Risky business: the foreclosure crisis, Asian Americans, and Asian American-serving community-based organizations

Lee, Christina

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/50687 Copy

Description

Title

Risky business: the foreclosure crisis, Asian Americans, and Asian American-serving community-based organizations

Author(s)

Lee, Christina

Issue Date

2014-09-16

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Greenlee, Andrew

Department of Study

Urban & Regional Planning

Discipline

Urban Planning

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.U.P.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• foreclosure
• Asian American
• community-based organizations
• housing
• community development

Abstract

The 2007 foreclosure crisis has strained the U.S. economy with high foreclosure rates and property loss affecting many communities. However, there is a dearth of research on how the crisis has impacted Asian American communities, even though they are geographically concentrated in metropolitan areas and states with higher foreclosure rates. This study explores foreclosure risk, or what factors impact homeowner vulnerability to foreclosure, and how the foreclosure crisis has impacted Asian Americans. It examines these effects across the nation with a focus on Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. To better understand foreclosure risks, the study includes help-seeking behavior, highlighting how Asian American-serving community-based organizations (AA CBOs) mediate these risks for their clients. The study consequently includes interviews with AA CBO staff from across the country and focus groups with Laotian homeowners from Minneapolis-St. Paul. The results illustrate that many Asian American homeowners are geographically concentrated in areas with higher foreclosure risk and live in neighborhoods that expose them to risk factors that may lead them to eventually foreclose. The study also finds that AA CBOs have developed a number of strategies to mediate the impacts of the foreclosure crisis and foreclosure risks, but have few resources to serve immigrant, limited English-speaking homeowners. Amidst shifting housing policy changes, these AA CBOs have developed their own networks to expand their access to resources and better serve clients. In the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, there is increasing segmentation and devolution of services, which narrows the networks that AA CBOs utilize to develop foreclosure prevention resources for clients. These trends in service delivery also limit mainstream institutions’ understanding of Asian Americans in the region. These findings have implications for planners and policy makers as to how they can better support smaller and marginalized populations by understanding the effects that housing policies have on these populations and through collaborations with CBOs. By offering assistance to more groups, local governments can prevent accruing further costs related to foreclosures and help their economic stability. The study also raises questions about the effectiveness of devolution as a government strategy in housing service provision when foreclosures are a complicated and time-consuming process. With growing segmentation in housing service provision between the government and CBOs in addition to among various CBOs, there is a growing gap between decision makers and CBOs that implement policy changes. These gaps add to the dearth of resources that many CBOs experience in providing services that they are expected to fulfill for their clients without sufficient government support.

Graduation Semester

2014-08

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/50687

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2014 Christina Aujean Lee

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