Fort Smith fair housing report released; citizen input sought

A draft report on “Analysis of Impediments” to fair housing in Fort Smith suggests that American Indian, black and Hispanic applicants experienced higher rates of loan denials than white applicants, even after correcting for income.

The report was prepared by Portland, Ore.-based Western Economic Services, and is a required analysis by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Matt Jennings, director of community development for the city of Fort Smith, released the report Friday (Sept. 17) for public review. Citizens have until Oct. 18 to submit written comments about the report. (Send written comments to: Matt Jennings or Jamie Fout, Community Development Department, City of Fort Smith, P. O. Box 1908, Fort Smith, AR 72902 no later than 4 p.m., Oct. 18.) Link here for an 84-page PDF of the draft report.

The report notes that “housing units” in Sebastian County increased by 9.1% between 2000 and 2008. Of the 35,353 housing units reported in the 2000 census in Fort Smith, about 68.4% were single-family units, 19.3% were apartments and 5.9% were duplexes.

Data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) were used to analyze differences in denial rates among ethnic groups in Fort Smith.

“Evaluated home purchase loan applications from 2004 through 2008 showed that there were 6,190 loan originations and 1,419 loan denials, for an average five-year loan denial rate of 18.6 percent. These HMDA data also showed that American Indian, black and Hispanic applicants experienced higher rates of loan denials than white applicants, even after correcting for income,” noted the report.

The report also found 51 fair housing complaints filed between 1999 and through the research period in 2010. Of those, 14 were found to “have no cause,” five cases were closed with “successful conciliation,” and three complaints were withdrawn by the complainant.

Overall, the report identified five broad areas the city needs to address.
• Historically, “insufficient system capacity” has resulted in inadequate outreach and education efforts resulting in insufficient community awareness of fair housing.

• Rental markets in the city appear to demonstrate discriminatory actions by housing
providers. The actions include “failure to make reasonable accommodation or modification,” and “discriminatory terms, conditions, privileges, services, or facilities.”

• Disproportionately high home purchase loan denial rates exist for selected racial and ethnic minorities.

• Home purchase loan denial rates are disproportionately high in lower-income areas.

• Results from the fair housing survey showed that some believe land-use and development practices “may not be in the spirit of affirmatively furthering
fair housing.”

The draft report offered the following solutions to the aforementioned deficiencies.
• Consider initiating a Fair Housing Committee within the Arkansas Community Development Association for efficient use of fair housing resources.

• Increase knowledge and understanding of fair housing and affirmatively furthering fair housing through the following outreach and education efforts.

• Establish baseline of the actual level and types of discrimination occurring in the
community through audit testing activities.

• Coordinate renter, homebuyer and homeowner credit trainings with local bankers and
Realtors.

• More broadly inform the public of recent land use changes to exclusionary zoning and land use policies.

• Form local fair housing workgroup to meet periodically and address fair housing issues
in the city. This group should be comprised of interested parties such as bankers, Realtors, property managers, fair housing advocates and representatives of the city.