Why when we are talking about Foreclosure and how it hurts Minorities, Race is always a factor ignoring the real problem?

By Bill Arce (RealEstateLatino.com)
Study: Latino ‘foreclosure generation’ devastated

The Orange County Register has this article featuring a study conducted by NCLR reporting how minority (especially Latinos) are being disproportionally hurt by the housing crisis mainly, foreclosures.

The study shows some interesting findings, statistics and makes recommendations:

Researchers interviewed 25 families in foreclosure, many victims of “predatory lending,” according to the study’s authors.

Among their findings:

•The loss of a job and a hike in mortgage payments most often led to losing the home. The families interviewed lost an average of $89,155 because of the foreclosure.

•Despite going to their lenders for help, none of the families were offered a loan modification, forbearance or other help.

•More than half of the families reported that their children had academic or behavioral problems in school because of the instability in the home. Researchers have dubbed these families “the foreclosure generation.”

•All but one family was left without savings they could tap in case of a financial emergency, and many held back on necessary health care to save money.

The study advocates loan modifications that include a principal reduction and a strengthening of the safety net, including allowing foreclosed families to stay in their homes as renters and a program of community based, nonprofit financial counseling.

Now, what really stroke me about this article was the responds some of the readers had. I liked to think some of these readers were showing signs of frustration due to the fact they are losing their homes to foreclosure, other may feel their race is underrepresented, or simple it seams that they are losing their share of “HOPE” and might be left out of any help available. Whether the case may be, I think it is incorrect to assume that minorities’ homeowners are getting more assistance than others just because we are considered a minority, when it is true that the mortgage crisis is hurting more Latinos and African American than anybody else.

The sad part will be when we get out of this mess and we realized we didn’t learn anything from it.