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Speaker 1: Fulturo investigates Investia.

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Speaker 2: Housing as a standalone issue is now one of the

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Speaker 2: top five concerns for Latino voters, and that's the first

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Speaker 2: time this has happened in an election cycle. But as

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Speaker 2: housing costs and mortgage rates in the country continue to increase,

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Speaker 2: the dream of owning and affording a home is becoming

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Speaker 2: more and more elusive.

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Speaker 3: I already been preparing for this moment. I brought all

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Speaker 3: the paperwork, my credit score, my list of liabilities, my

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Speaker 3: employment history, the information regarding my business.

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Speaker 2: That's Juscelyn Danielle. She's Argentinian and Haitian, and like many immigrants,

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Speaker 2: she's many things. She's a licensed clinical social worker, she

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Speaker 2: founded her own psychotherapy practice, and she's also an artist,

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Speaker 2: which influences everything she does. Juselene, who's based in New Jersey,

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Speaker 2: said she spent years saving money and building her credit

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Speaker 2: and making sure all of her paperwork was in order

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Speaker 2: before even applying for a mortgage. But for Juicelyn and

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Speaker 2: her family, the dream of buying a home almost slipped

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Speaker 2: by them entirely.

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Speaker 3: When we went to the mortgage officer, this was the

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Speaker 3: first question that he asked, was your zip code?

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Speaker 4: I knew that's something I was wrong.

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Speaker 2: This question about her zip code set off alarm bells

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Speaker 2: for Jusselyn, who knew that historically, people living in predominantly

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Speaker 2: black and Latino Latina LATINX communities had a harder time

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Speaker 2: getting bank loans. It's a practice known as redlining, and

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Speaker 2: even though it was outlawed more than fifty years ago,

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Speaker 2: it continues to drive inequities in mortgage lending today.

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Speaker 3: A black woman with an accent and a Latino guy

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Speaker 3: with an accent. This is the textbook discrimination.

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Speaker 2: From Futro Media and PRX. It's Latino USA. I'm Maria Rosa.

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Speaker 2: Today is part of our elections series The Latino Factor,

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Speaker 2: How We Vote. We dive into the disparities that make

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Speaker 2: it harder for Latinos and Latinas to overcome the mortgage wall.

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Speaker 2: Juslen's experience, which we heard at the top of the show,

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Speaker 2: is far from unique, and there's vast data to prove that,

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Speaker 2: data that we dug into and analyzed ourselves. My co

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Speaker 2: executive producer, Penni letter Amidis is with me now in

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Speaker 2: the studio and she led the investigation and it's with

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Speaker 2: me today to share our main findings. Hey, Penni let Hey, Marianne,

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Speaker 2: all right, so tell us how how we went about

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Speaker 2: this investigation.

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Speaker 4: Well, we first started looking into this mortgage data after

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Speaker 4: we learned about what happened to Justlyan, but also happened

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Speaker 4: to you know, her daughter, Milena, and to Milena's father,

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Speaker 4: Martin Calvino. And Martin is from Why. He's a multimedia

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Speaker 4: artist and he's also a data scientist, and after they

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Speaker 4: were rejected in twenty twenty one from even applying for

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Speaker 4: a loan, Martin was convinced that certain lenders in New

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Speaker 4: Jersey were more likely to reject Latino borrowers more than

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Speaker 4: white applicants.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so how did you go about determining if Martin's

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Speaker 2: suspicions were true?

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Speaker 4: Well, Maria, we had a data journalist and we did

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Speaker 4: our own extensive analysis using this public information, and it

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Speaker 4: took us several months. We analyzed hundreds of thousands of

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Speaker 4: mortgage applications filed in New Jersey from twenty eighteen to

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Speaker 4: twenty twenty two, and we focused on conventional mortgages because

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Speaker 4: these are the luans that are offered by private companies.

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Speaker 2: So the data was already public, but someone actually has

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Speaker 2: to pull it together and make sense of it all.

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Speaker 5: So what did you end up finding?

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Speaker 4: So we found that Latinos were more likely to be

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Speaker 4: rejected than white applicants. And this was not just in

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Speaker 4: one bank or in one city. This was the case

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Speaker 4: across financial institutions in New Jersey and Maria. To make

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Speaker 4: things even worse, those Latinos who get a mortgage loan

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Speaker 4: paid higher interest rates than their fellow white borrowers, even

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Speaker 4: on similar mortgages.

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Speaker 2: And dear listener, what this disparity shows us is that

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Speaker 2: there are deep systemic barriers to home ownership for Latinos

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Speaker 2: and latinos in this country, whether it's access to credit,

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Speaker 2: not being able to make enough of a down payment,

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Speaker 2: or not even being in the right zip code, as

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Speaker 2: we heard from Juicelyn at the top of our show.

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Speaker 4: Yes, and that's interesting because the An Institute, which is

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Speaker 4: a think tank in Washington that does economic and social

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Speaker 4: policy research, is projecting the Latinos hear this will make

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Speaker 4: up seventy percent of first time home buyers in the

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Speaker 4: next twenty years.

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Speaker 5: Wow, that is an extraordinary number.

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Speaker 2: Latinos making up seventy percent of first time home buyers

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Speaker 2: in the next twenty years.

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Speaker 5: I mean that's.

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Speaker 2: Huge, So, dear listener, let's really attempt to understand what

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Speaker 2: these lending disparities in New Jersey show us about the

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Speaker 2: future of home ownership for Latinos in this country, especially

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Speaker 2: as housing access continues to be a growing concern nationwide

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Speaker 2: in this election year. And we're going to start in

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Speaker 2: Highland Park, which is a small town in New Jersey

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Speaker 2: where Juslyn lives.

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Speaker 5: Now.

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Speaker 2: Benny Lay and a team of our producers for visited

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Speaker 2: her in her home in November of twenty twenty three. Okay,

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Speaker 2: Penny Ley, with all of that background, I think we're

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Speaker 2: ready now, So why don't you take us to your

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Speaker 2: reporting in Highland Park, New Jersey.

