Our Housing research represents many years of expertise and applied research developed in partnership with many Community Based Organizations and local government agencies in Alameda County. You can search our entire collection, browse this section or narrow down your search by viewing content from specific focused research in the areas of:
- General Housing Related Research, Maps and Data
- Affordable Housing
- Foreclosures
- Blight and Vacant Housing
Race to the Bottom: An Analysis of Hamp Loan Modification Outcomes by Race and Ethnicity for California
Written by SpikeAs the nation’s largest banks are paying multi-billion dollar settlements and being investigated by Attorneys General and other regulators, many of their servicing problems and abuses continue to hurt homeowners. A new report by the California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC) with data analysis by Urban Strategies Council, “Race to the Bottom: An Analysis of HAMP Loan Modification Outcomes by Race and Ethnicity for California”, reveals that California homeowners are having trouble accessing sustainable home loan modifications, and that borrowers of color are disproportionately facing specific problems that are making it more difficult for them to access modifications. The report analyzes recently released data from the Treasury Department about the HAMP program, in conjunction with CRC’s April/May 2011 survey of nonprofit housing counselors.
The findings of the report suggest that modifications are still hard to come by, and that servicers have not corrected many of the problems that have led to investigations of foreclosure abuses.
• Of 568,630 borrowers requesting loan modifications in California, 46% were denied immediately. A mere 23% of those who applied received a permanent modification. The other third of the applicants were either stuck in aged trial modifications or had their modifications cancelled.
• Principal reductions are nearly impossible to receive. In Los Angeles and Fresno, for example, only 5% of loan modifications included some degree of principal forgiveness.
• An astonishing 94% of housing counselors reported that homeowners are losing their homes while negotiating for a loan modification with their servicer (the “dual track” problem).
• Much of the data released from Treasury was incomplete or inadequate for true transparency.
These maps show data from the Federal Communications Commission the varying degree of access to high speed (broadband) internet connections across Alameda County.
The first map shows the rate of households per 1,000 that have a broadband internet connection greater than 200 kbps (kilobits per second). This map broadly shows the density of households that are considered to have, at the very least, the minimum connection speed required to be termed "high-speed", defined currently as 200kbps. This is a useful measure of the volume of homes that do have access to modern web based resources, tools and communications. Given the volume of content easily available online for job searching, education, networking and following local current affairs, homes with no broadband connection are at a serious disadvantage in many ways.
The second map is similar to the first map however it shows the rate of households per 1,000 that have a connection speed that is greater than 768 kbps downstream and greater than 200 kbps upstream. Where the first map shows a more broad level of high speed access, this map shows more specifically the density of households that have what is considered a more robust connection speed. More modern websites, applications and uses of technology require increasingly fast connection speeds, as a result homes with a basic 200kpb connection suffer from a reduced experience and are less likely to engage in many online activities because of slow response and download times.
The third map shows the number of providers of fixed connections over 200 kbps in at least one direction. This is an indicator of the open market versus monopolized markets in our county. Households in a census tract with only one provider have no choice in broadband providers and therefore have less power to choose from a range of services, speeds and price points.
It should be noted that on all of these maps the darker the shading areas the less the density of households with high speed access or less providers of high speed access. This is done to highlight those communities that may be underserved or at least those communities that have less or slower access than the communities surrounding them.
East Oakland Community Survey - Youth UpRising
This summer Urban Strategies Council worked with a team of students at Youth UpRising to carry out a detialed neighborhood conditions survey. This survey covered 1033 parcels in census tract 4097 in East Oakland and involved and assessment of the condition and type of each building in the neighborhood. Form this survey, a simple summary report was produced along with detailed maps of each variable surveyed. The students used handheld GPS/GIS devices to collect this information which was then collected and loaded into a geodatabase managed by the Council.
Bank Owned Foreclosure Update
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