Red·line - to withhold home-loan funds or insurance from neighborhoods considered poor economic risks; to discriminate against in housing or insurance.

Redlining in the Past

• The Home Owner's Loan Corporation:  How the federal government, in 1937,  color-coded the future of Syracuse.  Take a look at the actual pre-war, redline map of Syracuse.

Redlining Today

The federal Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 was designed to put an end to all redlining practices.  But has it?

• HUD says insurers biased. Federal officials accuse insurance agencies of discriminating against Syracuse area African-Americans.

• The New Redlining. Extensive U.S. News and World Report study finds poor Americans pay more than twice, on average, what residents of middle-class neighborhoods pay for property insurance.

• Don't Let Banks Turn Their Backs on the Poor. Robert E. Rubin, Treasury secretary from 1995 to 1999, warns that steps are being taken towards a dismantling of the Community Reinvestment Act.

• 'Redlining' rules may be weakened. "Federal banking regulators in the Bush administration are poised to weaken the nation's primary law requiring small banks to serve low-income residents in their own back yards through housing investments and development projects.

• America's Homeownership Gap.  A recent Harvard study finds that, "...mortgage lending discrimination forces many urban home seekers to move to the suburbs to pursue the dream of homeownership."

• American Dream Denied: When the door is locked to buying a home.  A study of redlining by the Kansas City Star uncovered "discrimination with a smile."

• Lending Data Sought.  To identify current redlining practices, local community group Syracuse United Neighbors (SUN) and Senator Charles Schumer back national legislation requiring that lenders disclose interest rates, fees and points for all loans they make.

• Suit Alleges Predatory Lending. The FTC files a federal lawsuit in April, 2002 alleging predatory lending in Syracuse.

• Few FHA loans go to minorities, study says.  Study finds that, in the City of Syracuse, 1% percent of recent FHA loans went to predominantly minority neighborhoods while 78% went to white neighborhoods.