Black people in Baltimore received less than half as many mortgages as their white neighbors, according to a new report – even though black people make up the majority of the city’s population.  White Baltimoreans looking to buy homes were approved for mortgages 75% of the time, compared with 61% for black applicants. Despite the fact that just 28% of the city’s population is white, compared with 63% black, white residents applied for mortgages at twice the rate, the report released by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition found.  In 2013, 2,653 mortgage applicants were white and 1,999 of them were approved. That same year, the number of black mortgage applicants were 1,304, of which 797 were approved.  The report also found that residents in predominantly white neighborhoods were more likely to qualify for a mortgage than those living in predominantly black neighborhoods.  “If lenders are not making loans in a community, the opportunities for people to work their way out of poverty is pretty slim,” John Taylor, the coalition’s president, told the New York Times. “In Baltimore, the prevailing factor behind who gets a mortgage is the racial composition of the neighborhood.”  Race in Baltimore came under increased scrutiny earlier this year after the death of Freddie Gray, who died while in police custody. Gray had come from one of Baltimore’s poorest neighborhoods with a black population of 96.6%. In 2012, more than a third of the neighborhood lived in poverty, and 51.2% of the households were making ends meet on less than $25,000. The unemployment rate was 24.2%.  Related: In Freddie Gray's neighborhood, more than a third of households are in poverty  These are the characteristics of neighborhoods where mortgages were hard to come by – as opposed to predominantly white neighborhoods like South Baltimore, where just 2.7% of residents are black and more than 50% of the area’s residents make above $75,000 a year.  This income and racial disparity accounts for some of the tension that surfaced after Gray’s death leading to days of riots across number of Baltimore’s neighborhoods.  “I think it’s fair to say that Baltimore is not now one of the safest cities in America,” said Bernie Sanders on Saturday evening during the second Democratic debate. The Vermont senator and a presidential candidate is not the only one to think so; by issuing fewer loans in neighborhoods, banks are basically writing them off as unsafe.  The mortgage data analyzed by the coalition was from 2013 – more than a year before Gray’s death.  Related: Baltimore is open for business: can the city convince customers it's safe?  About 350 local businesses were damaged in the riots that took place last spring. The Small Business Administration put the damages at $8.9m. To assist affected businesses with costs and repairs, the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) hoped to raise $15m for its riot recovery fund, but has been unable to do so.  The funds were going to be used to provide zero-interest loans of up to $35,000 to the affected businesses.  By September, the BDC had been able to raise a little more than $300,000 – about 2% of its original goal.  “We have basically broken the bank,” said Bill Cole, president of the BDC. “We have run out of funds and we have a number of businesses that still need – we call them microloans – in order to recover.”  Those businesses will have to seek financial assistance from banks. The study conducted by the coalition found that while not as drastic as with mortgages, small business loans in predominantly African American neighborhoods in Baltimore city were also harder to come by than in predominantly white neighborhoods.
Findings indicate race is a factor in approval of mortgages and small business loans, with predominantly black neighborhoods lagging behind white ones