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Speaker 4: We're visiting just Lean on a cool fall morning, and

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Speaker 4: the wide tree lined street she lives on is quiet.

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Speaker 4: Her house is two stories. It sits on the corner

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Speaker 4: with a big lown in front and steps leading up

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Speaker 4: to a Porsche. It's painting in a muted blue collar

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Speaker 4: and it has white trim around the windows and edges.

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Speaker 4: Are you I mean.

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Speaker 6: Space?

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Speaker 4: Fine? Just Lean takes us throughout the side door, which

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Speaker 4: is where her office is located, and it's separated from

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Speaker 4: the rest of the home that's where she plans out

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Speaker 4: her art projects. As soon as you walk in, you

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Speaker 4: can tell a visual artist lives here. The room is

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Speaker 4: full of color. One corner is filled with green plants

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Speaker 4: and framed artwork lines the soft blue walls. JUSTLYNI is

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Speaker 4: fifty years old, and she has this bibrant voice but

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Speaker 4: a quiet presence with a bright and big smile.

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Speaker 3: So sometimes we get very attached to things, but then

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Speaker 3: eventually you will have to release them and let them

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Speaker 3: go as it becomes something else.

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Speaker 4: Today she's wearing a light pink sweater with a rhyin

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Speaker 4: stone ball on the front, and her dark hair is

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Speaker 4: a style in a long braid, and she twisted red

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Speaker 4: and pink flowers in it. We're visiting just Lean two

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Speaker 4: years after she and Martin bought this house, but getting

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Speaker 4: here though to way longer than that.

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Speaker 3: I've been moving from place to place from Queens, Flashing

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Speaker 3: Lumber and Spring Lake. I think I have multi in

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Speaker 3: my whole life at least fifty times.

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Speaker 4: Juselyn remembers that in one occasion, she was removed overnight

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Speaker 4: from an apartment that she was ranting in Queens, New York,

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Speaker 4: and it was because the landlord decided that she needed

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Speaker 4: the space for her relatives.

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Speaker 3: And I was like, but I already pay the rent

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Speaker 3: and I have all the things, and I had to

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Speaker 3: go to work and I had to go to school.

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Speaker 3: And she was like, I'm sorry, but you know, like

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Speaker 3: my family coming in that you cannot come back.

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Speaker 4: Her experience highlights a common issue for many renters. Things

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Speaker 4: can just get too unpredictable. And there is of course

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Speaker 4: the rising cause of rent, which is a problem nationwide.

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Speaker 4: More than half Latino renters in the US say they

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Speaker 4: spend more than a third of their income on rent.

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Speaker 4: And this election year, Paul's show is the economy that

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Speaker 4: is concerning Latino voters the most, and of course housing

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Speaker 4: is a big part of that. California is probably the

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Speaker 4: first place that comes to mind when we talk about

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Speaker 4: the housing crisis. Dim Hernandez is a California state director

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Speaker 4: for Me Familia Vota and this is a national organization

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Speaker 4: that works on building Latino political power through civic engagement.

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Speaker 4: He says, the economy goes beyond numbers and percentages. It's

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Speaker 4: about how it becomes real in people's daily lives.

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Speaker 7: They wake up, they go off and they get a coffee,

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Speaker 7: and that coffee used to be probably four or five

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Speaker 7: dollars and now it's seven. They work at their job

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Speaker 7: which has not increased their wages, and then when they

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Speaker 7: go to the grocery store that night to get food

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Speaker 7: for their family, they see the price of milk has

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Speaker 7: increased and they go home and they worry about rent.

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Speaker 7: And so when we talk about the economy, we use

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Speaker 7: indicators like the market, but we don't use indicators like

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Speaker 7: individual sentiment of the consumer.

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Speaker 4: What team told us echoes what Unidos US, which is

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Speaker 4: another advocacy organization in DC, founding a study that is

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Speaker 4: that in this election year, Latinos want their policymakers to

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Speaker 4: prioritize addressing the cause of living and the housing prices.

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Speaker 7: And so it makes us election even more critical this

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Speaker 7: year of ensuring that the folks that were electing and

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Speaker 7: the folks that were putting in the office care about

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Speaker 7: these things.

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Speaker 4: And as Latinos faced multiple economic burdens, many of them

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Speaker 4: still dream of owning their home. Onido's US found that

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Speaker 4: sixty five percent of Latino renters want to buy a

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Speaker 4: house but have not been able to After renting in

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Speaker 4: Queens for a while, Justlyne eventually made them move to

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Speaker 4: New Jersey. Her many experiences as a renter instill in

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Speaker 4: her the goal of owning a home, and she said

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Speaker 4: she wanted to achieve that stability and that will become

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Speaker 4: even more pressing when her daughter, Milena was born twelve

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Speaker 4: years ago.

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Speaker 3: So for me, when I have my daughter, there was

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Speaker 3: no question about it, like I was going to give

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Speaker 3: that stability to her.

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Speaker 4: Just Lyn remembers the moment when she decided that it

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Speaker 4: was about time to take the big step. It was

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Speaker 4: December twenty nineteen. She was renting a place in Highland Park,

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Speaker 4: not too far from where she lives.

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Speaker 3: Down the moment that I decided that I was going

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Speaker 3: to get the home is like my previous landlord, I

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Speaker 3: planted a tulip in my backyard and she went outside

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Speaker 3: and she took it out and she threw her in

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Speaker 3: the garage.

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Speaker 4: What so No, by the moment that I decided that.

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Speaker 3: I ron my home, Wow, yeah, a.

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Speaker 4: Tu live in the garbage just because the landlord didn't

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Speaker 4: like it. This singular moment was pivotal in just Lyn's life.

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Speaker 3: Flowers helped me to think about the nature of existence.

