MONROE, MI – The Mortgage Firm, Inc., headquartered in Altamonte Springs, FL, has agreed to a $1.75 million settlement in a redlining lawsuit in the Miami Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) within primarily Black and Hispanic communities, reported the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) earlier in January.
According to the DOJ, redlining is defined as “an illegal practice by which lenders avoid providing credit services to individuals living in communities of color because of the race, color or national origin of residents in those communities.”
The Mortgage Firm is a “non-depository mortgage company,” explained the DOJ, and the complaint alleging the discrimination suit against them was filed earlier this month.
The DOJ stated the firm “violated the Fair Housing Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act by failing to provide equal access to mortgage lending services to majority-and high-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in the Miami MSA [Metropolitan Statistical Area] and discouraging people seeking credit in those communities from obtaining home loans.”
The investigation into The Mortgage Firm began following a tip from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, reported by the DOJ and is the 16th such settlement under the Department’s Combating Redlining Initiative.
Overall, the DOJ announced the Redlining Initiative has netted “over $153 million in relief for communities of color that have been the victims of lending discrimination,” and should “generate over $1 billion in investment to address unequal access to credit in communities of color across the country.”
As a result of the settlement, the DOJ explains The Mortgage Firm will be required to “conduct a Community Credit Needs Assessment, provide $1.75 million for a loan subsidy program, conduct a detailed assessment of its fair lending program…”
And it must “enhance its fair lending training and staffing, expand its outreach and advertising efforts” in majority Black and Hispanic neighborhoods, and “bolster connections with the community and build referral sources in predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods.”
