From Foreclosure to Fair Lending: Advocacy, Organizing, Occupy, and the Pursuit of Equitable Credit (Edited by Chester Hartman & Gregory D. Squires, October 2013)

Contributing Authors

Shanti Abedin, Katrin B. Anacker, David Berenbaum, Saqib Bhatti, Janis Bowdler, James H. Carr, Peter Dreier, Katrina S. Forrest, José A. Garcia, George Goehl, Debby Goldberg, Chester Hartman, Sandra Hinson, Donald L. Kahl, Stephen Lerner, Mike Miller, john a. powell, John P. Relman, Lisa Rice, Robert G. Schwemm, M William Sermons, Shanna L. Smith, Gregory D. Squires

Co-editors

Chester Hartman is an urban planner, author, academic, and Director of Research, Poverty & Race Research Action Council. He has served on the faculty of the City Planning Departments of Harvard University, Yale University, Cornell University, Columbia University, University of North Carolina, University of California-Berkeley, American University, and George Washington University. He is founder and former chair of the Planners Network and consultant to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, US Civil Rights Commission, Arthur D. Little, Southern Poverty Law Center, and the California Department of Housing and Community Development.

Gregory D. Squires is Professor of Sociology and Public Policy and Public Administration, George Washington University. Previously, Squires taught at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and served as a research analyst with the US Commission on Civil Rights. He is Advisory Board Member of the John Marshall Law School Fair Housing Legal Support Center in Chicago, on the District of Columbia Advisory Committee to the US Commission on Civil Rights, and on the Social Science Advisory Board of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council. He has served as a consultant for civil rights organizations around the country and as a member of the Federal Reserve Board’s Consumer Advisory Council.

Book Explores New Wave of Fair Housing Activism in the Face of Foreclosures

“Given the continuing fallout of the foreclosure debacle, the timing could not be better for this book.” — Ben Jealous, President, NAACP

Drawing from the experiences of leading fair housing experts, community and union organizers, and activist scholars, From Foreclosure to Fair Lending is the first serious approach to explaining the meaning of the Occupy protests as they relate to the goals of fair lending and fair housing. It reminds readers of the ongoing significance of the civil rights movement and the tactics that made it successful. As specialists in social justice organizing and advocacy movements, contributors reveal the limitations of current advocacy efforts and the challenges that remain in addressing issues such as the foreclosure crisis, access to credit in a changing marketplace, and the immoral hazards of big banks.

The book explains how low-income and minority households have traditionally been, and continue to be, denied equitable access to housing, housing finance, and related services. It also explores the victories and limitations of past and present advocacy efforts. Contributing authors question the effectiveness of litigation today to uphold the Fair Housing Act’s promise of equal access to housing and housing finance. It explores a wide range of related issues including the effectiveness of current fair housing and civil rights enforcement efforts, where immigrants stand, whether housing should be viewed as a human right, and methods for building a stronger social movement to realize the promise of the Fair Housing Act and broader social justice goals.

The book comes amid reports of ongoing insidious housing bias in clear violation of the 1968 Fair Housing Act. In June 2013, a study commissioned by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) found that housing discrimination against blacks, Hispanics and Asians persists in subtle forms. According to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, the findings reveal the sad truth that “the long struggle to end housing discrimination remains unfinished.” In their capacity as policy intellectuals as well as citizens aiming to highlight the objectives of the 1968 Fair Housing Act, the book’s contributing authors herald a new wave in fair housing activism and achievement.