Poor bear brunt of sub-prime crisis
From Religion News Service:
Washington - The poorest counties in the U.S. are among the hardest hit by the subprime mortgage crisis, according to a study released Wednesday (Feb. 27) by the Christian anti-hunger advocacy group Bread for the World.
The report, titled "Home Ownership, Subprime Loans and Poverty," found a strong correlation between poverty rates and percentages of mortgages that are subprime.
In eight of the country's 15 poorest counties, which have poverty rates exceeding 40 percent, the percentage of homeowners holding subprime mortgages is even higher -- up to 60 percent, according to the study. Data in the study were compiled from a variety of sources, including the Corporation for Enterprise Development and the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.
The Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, said the inequity reflects an ignorance of the biblical condemnation against usury.
"The principle underlying the biblical warning against usury was that financial contracts, as important as they are, are still less important than basic human needs," he said. "If you were lending money to a really poor person, you couldn't take his coat as security for the loan."
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