods showed the adverse impact of subprime lending in these areas. In 2007, the percentage of subprime mortgage loans provided to African American borrowers in the city was 7 times the percentage of subprime loans provided to white loan applicants.
In Jamaica, considered the epicenter of New York City's foreclosures, almost 75 percent of residents are African Americans and just 1.6 percent of residents are white. Housing counselors said that there are only a few national banks operating in minority areas, so most residents had to go to local lenders which provided subprime loans.
Bernell Grier, interim CEO of Neighborhood Housing Services, said that his foreclosure map shows the clustering of foreclosure dots in neighborhoods where there are a lot of blacks and other minorities like Southeastern Queens.
The analysts said that there are a lot of foreclosure prevention and counseling programs launched by nonprofits and government agencies, but many could not take advantage of them because they are jobless.
One of these is the Neighborhood Housing Services in Jamaica, which renegotiates loan terms with lenders for delinquent homeowners. This nonprofit has counseled around 500 homeowners this year, but has modified only 100 mortgages.
NHS is one of nonprofits established under the foreclosure crisis program launched by the city government called Center for New York City Neighborhoods in partnership with the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project and the Legal Services NYC.