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Speaker 4: Gulyn just loved flowers. She incorporates flowers in almost all

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Speaker 4: her projects. Seeing the landlord throw away the tulip she

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Speaker 4: planted was the final extra for her and for Martin,

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Speaker 4: So they started getting ready. Justlyne prepared all her paperwork

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Speaker 4: and her savings. She learned all about the buying process,

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Speaker 4: and less than two years later, just Lene, Martin and

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Speaker 4: their daughter Milena made the trip to that bank investor's

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Speaker 4: bank in Somerset, New Jersey, and they were ready to

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Speaker 4: apply for a loan. She was already a client of

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Speaker 4: the bank and said she had all her money saved there.

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Speaker 3: So we get into the branch and I had to

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Speaker 3: describe it like he was a guy in his late sixties,

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Speaker 3: blue eyes, white American, and he goes like, hey, hi, guys,

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Speaker 3: how are you And he did the fist pump to

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Speaker 3: me at the fish.

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Speaker 4: But it was the mortgage officer's second question that to

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Speaker 4: just Lyn and her family back. It was when he

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Speaker 4: asked about their zip code. What did you think at

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Speaker 4: that moment that that was.

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Speaker 3: A red black Because I did the real stare course,

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Speaker 3: so I really knew about red lining. Why is it

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Speaker 3: like a certain segment of the population can access on

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Speaker 3: in the home. How is it that we got to

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Speaker 3: be where we are so part of the course that

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Speaker 3: I have been taken involved all of these.

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Speaker 4: Again, when just lindsays redlining, she's referring to this old

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Speaker 4: practice of banks deny it loans to black and Latino

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Speaker 4: families and effectively preventing them from buying into certain neighborhoods.

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Speaker 4: In nineteen sixty eight, the Third Housing Act banned redlining

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Speaker 4: to end this racial discrimination.

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Speaker 8: Now with this bill, the voice of Justice speaks again.

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Speaker 8: It proclaims that fair housing for all all human beings

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Speaker 8: who live in this country is now a part of

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Speaker 8: the American way of life.

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Speaker 4: But several investigations, including ours for this story, show how

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Speaker 4: the practice is still very much alivee After the mortgage

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Speaker 4: officer asked Justlyn about her zip code, he started questioning

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Speaker 4: Martin's employment. Martin was said to begin a job just

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Speaker 4: a couple of months later, and it was at Rodgers University,

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Speaker 4: which is one of the top public research schools in

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Speaker 4: the entire country. But according to Justlyn, the mortgage officer

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Speaker 4: went after that.

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Speaker 3: The fact that he had started the job and the

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Speaker 3: fact that he didn't have employment history. Even though we

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Speaker 3: were telling him that we were business owners and we

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Speaker 3: were working together.

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Speaker 4: In two thousand and seven, Justlyn founded her psychotherapy practice

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Speaker 4: and her art collective, which is called Nice to Meet You,

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Speaker 4: is also an LLC, so they have plenty of ways

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Speaker 4: to demonstrate their family income. But despite this, just Lin

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Speaker 4: says that things with the law an officer just continued

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Speaker 4: to spiral downwards.

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Speaker 3: He did at Runner Credit Escort, and he didn't verify

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Speaker 3: any of the paperwork that we had.

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Speaker 4: So you were rejected even before applying.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, he never put any information in a system, in

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Speaker 3: a computer or anything like just to get us on

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Speaker 3: sort of data to compare our qualifications to anything, to

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Speaker 3: any standard that they might have at the bank.

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Speaker 4: Since then, the bank was acquired by Citizens Financial Group,

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Speaker 4: and we tried to contact this new bank, but the

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Speaker 4: spokesperson said the company could not comment on just Lin's

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Speaker 4: case because it predated the acquisition of Investors Bank. They

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Speaker 4: told us that they were committed to quote creating an

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Speaker 4: inclusive culture for their customers. You should know that just

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Speaker 4: Lyn identifies herself as an Afro Latina. She was born

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Speaker 4: in Los Angeles, but for the first half of her

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Speaker 4: life she was living in Argentina, which is a predominantly

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Speaker 4: white country. She said that in New Jersey she recognized

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Speaker 4: that feeling from her childhood memories. I go pull you

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Speaker 4: all my life.

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Speaker 3: My mommy white, she's blonde, she has green eyes. So

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Speaker 3: I clearly remember like one time we went to get

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Speaker 3: ice cream and a lady that was sitting next to

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Speaker 3: her said like, Linda Nete, oh you have two beautiful

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Speaker 3: little black kids.

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Speaker 4: Where did you get them from?

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Speaker 3: So you know, like, I'm not putting up with any

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Speaker 3: of these anymore, not at this age when I already

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Speaker 3: know the laws. I'm not going to tolerate it, and

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Speaker 3: I'm going to do something about it.

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Speaker 4: And she did. After leaving the bank where she had

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Speaker 4: hoped to start the process of buying a home, just

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Speaker 4: Lean filed a complaint. She did it with the New

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Speaker 4: Jersey Attorney General's Office with a division on civil rights.

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Speaker 4: She said. She followed up with a claim for two years,

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Speaker 4: and then she became accested with the process. There were

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Speaker 4: just too many documents to submit and she ended up

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Speaker 4: missing a deadline and the case was eventually dismissed. During

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Speaker 4: this time, Martin started looking at mortgage application data in

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Speaker 4: New Jersey.

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Speaker 3: He spent hours like on the computers, you know, like Jesse,

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Speaker 3: going through it, like creating different things to be able

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Speaker 3: to tell the data.

