A new Cook County treasurer's office study, "Maps of Inequality: From Redlining to Urban Decay and the Black Exodus" details how federal government-sanctioned housing discrimination from the 1940s brought about urban decay and the ensuing exodus of Blacks from Chicago and other major U.S. cities.
According to an executive summary, the study found that vast tracts of vacant and abandoned properties in Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia lie in areas where the U.S. government warned against mortgage lending. That government-sanctioned redliningdenying loans to homeowners in minority areas because they were deemed financial risksthwarted generations of Blacks from obtaining generational wealth through home ownership.
Redlining, combined with racist housing covenants that locked Blacks and other minorities out of white neighborhoods that were not redlined, led to predatory contract sales that came with excessive interest rates, bigger down payments and no equity until the entire loan was paid off. Subprime mortgages later replaced contract sales and often ended in default and investment loss.
Key findings include:
The overwhelming majority of vacant and abandoned properties that plague Chicago's South and West sides, as well as many south suburbs and west suburban Maywood, were either redlineddeemed hazardous for lendingor drawn in yellow, meaning they were at risk of falling into the red category.
Similar discriminatory patterns existed in Detroit and Philadelphia, two other major cities that struggle with urban decay and the departure of Black residents.
Vacant and abandoned properties in the Chicago area fall almost exclusively in areas where majority Black, majority Latino or majority-minority populations are declining.
At the same time, those neighborhoods suffer from high crime rates.
So many homes and businesses are vacant and abandoned in some south suburbs that those towns collect a fraction of the property taxes needed to provide basic government services. That drives up tax rates on the remaining property owners to some of the highest in the nation and, in turn, drives up the cost of owning a home or business.
The Scavenger Sale, a decades-old program meant to put distressed properties back to productive usein combination with efforts by Chicago and the Cook County Land Bank Authorityhas been insufficient to address the complexities of urban decay. These findings were based on a review of data, maps and scholarly research from across the nation. The study features interactive maps, data and a review of research on the topics of housing discrimination, and vacant and abandoned properties.
The full study, executive summary and maps are at www.cookcountytreasurer.com/scavengersalestudymapsofinequality.aspx.