The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) and 19 fair housing organizations from across the country today filed a housing discrimination lawsuit in federal district court in Chicago against a number of organizations.
The named organizations include Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Bank National Trust, Deutsche Bank Trust Co. Americas, Ocwen Financial Corp. and Altisource Portfolio Solutions Inc. Ocwen and Altisource are the servicer and property management company responsible for maintaining and marketing a large number of Deutsche Bank’s properties.
The lawsuit alleges that Deutsche Bank purposely failed to maintain its foreclosed bank-owned homes in middle- and working- class African American and Latino neighborhoods in 30 metropolitan areas, while it consistently maintained similar bank-owned homes in white neighborhoods.
The suit alleges a pattern of discriminatory conduct by Deutsche Bank/Ocwen/Altisource in the maintenance of foreclosed homes. It alleges that Deutsche Bank-owned homes in predominantly white working- and middle-class neighborhoods are far more likely to have the lawns mowed and edged regularly, invasive weeds and vines removed, windows and doors secured or repaired, litter, debris and trash removed, leaves raked, and graffiti erased from the property.
Deutsche Bank in June 2013 settled a lawsuit with the city of Los Angeles for $10 million after it was accused of allowing hundreds of foreclosed properties under its ownership to fall into slum conditions, leading to the destabilization of whole communities.
NFHA alleges that Deutsche Bank, Ocwen and Altisource’s intentional failure to correct their discriminatory treatment in African American and Latino neighborhoods – the same communities hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis – can only be seen as systemic racism.
“The intentional neglect of bank-owned homes in communities of color devalues the property and the lives of the families living in the neighborhoods around them. The health and safety hazards created by these blighted Deutsche Bank-owned homes affect the residents, especially the children, living nearby,” Shanna L. Smith, president and CEO of NFHA, said in a statement. “It is important to note that Deutsche Bank, Ocwen and Altisource were all paid to secure, maintain and market these homes. No one is asking for special treatment of these bank-owned homes; we simply ask that these companies provide the same standard of care for all bank-owned homes, regardless of the racial or ethnic composition of the neighborhood in which they are located.”
