African Americans caught in the US subprime mortgage crisis have watched homeownership turn into financial ruin, with activists describing the outcome as a form of "financial apartheid." A report by United for a Fair Economy found that people of color were more than three times as likely to hold subprime loans, and estimated that minorities had lost between $163 billion and $278 billion in home equity since 2000.
Cleveland emerged as the crisis's most visible casualty. With roughly 27 percent of its residents living below the poverty line and a large renter population, the city saw approximately 70,000 homes fall into foreclosure, hollowing out entire neighborhoods. Nationwide, about 2.1 million borrowers were behind on mortgage payments.
City officials responded by suing lenders, alleging they had deliberately steered Black residents toward high-interest loans requiring little documentation. Community members accused local and federal authorities of ignoring the problem until foreclosures spread to wealthier, predominantly white suburbs.
One local newspaper columnist compared the scale of displacement to Hurricane Katrina's destruction of New Orleans, noting that Cleveland's foreclosure casualties received no federal disaster relief, no presidential attention, and no reconstruction funds of the kind extended to Gulf Coast victims.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in January 2008, in its own words.