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Speaker 4: Martin's research led him to believe that certain lenders in

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Speaker 4: the state of New Jersey were more likely to reject

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Speaker 4: Latino burrowers than white applicants. Martin first reached out to

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Speaker 4: us Abuduo Investigates in twenty twenty two to share what

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Speaker 4: he found. We were deeply interested in his research, but

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Speaker 4: we also needed to analyze the mortgage data in New

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Speaker 4: Jersey ourselves, so we went to the same public database

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Speaker 4: that our team us and we spent months doing our

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Speaker 4: own extensive data analysis. So, using this public data, we

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Speaker 4: went through hundreds of thousands of mortgage application outcomes and

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Speaker 4: in the process we refined our methodology several times. We

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Speaker 4: shared it with other investigators and other journalists, and we

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Speaker 4: asked them to critique our methods. We wanted to be

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Speaker 4: really sure that our conclusions were right, and finally we

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Speaker 4: found a clear pattern. Between twenty eighteen and twenty twenty two,

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Speaker 4: more than eleven percent of the conventional mortgage applications filed

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Speaker 4: by latinos were rejected by lenders in New Jersey, and

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Speaker 4: in the case of white residents, only around six percent

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Speaker 4: were denied. So the data was there and it was

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Speaker 4: pretty clear just lean story was not just an unfortunate experience.

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Speaker 4: It indicated a persistent problem, one that has a long

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Speaker 4: history in the state of New Jersey.

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Speaker 2: Coming up on Latino USA, we dive into our data analysis,

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Speaker 2: which proves that New Jersey's disparities in home ownership make

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Speaker 2: it one of the most inequitable states in the country.

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Speaker 2: Stay with us, hey, we're back, and before the break,

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Speaker 2: we shared Juicelyne's story and we heard from Benny Lay

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Speaker 2: about the findings of our investigation. Our data analysis confirmed

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Speaker 2: juicelyn and Martine's suspicions that Latinos like them, like me,

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Speaker 2: and like many of you listening today, were denied home

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Speaker 2: loans at roughly double the rate of white borrowers. Benny

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Speaker 2: Lay is back in the studio with me now to

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Speaker 2: talk more about our investigation. So, Benny Lay, what else

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Speaker 2: did the data end up showing you?

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Speaker 4: Well, Maria, the reason why it took us several months

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Speaker 4: to analyze this mortgage data is because we were looking

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Speaker 4: at five years worth of raw information. So as our

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Speaker 4: first step, we filtered the decisions and we focused only

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Speaker 4: on New Jersey.

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Speaker 2: That would still leave a lot of data to pass

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Speaker 2: through though. I mean, even at that point, right.

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Speaker 4: For sure, Maria, it was still in the millions. So

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Speaker 4: what we did is that we narrow it down even

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Speaker 4: more and we concentrated only on conventional mortgages. And we

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Speaker 4: also used other criteria like, for example, making sure that

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Speaker 4: the loan was to buy a house, not as an investment,

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Speaker 4: and we were only looking at loans that were either

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Speaker 4: approved or rejected. But even with all of this, Maria,

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Speaker 4: this left us still with four hundred thousand applications to analyze.

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Speaker 2: All right, and so in your analysis, how did these

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Speaker 2: lenders make their decisions?

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Speaker 5: What did you find?

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Speaker 4: Well, there is a few things they looked at. The

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Speaker 4: first thing is something that is called the debt to

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Speaker 4: income ratio, and this is basically how much money you

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Speaker 4: make every month pursus how much money you need to

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Speaker 4: pay for your debts. Because you know, you have credit

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Speaker 4: card payments, you have rent, you have car insurance, all

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Speaker 4: the things that you pay every month, and when you

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Speaker 4: request a loan, your lender will check how much is

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Speaker 4: your income every month and how much are these expenses.

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Speaker 4: So when there is a big gap between the debt

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Speaker 4: and the income. That's when loans were denied the most.

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Speaker 4: But lenders are also checking other things like, for example,

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Speaker 4: credit history, and also they are seeing if the applicant

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Speaker 4: has co applicants, so if they're buying the house by

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Speaker 4: themselves or with all the people supporting them.

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Speaker 2: All right, already, ding ding ding. A flag is going

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Speaker 2: up for me. Because you know, Latinos, we often do

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Speaker 2: things as a family. A lot of us have non

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Speaker 2: traditional forms of income. It makes it hard to build

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Speaker 2: up credit. So I can see that this would raise

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Speaker 2: some questions.

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Speaker 4: Yes, exactly, Maria, I also have those questions. So we

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Speaker 4: spoke with Amii Sin and she's a researcher with the

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Speaker 4: House in Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute, and

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Speaker 4: she specializes in mortgage lending and she has a focus

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Speaker 4: on racial equity. And this is what she told us

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Speaker 4: about this.

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Speaker 9: Our current underwriting system does a really poor job of

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Speaker 9: accommodating for multiple incomes, particularly more than two incomes, and

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Speaker 9: so that's a real issue as Latinos are more likely

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Speaker 9: to live in multi generational households as well. Kind of

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Speaker 9: on a similar vein Latino people are more likely than

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Speaker 9: other racial and ethnic groups of people to have non

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Speaker 9: traditional forms of income. They make up a disportionately high

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Speaker 9: share of self employed individuals. They're more likely than others

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Speaker 9: to engage in enterprising or informal work activity.

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Speaker 2: So if you, for example, sell tamlis on the street

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Speaker 2: for a living, or if you turn your art collective

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Speaker 2: into a business like Juice Lean, or you make a

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Speaker 2: lot of your money in cash, for example, you're going

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Speaker 2: to have a harder time proving that you should qualify

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Speaker 2: for a mortgage loan.

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Speaker 4: Or even if you live with your parents and your siblings,

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Speaker 4: but also with your Auela, with your grandma. And yet

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Speaker 4: Maria Latina's really go after homeownership here is amlie Again.

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Speaker 9: Latino households are more likely than others to be first

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Speaker 9: time home buyers, and more likely to be the first

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Speaker 9: in their family to buy a home. And so I

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Speaker 9: think it's like, sometimes who do you turn to? I

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Speaker 9: would think for myself, I'm not a homeowner, but if

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Speaker 9: I were going to buy a home, I'd probably ask

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Speaker 9: my parents, who are homeowners, a lot of questions about

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Speaker 9: their process. What kind of bank to go to, what

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Speaker 9: kind of lender to go to, what neighborhood should I

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Speaker 9: look in that are in my price range. If you

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Speaker 9: don't have somebody in your family that's a homeowner, or

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Speaker 9: you don't know someone that's a homeowner, that can just

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Speaker 9: be a barrier right there.

