Though applicants reportedly do not have to be black or Hispanic/Latino to qualify for the loans, the Bank of America has announced a new zero down payment, zero closing cost mortgage solution for first-time homebuyers, specifically those in the black and Hispanic/Latino communities.
Known as the Community Affordable Loan Solution, the program will be available in select cities, including Charlotte, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Miami.
"Why don't we just put up signs saying … 'No whites need apply. You're not welcome,'" Bishop E.W. Jackson suggested in response on his American Family Radio program, "The Awakening." "It's because it's just that ugly, and it's just that divisive, and it's just that ridiculous. I can't believe that a bank of this size is buying into this stuff."
A recent report from LendingTree shows the mortgage denial rate for black borrowers is twice that of the overall population. Still, Scott Shepard of the National Center for Public Policy Research, an organization that owns shares in Bank of America and other businesses so as to bring them back to center, has concerns about the new program.
"Last year, our shareholder proposal was asking them to look through their policies to make sure that they weren't discriminating illegally and immorally and horrifically in the name of racism," he recalls. "Instead, they seem to have amped up the racism quotient."
CNBC reports that the Bank of America has also announced the launch of a new small-business down payment program aimed at helping minority and women business owners obtain credit and purchase commercial real estate through grants. That program is launching in Atlanta, Chicago, Charlotte, Dallas, and Los Angeles. There are plans to expand to additional markets in 2023.
