The FHA was designed to be against black people

[Slick Vik]

In response to the Great Depression, the Federal Housing Administration was created through the National Housing Act of 1934. The purpose of the FHA was to regulate interest rates and mortgage terms. While this new government agency created an opportunity for whites to become homeowners and begin accumulating wealth, government-sanctioned racism kept blacks out of the housing market. The FHA regularly denied mortgages to black people and limited loans to new residential areas on the outskirts of the city, where the white population tended to live; this contributed to the decay of inner city neighborhoods as middle-class residents left to build new homes in the suburbs. Federal policy also dictated that the home values of predominantly black neighborhoods were to be lower than in neighborhoods that were mostly white. Even though that law is no longer on the books, its legacy remains: Homes in black neighborhoods still have lower values than homes in white neighborhoods with similar incomes.

The Federal Housing Administration also practiced redlining, the practice in which lenders would deny or limit financial services based on race, regardless of other financial qualifications. The term redlining comes from the practice of drawing red lines on maps to mark the black neighborhoods where banks would not invest. The FHA was firm in its racial bias; in one of its publications, the agency even declared that neighborhoods should not be racially integrated. Finally, by 1968 as part of the Civil Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act was implemented. It was a victory for blacks nationwide, but the damage had already been done. While white families had been building wealth for decades, blacks found themselves behind. In the years after housing act’s passage, the wealth gap would certainly shrink, but never come close to closing.

http://prospect.org/article/staggering-loss-black-wealth-due-subprime-scandal-continues-unabated

[JasnoDTX]

In 2004 I was approved VERY quickly for a FHA home loan. I'm half "Mexican" but have a white last name(father's side). During the process I spoke on the phone with loan reps and I sound pretty much 100% white. So I guess they assumed I wasn't part minority.

 

Meanwhile during the same period I knew some black coworkers who were denied even though they say they were qualified and for the most part I believe them.

 

I never really wanted to believe that they discriminated but maybe there is something to this.

[Slick Vik]

Interesting I've heard redlining is still practiced by home insurance companies as well