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Speaker 2: All right, Penny, I know this is little nerdy, but

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Speaker 2: how did the team actually do this data analysis?

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Speaker 4: So I will say, yes, it was nerdy, it was complicated.

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Speaker 4: So what we did is that we created some statistical

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Speaker 4: models and we were considering all these issues that I

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Speaker 4: have been explaining, like the differences in income and in debt,

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Speaker 4: and these models gave us a clear picture of the

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Speaker 4: relationship between the ethnicity of who is trying to get

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Speaker 4: a house, who is trying to get a loan, and

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Speaker 4: the chances that their application will be denied.

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Speaker 2: Wow, and what about for Latinos whose loans did get approved?

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Speaker 4: In that case, it's more likely, according to our that analysis,

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Speaker 4: that they will pay higher interest rates on mortgagies than

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Speaker 4: if a white person or a white family gets the loan.

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Speaker 2: So that means that over time they'd actually be paying

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Speaker 2: more for their loans and actually end up paying more

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Speaker 2: for their house hopes. So this just speaks to the

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Speaker 2: history of barriers to owning homes for black and brown communities.

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Speaker 2: But now we actually have our own data, deep data

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Speaker 2: that is proving this. So is anything being done to

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Speaker 2: fix this now?

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Speaker 4: Well, I will say the government has gotten involved in

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Speaker 4: some instances in the past years. For example, we found

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Speaker 4: multiple cases of lenders who were accused of redlining, but

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Speaker 4: they didn't go to trial because what they did is

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00:25:36,680 --> 00:25:41,560
Speaker 4: that they reached multimillion dollar settlements with government regulators. So

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Speaker 4: for example, Maria in twenty twenty two, a community bank

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Speaker 4: in New Jersey named lake Land Bank settled for no

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Speaker 4: less than thirteen million dollars.

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Speaker 5: That's a pretty huge settlement.

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Speaker 2: Thirteen million dollars, all right, But what about actually making

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Speaker 2: the idea of owning a home more accessible, more equitable

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Speaker 2: in general for Latinos.

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Speaker 4: Well, there are some efforts towards that. So let's go

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Speaker 4: back to New Jersey. That is our case study to

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00:26:11,520 --> 00:26:18,440
Speaker 4: see how we're focusing on New Jersey not just because

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00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:22,119
Speaker 4: that's where just link story takes place, but also because

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00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:24,960
Speaker 4: it can help us to understand what's going on in

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Speaker 4: the rest of the country. In February of this year,

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Speaker 4: the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, which is a

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Speaker 4: research and advocacy group released at report, and the report

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Speaker 4: confirms some of our findings. For example, it found that

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Speaker 4: in New Jersey, if you are black or Latino, you

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00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:47,840
Speaker 4: only have less than fifty percent chance of owning a house,

443
00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:51,719
Speaker 4: but if you're white, your chances grow to about seventy

444
00:26:51,760 --> 00:26:55,080
Speaker 4: six percent. And even if you're able to own a

445
00:26:55,119 --> 00:26:58,880
Speaker 4: home in New Jersey, you'll be paying a higher mortgage

446
00:26:59,119 --> 00:27:02,639
Speaker 4: than almost anywhere else in the country. In May, the

447
00:27:02,800 --> 00:27:06,520
Speaker 4: Washington Posts found that the average mortgage payment in New

448
00:27:06,600 --> 00:27:11,480
Speaker 4: Jersey is close to twenty two hundred dollars. That's only

449
00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:16,040
Speaker 4: second to Washington, DC, and the National Association of Realtors

450
00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:19,560
Speaker 4: also found that in New Jersey, more than a third

451
00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:23,520
Speaker 4: of Latino homeowners spent more than thirty percent of their

452
00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:27,840
Speaker 4: income on housing. White borrowers, on the other hand, spent

453
00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:33,480
Speaker 4: twenty seven percent on housing. As of last year, a

454
00:27:33,520 --> 00:27:37,240
Speaker 4: record of over nine point five million Latinos in the

455
00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:41,320
Speaker 4: US were homeowners, but if you compare that with over

456
00:27:41,480 --> 00:27:45,960
Speaker 4: sixty million Latinos living here, well, is not a huge number.

457
00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:51,080
Speaker 4: Just Lena and Martin are now part of this small group.

458
00:27:51,760 --> 00:27:55,600
Speaker 4: Their first attempt wasn't successful, but they did not give

459
00:27:55,680 --> 00:27:59,919
Speaker 4: up and in twenty twenty two, they finally bought a house.

460
00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:05,800
Speaker 4: How did they do it? Two years ago they went

461
00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:08,560
Speaker 4: to another bank and they applied for a loan to

462
00:28:08,600 --> 00:28:12,439
Speaker 4: buy a house, But this time they were intentional about

463
00:28:12,480 --> 00:28:15,920
Speaker 4: who they were asking for help. They felt that they

464
00:28:15,960 --> 00:28:19,840
Speaker 4: needed to work with someone who would understand their situation

465
00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:21,800
Speaker 4: and their finances.

466
00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:27,000
Speaker 3: An accountant that I understand your story, I understand that

467
00:28:27,080 --> 00:28:30,000
Speaker 3: you're from a different country, that I understand the effort

468
00:28:30,040 --> 00:28:32,679
Speaker 3: that you know, like I've been in business for many years.

469
00:28:33,080 --> 00:28:35,680
Speaker 3: But if you go and you present that to a bank,

470
00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:38,520
Speaker 3: they will see you as a resource liability. Why is

471
00:28:38,560 --> 00:28:40,440
Speaker 3: that because they don't know if next week I'm going

472
00:28:40,480 --> 00:28:41,600
Speaker 3: to be making an income.

