Reporter I’Jaz Ja’ciel recounts her top stories of 2024 : Investigative Post

Reporter I’Jaz Ja’ciel recounts her top stories of 2024, including discriminatory practices by some banks and other lenders.

---

When last we spoke in December 2023, I touted my reporting on Black homeownership rates as some of my best work of the year and promised some follow-ups to dive deeper into the issue.

I’d like to think I delivered on that promise this year through some in-depth pieces I wrote on the region’s mortgage lenders.

In March, I produced a two-part package exploring how banks and non-bank lenders in both Erie County and the City of Buffalo were approving mortgage loans. I scoured tens of thousands of records from Census and Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data to determine where home loans were being approved and for whom.

The results were not surprising but still disheartening. I found that Black applicants were twice as likely to be denied mortgage loans than their white counterparts in the Erie-Niagara region. 

What’s more, that gap was the widest in the nation’s 50 largest metros.

Xem thêm : Mortgage Rate Predictions January 2025: Forecast for Homebuyers

These findings not only indicated disparities in the region’s housing market but showed a larger picture of income inequality and how remnants of now-illegal practices have impacted generations of Black families.

---

---

Perhaps Kathryn Franco, former president of the Buffalo Niagara Community Coalition, said it best:

“To say that redlining doesn’t happen today — maybe not outright, where we are continuing to put red lines on maps — but it does happen in the banking system in all sorts of ways.”

Franco wasn’t the only one who had these thoughts. From national coalitions to federal probes, several lenders in the area have been called out in recent years for alleged discrimination. Some banks, like Five Star and Evans, took the criticism to heart and significantly increased their mortgage lending to Black applicants.

KeyBank took longer to follow suit, but a spokesperson promised me that I’d see an improvement when the next federal banking data was released. And indeed I did; I was able to report on it in October.

One financial institution that appeared to fly under everyone’s radar but mine was Citizens Bank. My analysis found that Citizens’ rejection rate for Black mortgage applicants was double the regional average. Their people told me they had a good track record of diversified lending but failed to provide me with proof. 

With respect to banks and race-based lending patterns, I didn’t just want to focus on the problems. I wanted to know what solutions, if any, could be implemented. I asked the people who know best: realtors, banking representatives and government officials. Responses included banking reforms and expanding outreach to underserved communities.

I put a lot of time into parsing a lot of data, and talking to a lot of people about this issue, so I’d have to say it’s among the work I’m proudest to have done this year. 

---

Subscribe to our free weekly newsletters

---

But I’d like to give honorable mentions to a couple of other stories, like my exclusive on the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority’s Lyndon B. Johnson Apartments, a senior living complex that had been infested with bed bugs, roaches and rodents for a decade. 

I stayed on the issue for months, and I’m glad I did. Days after my initial story broke in April, the authority arranged pest control inspections. By the end of July, residents and BMHA officials reported the infestations were finally under control. Even structural issues within the main building and individual units had been addressed. Talk about journalism making an impact.

I also produced follow-ups for a couple of hot stories I wrote in the not-so-distant past, like Hostel Buffalo-Niagara’s (maybe?) temporary evacuation and closure, and the long-awaited demo order for everyone’s favorite “House from Hell.”

What’s on my reporting wish list for 2025? 

Continuing to tackle Buffalo’s lead crisis (including staying on Partnership for the Public Good’s lawsuit against the city), monitoring disinvestment on the East Side and tracking what changes await Buffalo’s Housing Court with a new judge and — if all goes according to plan — a new advisory council.

---

---

 

posted 12 hours ago – December 31, 2024