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U.S. NEWS Thursday 28 July 2022

DOJ: Buffett company discriminated against Black homebuyers

NEW YORK (AP) — A Penn- Josh Shapiro, Pennsylva-
sylvania mortgage com- nia's attorney general who
pany owned by billionaire is running for governor,
businessman Warren Buf- called the behavior by Tri-
fett's company discriminat- dent "systematic racism,
ed against potential Black pure and simple."
and Latino homebuyers in Philadelphia has a long his-
Philadelphia, New Jersey tory of racism toward Black
and Delaware, the De- homebuyers. The Philadel-
partment of Justice said phia City Council released
Wednesday, in what is be- a report Wednesday that
ing called the second-larg- found that 95% of all of
est redlining settlement in the city's home appraisers
history. were white and a racial
Trident Mortgage Co., a gap remains between how
division of Berkshire Ha- homes owned by Black ho-
thaway's HomeServices meowners are valued ver-
of America, deliberately sus homes owned by white
avoided writing mortgages owners.
in minority-majority neigh- Hughes said he and oth-
borhoods in West Philadel- er legislators were furious
phia like Malcolm X Park; about revelations of the
Camden, New Jersey; and Kristen Clarke, at podium, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Divi- redlining by Trident and
in Wilmington, Delaware, sion, is joined with, from left, New Jersey First Assistant Attorney General Lyndsay Ruotolo, Pennsyl- others in a 2018 investiga-
the Justice Department vania state Sen. Vincent Hughes, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, Rohit Chopra, CFPB tion by Reveal into Buf-
Director, Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings and Jacqueline C. Romero, United States
and the Consumer Finan- Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania during a press conference at Malcolm X Park, fett's mortgage compa-
cial Protection Bureau said Wednesday morning. July 27, 2022, West Philadelphia, Pa. nies. They pressed Shapiro
in their settlement with Tri- Associated Press during an appropriations
dent. hearing, and the Attorney
As part of the agreement Wednesday. Hughes said witnessed that discrimina- households are far less like- General responded by set-
with the government, Tri- portions of his life have tion in real time." ly to own their home com- ting up a hotline to gather
dent will have to set aside been framed by the dis- Redlining is a term used to pared to their white coun- personal stories.
$20 million to make loans criminatory lending prac- describe when banks de- terparts. As part of the settlement,
in underserved neighbor- tices that prevent Black liberately avoid making The alleged redlining ac- Trident agreed to hire mort-
hoods. and brown communities loans to non-white com- tivity alleged happened gage loan officers in im-
"Trident's unlawful redlining from building wealth. munities. Banks and the U.S. between 2015 and 2019 pacted neighborhoods as
activity denied communi- Hughes' father worked for government used to draw — Trident stopped writ- well as pay a $4 million fine.
ties of color equal access one of the oldest Black- on maps in red marker ing mortgages in 2020. Since Trident no longer op-
to residential mortgages, owned savings and loans, those neighborhoods that Along with avoiding mak- erates a lending business, a
stripped them of the op- a company name Berean were deemed undesirable ing mortgages in minority separate company will be
portunity to build wealth, that would finance mort- to make home loans. The neighborhoods, the Trident contracted to provide the
and devalued properties gages for Black families neighborhoods were al- employees made racist $20 million in loan subsidies,
in their neighborhoods," when they were turned most always areas where comments about making the Justice Department
said Kristen Clarke, an as- away by other banks and racial minorities lived, and loans to Black homebuyers, said.
sistant Attorney General of lenders. even included other histori- calling certain neighbor- The Trident settlement also
the Justice Department's "I've had people come up cally discriminated-against hoods "ghettos." One man- involves the first redlining
Civil Rights Division, in a pre- to me and say, 'Vince, your communities such as Jew- ager of Trident was photo- case against a nonbank
pared statement. dad gave me a mortgage ish neighborhoods. graphed posing in front of mortgage lender. Since the
Sen. Vincent Hughes, a for my first home when I was The practice effectively cut the Confederate Flag. The Great Recession, roughly
Philadelphia Democrat, turned down everywhere off entire communities from marketing materials used half of all mortgages in the
grew up a few blocks from else. If it wasn't for Berean the primary pathway for by Trident involved exclu- country are underwritten
the West Philadelphia park and your dad, I wouldn't wealth generation in the sively white individuals, and by companies that imme-
where a news conference have been able to buy my U.S.: homeownership. To nearly all of the company's diately sell off the mort-
on the settlement was held home," Hughes said. "We this day, Black and Latino staff were white. gage to investors. q