473
00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:45,520
Speaker 4: So first Julis Lynn had a white accountant, but then

474
00:28:45,600 --> 00:28:48,840
Speaker 4: she switched to another accountant that was a person of color.

475
00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:53,480
Speaker 4: Her strategy paid off. She and her family were able

476
00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:56,720
Speaker 4: to finally get the loan and they moved into their

477
00:28:56,760 --> 00:29:05,240
Speaker 4: new home in Highland Park in April of two. Okay,

478
00:29:05,440 --> 00:29:08,920
Speaker 4: Highland Park has a small town feel. You have local

479
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:12,920
Speaker 4: restaurants and shops lying in the main street, and it's

480
00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:19,400
Speaker 4: definitely a community that embraces art. Just walking around a

481
00:29:19,440 --> 00:29:23,640
Speaker 4: couple of blocks near Justling's home. We saw three murals

482
00:29:23,680 --> 00:29:28,280
Speaker 4: painted on the sides of various buildings. The art, the greenery,

483
00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:30,920
Speaker 4: the fact that New York City is only an hour

484
00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:34,600
Speaker 4: away or fourty five minutes on a good day, are

485
00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:38,280
Speaker 4: all white Juiceling loves living here. She doesn't mind that

486
00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:43,000
Speaker 4: just under fifteen percent of the population our Latino. She says,

487
00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:44,240
Speaker 4: She's here to stay.

488
00:29:44,600 --> 00:29:46,840
Speaker 3: You know, when I see I don't really care. You're

489
00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:49,080
Speaker 3: gonna see my pretty face whether you like it or not.

490
00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:55,840
Speaker 4: But finally settling into Highland Park didn't mark the end

491
00:29:55,840 --> 00:29:59,040
Speaker 4: of just Lyn and Martin's housing journey. They wanted to

492
00:29:59,120 --> 00:30:02,240
Speaker 4: take his resk beyond just numbers on a page.

493
00:30:03,640 --> 00:30:06,360
Speaker 3: At some point, your experience needs to make meaning for

494
00:30:06,440 --> 00:30:09,400
Speaker 3: other people, because if you just swallow the pain and

495
00:30:09,440 --> 00:30:11,840
Speaker 3: then you go about your business, nothing changes.

496
00:30:12,480 --> 00:30:15,640
Speaker 4: Just Lean and Martin knew they had a strong story

497
00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:18,720
Speaker 4: to tell, and they felt a sense of duty to

498
00:30:18,800 --> 00:30:19,280
Speaker 4: share it.

499
00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:23,000
Speaker 3: How you create harmony that eventually can make changes.

500
00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:26,920
Speaker 4: They turned the rejection of a mortgage loan into an

501
00:30:27,080 --> 00:30:32,080
Speaker 4: art installation. It was a collection of painter doors. Some

502
00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:37,000
Speaker 4: were splattered designs and others were colored for shapes. Some

503
00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:40,440
Speaker 4: had works written on them like if I own a home,

504
00:30:40,680 --> 00:30:46,960
Speaker 4: did I make it in America? In October of twenty

505
00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:51,320
Speaker 4: twenty two or former senior producer Roxanne Scott met Martin

506
00:30:51,440 --> 00:30:52,960
Speaker 4: at his gallery exhibition.

507
00:30:54,320 --> 00:30:57,920
Speaker 6: So we're in standing in front of my art installation

508
00:30:58,200 --> 00:31:04,240
Speaker 6: called thirty one South that involves eight doors which are

509
00:31:04,440 --> 00:31:09,480
Speaker 6: painted with my artistic style and in them also contains

510
00:31:09,560 --> 00:31:16,000
Speaker 6: the results of my data science research on home mortgage applications.

511
00:31:17,600 --> 00:31:22,560
Speaker 4: The installation wasn't only visual, It also used audio that,

512
00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:26,640
Speaker 4: as Martin explained to us, sonified the home mortgage data

513
00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:27,960
Speaker 4: he pulled together.

514
00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:33,000
Speaker 6: When the loan was denied, the sound of a door

515
00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:38,720
Speaker 6: closing place, and when the loan was accepted, the sound

516
00:31:38,800 --> 00:31:40,640
Speaker 6: of a door opening place.

517
00:31:42,160 --> 00:31:46,080
Speaker 4: Martin shared why doors seemed like the natural element to

518
00:31:46,160 --> 00:31:49,000
Speaker 4: convey their experience through this art installation.

519
00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:53,400
Speaker 6: The concept of a door is very embedded in our

520
00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:57,520
Speaker 6: culture as a symbol of opportunity, right we refer as

521
00:31:58,280 --> 00:32:01,920
Speaker 6: someone to open the door for you into a new opportunity,

522
00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:06,080
Speaker 6: and it occurred to me that using doors a symbol

523
00:32:06,080 --> 00:32:11,720
Speaker 6: of opportunity into home ownership was a good way to

524
00:32:11,840 --> 00:32:15,280
Speaker 6: combine the results of my data science project.

525
00:32:17,160 --> 00:32:20,840
Speaker 4: While just Leen and Martin reconcile their situation through art.

526
00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:24,960
Speaker 4: There have been also efforts to increase mortgage access in

527
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:29,520
Speaker 4: New Jersey through policy. The state past legislation last year

528
00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:33,640
Speaker 4: to include a first generation component to their down payment

529
00:32:33,680 --> 00:32:37,040
Speaker 4: assystem program and this is through the New Jersey Housing

530
00:32:37,120 --> 00:32:41,840
Speaker 4: and Mortgage Finance Agency. So now first generation buyers can

531
00:32:41,880 --> 00:32:46,360
Speaker 4: apply for an additional seven thousand dollars in down payments assistance,

532
00:32:46,680 --> 00:32:49,560
Speaker 4: and that's on top of the fifteen thousand offer to

533
00:32:49,800 --> 00:32:53,520
Speaker 4: first timers. We spoke with Melanie Walter, and she's the

534
00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:57,880
Speaker 4: agency's executive director. We asked her how the new program

535
00:32:58,000 --> 00:32:59,960
Speaker 4: is helping Latino residents in the state.

