Bloomberg Campaign Press Release - Mike Bloomberg on Redlining and His Greenwood Initiative

NEW YORK — Mike Bloomberg has called redlining a disgrace of American history designed to keep Black Americans from gaining wealth. As Mayor, he advocated against predatory lending, and took several actions in the years preceding the mortgage crisis to protect vulnerable New Yorkers from predatory lenders and mortgage foreclosure. During his time, Mike launched PACE, a $1.35 million initiative to not only combat predatory lending but also provide financial and legal assistance to elderly home homeowners, first-time buyers, fixed-income homeowners, and minority and immigrant homeowners.

As a candidate for president, he has detailed plans for how he will help a million more Black families buy a house, and counteract the effects of redlining and the subprime mortgage crisis. His plan will provide down-payment assistance, get millions recognized by credit scoring companies, enforce fair lending laws, reduce foreclosures and evictions, and increase the supply of affordable housing.

Mike's Greenwood Initiative will address the homeownership gap by creating 1 million more Black homeowners:

• His plan will provide down-payment assistance, get millions recognized by credit scoring companies, enforce fair lending laws, reduce foreclosures and evictions, and increase the supply of affordable housing.
• Mike will order federally controlled and mandated mortgage guarantors to update their credit-scoring requirements, to insist that scoring models be tested for racial bias, and to encourage the use of alternative models that employ information such as bank account history, rental payments, or mobile-phone payments to assess creditworthiness.
• Mike will create a Housing Fairness Commission, funded with an initial $10 billion, to work with municipalities and nonprofits on testing policies aimed at reversing the effects of discrimination and expanding programs that work.