Wells Fargo Cuts Web Link That Offended Minority Neighborhoods

Wells Fargo & Co., one of the nation’s biggest mortgage lenders, said Friday it had disconnected from its Web site a home search tool whose descriptions of minority neighborhoods prompted a lawsuit charging the bank with violating U.S. fair housing laws.

The tool, called Community Search Service, helped potential home buyers look for homes by offering data and descriptions of neighborhoods across the country.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit complained the Community Search Service depicted their Dallas neighborhoods with categories such as “low income” and “distressed neighborhoods.”

Wells Fargo’s mortgage unit, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Inc., said the bank decided Thursday to disable the Community Search Service link from its Web site (https://www.wellsfargo.com/mortgage) “until we can determine if the editorial content is compatible with our demonstrated commitment to low- and moderate-income and minority home buyers.” The statement did not mention the lawsuit.

On Wednesday, the Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now, a national community advocacy group, joined a federal lawsuit against Wells Fargo.

ACORN said it does not plan to drop its lawsuit despite Wells Fargo’s disconnection of the search service--one of the suit’s objectives--because poor and minority neighborhoods have already suffered financially from the Web site link.

ACORN and the original plaintiffs allege that the Community Search Service contains explicit racial classifications and racial stereotypes of neighborhoods, stigmatizing those areas and steering higher-income and nonminority home buyers away from them.