536
00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:04,520
Speaker 10: Our down payment assistance program has seen a dramatic uptick

537
00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:08,160
Speaker 10: in terms of our outreach within Latino communities. Our average

538
00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:11,160
Speaker 10: borrower was a Hispanic single mom who worked as a

539
00:33:11,240 --> 00:33:14,360
Speaker 10: nursery teacher in EMT right and was buying that home,

540
00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:16,520
Speaker 10: so she and her kids had a wonderful place to live.

541
00:33:17,040 --> 00:33:20,280
Speaker 10: So we're able to create access and we're seeing the

542
00:33:20,320 --> 00:33:21,120
Speaker 10: effect of that.

543
00:33:21,800 --> 00:33:26,440
Speaker 4: And according to Melanie, the program is already making a difference.

544
00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:29,400
Speaker 10: When you ad that first generation component. We're actually seeing

545
00:33:29,400 --> 00:33:31,560
Speaker 10: that thirty five to forty percent of our home buyers

546
00:33:31,560 --> 00:33:33,920
Speaker 10: who are coming in the door are from Latino families.

547
00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:41,280
Speaker 4: This June, we visited Juiseline again in her house in

548
00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:49,720
Speaker 4: Highland Park. How how are you are you? As she

549
00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:52,960
Speaker 4: shows us around the house, she stops along the way

550
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:57,280
Speaker 4: to point out different artwork and projects that she's working on.

551
00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:01,920
Speaker 4: Dark colorful money Quin's cor were they leaves and flowers,

552
00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:06,000
Speaker 4: and a garden where she's growing vegetables, and of course

553
00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:10,000
Speaker 4: the two lips she's planted, something that has become a

554
00:34:10,160 --> 00:34:14,840
Speaker 4: symbol of resilience for her. It's clear that Justlein fields

555
00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:18,560
Speaker 4: at home here. Milena, her daughter does too.

556
00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:21,080
Speaker 10: The first time I ever walked in, I was like,

557
00:34:21,280 --> 00:34:22,800
Speaker 10: we did it finally.

558
00:34:23,360 --> 00:34:25,799
Speaker 9: I remember I walked up to the stairs right over there,

559
00:34:25,840 --> 00:34:28,360
Speaker 9: and I said, this is our property people.

560
00:34:29,760 --> 00:34:33,240
Speaker 4: As I said before, Milena is twelve years old now,

561
00:34:33,640 --> 00:34:36,720
Speaker 4: and she's old enough to be allowed to walk along

562
00:34:37,239 --> 00:34:39,920
Speaker 4: just down the street to the local Greek coffee shop.

563
00:34:40,640 --> 00:34:43,759
Speaker 4: It's a safety that they were not afforded in their

564
00:34:43,840 --> 00:34:47,320
Speaker 4: previous home, where the newest cafe was a twenty minute

565
00:34:47,360 --> 00:34:51,720
Speaker 4: walk away or Lead producer Norsodi took a walk around

566
00:34:51,760 --> 00:34:52,439
Speaker 4: with just Lean.

567
00:34:53,040 --> 00:34:57,720
Speaker 3: Okay, so that's a Annican does the fairy apply for Milena.

568
00:34:57,800 --> 00:35:03,120
Speaker 3: She comes here, she had her little poetry and she

569
00:35:03,320 --> 00:35:06,800
Speaker 3: drinks coffee and then she feels so, you know, like

570
00:35:08,239 --> 00:35:11,120
Speaker 3: it dependent because she got to do that. And you know,

571
00:35:11,200 --> 00:35:13,719
Speaker 3: like sometimes I keep an eye on hair on her

572
00:35:13,719 --> 00:35:15,760
Speaker 3: and I see her that she's writing and drawing.

573
00:35:16,200 --> 00:35:17,479
Speaker 4: And also it makes me.

574
00:35:17,400 --> 00:35:19,080
Speaker 3: Feel proud, you know what.

575
00:35:26,760 --> 00:35:30,640
Speaker 4: We go inside the Greek cafe and old timey music

576
00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:32,000
Speaker 4: is plain what.

577
00:35:32,040 --> 00:35:33,520
Speaker 7: I like about this space.

578
00:35:34,120 --> 00:35:36,880
Speaker 4: I really like that the owner recognized this lean and

579
00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:43,640
Speaker 4: the greetish other. A few people are seated by the

580
00:35:43,719 --> 00:35:47,680
Speaker 4: tables and they're enjoying coffee and pastries from the bakery.

581
00:35:48,200 --> 00:35:51,680
Speaker 6: It's a small family business. I come from Greece.

582
00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:54,160
Speaker 5: I'm not a US permanent residence.

583
00:35:54,920 --> 00:35:56,960
Speaker 4: We talked to Taki, the owner's brother.

584
00:35:57,320 --> 00:35:59,600
Speaker 5: Where did you come from? Originally he was.

585
00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:01,759
Speaker 3: Born here, but I grew up in Argentina.

586
00:36:02,120 --> 00:36:02,759
Speaker 10: Argentina.

587
00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:03,120
Speaker 8: Yeah.

588
00:36:03,640 --> 00:36:10,840
Speaker 3: So if I go and turn the music or I

589
00:36:10,880 --> 00:36:13,840
Speaker 3: can picture, you can dance. Yeah, I would. That's the

590
00:36:13,920 --> 00:36:14,520
Speaker 3: tangle with you.

591
00:36:24,680 --> 00:36:28,080
Speaker 4: Julyne also makes an effort to be involved in the community.

592
00:36:28,840 --> 00:36:31,759
Speaker 4: Walking around the neighborhood, she shows us some of the

593
00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:35,440
Speaker 4: places in her community where she's made her mark, like

594
00:36:35,680 --> 00:36:39,239
Speaker 4: planting flowers along the sidewalk, So I.

