Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend a forum at the Ford Foundation on the foreclosure crisis and its effects disproportionate negative effect on minorities. As this discussion was going on, Wall Street continued with its worst crisis since the Great Depression, brought on by the same flawed lending practices that put minority and other low and moderate income homeowners in harm’s way.
Ironically, in this last week I had the chance to get an advanced look a paper written by a friend that has been researching the sub-prime mortgage crisis. The irony is that she has been researching this for years and some of the references in the paper go pack years before that. When I mentioned to her that I was surprised how far back some of the data goes, she sent me references to other research that goes back as far as 2000.
As I thought about how far back researchers so this crisis coming, in my mind’s eye I saw the actor Matthew Modine playing the young AIDS researcher in the made for cable movie “And the Band Played On”. This was the movie adaptation of “And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic” the non-fiction best seller by Randy Shilts about the discovery and spread of AIDS and the government’s indifference early on that is still affecting the world today. The title of the book is a reference to the story about the dance band in the first-class lounge of the RMS Titanic, which kept playing as the ship sank, thereby alluding to the multiple agencies and communities who neglected to prioritize a swift medical response to the crisis.
How could this data gone unnoticed? As the real estate market continued to heat up, and we saw double digit increases in property values, few in positions authority saw it necessary to change policy as properties in foreclosure could be sold out of trouble. But when the prices of real estate stagnated, the whole pyramid came tumbling down.
But just like the passengers of the Titanic drowned, FAMILIES are drowning in debt and losing their HOMES.
When will we, as a society, learn?
And the Band Played On