Rich dreams, poor dreams: Racial discrimination in mortgage lending is holding communities down

photo/MATT WRIGHT Ramon Borges-Mendez, associate professor of community development and planning at Clark University, stands in Worcester's Main South neighborhood, in this photo accompanying the "Rich dreams, poor dreams" joint investigation from Worcester Business Journal and Worcester Regional Research Bureau.

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Racial discrimination in mortgage lending and home ownership -- a key to building generational wealth in America -- creates neighborhoods of have's and have-not's in Greater Worcester, where educational and economic success is harder to achieve.

This three-part, five-month joint investigation by Worcester Business Journal and the Worcester Regional Research Bureau examines the problems caused by racial discrimination in home lending:

WBJ Part 1: Racial discrimination in mortgage lending has created a segregated Worcester with unequal school environments and worries about gentrification in the city's poor, but up-and-coming neighborhoods.
WBJ Part 2: Poor neighborhoods with diverse populations struggle to sustain economic development, which destabilizes the region's poorest areas and creates obstacles to economic improvement, particularly for existing residents.
The entire Worcester Regional Research Bureau report -- Achieving the American Dream: Disparities in Worcester Homeownership -- breaks down into more detail the differences between the richest and poorest neighborhoods in Central Massachusetts, and how that impacts quality of life and upward mobility.

Debuting this summer, WBJ & WRRB are developing a webinar exploring solutions to both discrimination in mortgage lending and how greater equity can be brought to the region's neighborhoods. Event and registration details will be unveiled on WBJournal.com in the coming weeks.