595
00:36:39,160 --> 00:36:41,240
Speaker 3: Think that the one is the one that I planted.

596
00:36:41,640 --> 00:36:45,560
Speaker 4: She points out to a big cement planter where orange

597
00:36:45,680 --> 00:36:50,120
Speaker 4: leafy flowers are growing in the soil a small white

598
00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:56,000
Speaker 4: signed weeds planted with care by Juelin Daniel. Back at

599
00:36:56,000 --> 00:37:00,000
Speaker 4: her house, Justlyn shows us her outdoor studio in the backyard.

600
00:37:00,760 --> 00:37:04,399
Speaker 4: They are broken shorts of glass compiled in a plastic band,

601
00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:08,040
Speaker 4: and they are to be used for her next HOURT project.

602
00:37:08,440 --> 00:37:11,400
Speaker 3: So I'm a psychotherapist and I'm an our therapist. So

603
00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:14,520
Speaker 3: in a way, this is what I do. You know, like,

604
00:37:14,560 --> 00:37:17,640
Speaker 3: this is one my job is, Like I don't usually

605
00:37:17,680 --> 00:37:20,800
Speaker 3: don't get a full piece. I get a broken piece

606
00:37:20,840 --> 00:37:23,520
Speaker 3: of a person that comes with a story. And then

607
00:37:23,800 --> 00:37:26,640
Speaker 3: you know, like this doesn't serve them anymore, even if

608
00:37:26,640 --> 00:37:28,560
Speaker 3: they want to keep it, So they need to sort

609
00:37:28,560 --> 00:37:31,279
Speaker 3: of cut the leash. So part of what I do

610
00:37:31,480 --> 00:37:35,880
Speaker 3: is cutting the leash by changing their narrative. And you

611
00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:39,200
Speaker 3: change the narrative by breaking the pieces and then arranging

612
00:37:39,239 --> 00:37:42,520
Speaker 3: the pieces in a way that either make fun, makes

613
00:37:42,560 --> 00:37:45,600
Speaker 3: you laugh, or you can get a life lesson in

614
00:37:45,640 --> 00:37:47,040
Speaker 3: a way that it becomes healing.

615
00:37:49,080 --> 00:37:52,400
Speaker 4: While we shot with just Lean Milena goes inside the house.

616
00:37:52,960 --> 00:37:57,240
Speaker 4: Maybe she's doing homework, or she's scrolling photos or videos

617
00:37:57,280 --> 00:38:00,440
Speaker 4: on her Mom's fine. Whatever she's doing, she's in a

618
00:38:00,480 --> 00:38:03,879
Speaker 4: safe place, the place just Lean dreamed.

619
00:38:03,520 --> 00:38:07,080
Speaker 3: For her daughter. She calls Highlam Park her little town.

620
00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:08,400
Speaker 3: And that's beautiful.

621
00:38:10,239 --> 00:38:13,600
Speaker 4: And I wonder, just as Martin and just Lean asked

622
00:38:13,719 --> 00:38:17,160
Speaker 4: in the art installation of the doors, those owning this

623
00:38:17,360 --> 00:38:23,800
Speaker 4: house mean they made it in America.

624
00:38:30,160 --> 00:38:33,839
Speaker 2: The Mortgage Wall is an original production of Futuro Investigates

625
00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:38,200
Speaker 2: in collaboration with Latino USA. This episode was reported by

626
00:38:38,239 --> 00:38:41,400
Speaker 2: Penni Le Ramidez, who's also our co executive producer of

627
00:38:41,440 --> 00:38:46,560
Speaker 2: Futuro Investigates and Latino USA. Our the producer is North Saudi,

628
00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:51,400
Speaker 2: Elan Ireland, Roxanne Scott and our associate producer Roxanna Guire

629
00:38:51,600 --> 00:38:56,239
Speaker 2: also contributed reporting to this investigation. Data analysis was done

630
00:38:56,280 --> 00:38:59,960
Speaker 2: by Jeremy Singer Vine. This episode was edited by Andrea

631
00:39:00,040 --> 00:39:04,400
Speaker 2: Lopez Gruzsado, Scoring and sound designed by Jacob Rossari. It

632
00:39:04,560 --> 00:39:09,160
Speaker 2: was mixed by Stephanie Lebau and Julia Caruso. To find

633
00:39:09,160 --> 00:39:12,200
Speaker 2: out more information about The Mortgage Wall and read our

634
00:39:12,320 --> 00:39:15,279
Speaker 2: web article, visit Futuro Investigates.

635
00:39:15,480 --> 00:39:16,200
Speaker 5: Dot org.

636
00:39:16,640 --> 00:39:21,000
Speaker 2: Again, that's Futudo Investigates dot Org. The Latino USA team

637
00:39:21,120 --> 00:39:26,439
Speaker 2: also includes Vittoria Estrada, Jessica Ellis Rinaldo, Leans, Junior Drodi,

638
00:39:26,520 --> 00:39:30,719
Speaker 2: mad Marquis Marta Martinez, Mike Sargent, and Nancy Trujillo.

639
00:39:31,160 --> 00:39:33,280
Speaker 5: Our marketing manager is Luis Luna.

640
00:39:33,600 --> 00:39:36,759
Speaker 2: I'm Maria Ojosa, your host and co executive producer, and

641
00:39:36,920 --> 00:39:40,319
Speaker 2: I'll see you on our next episode. And remember, as

642
00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:44,280
Speaker 2: I say not Tevayes Joe.

643
00:39:46,040 --> 00:39:50,520
Speaker 7: Latino USA is made possible in part by the Geraldine R.

644
00:39:50,800 --> 00:39:56,920
Speaker 4: Dodge Foundation, working toward a just, an equitable New Jersey. W. K.

645
00:39:57,200 --> 00:40:02,000
Speaker 4: Kellogg Foundation, a partner with Communities where Children Come First,

646
00:40:03,080 --> 00:40:04,480
Speaker 4: and the Tao Foundation,