Exploiting Race and Space: Concentrated Subprime Lending as Housing Discrimination

Helen Latimore, a black woman, brought a suit charging racial discrimination in real estate lending by Citibank."' So begins an opinion affirming summary judgment against Latimore, a South Chicago homeowner denied a $51,000 home equity loan because Citibank appraisers valued her home at $45,000.2The bank refused to accept a recent appraisal valuing the house at $82,000 because the comparable sales on which it was based were taken from properties more than six blocks away. 3 In concluding that no reasonable jury could find that the bank denied Latimore the loan because of her race, the court noted, almost as an aside, that Latimore eventually found a smaller loan at a higher interest rate.Clyde Hargraves, reverend of the Little Ark Baptist Church in a predominantly black section of the District of Columbia, received an unsolicited telephone call from a mortgage broker who said he had heard of the church's financial trouble.The church was $70,000 in debt.Reverend