Wells Fargo is accused of bias in upkeep of foreclosed homes
A nonprofit group has filed a bias complaint against Wells Fargo & Co. accusing the lender of doing inferior maintenance on the foreclosed homes it owns in what the nonprofit calls Latino and black neighborhoods compared with those it owns in white areas.
The complaint by the National Fair Housing Alliance to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development comes after the group released a report last week concluding that in nine big American cities, foreclosed homes were taken much better care of in what it calls white neighborhoods than in those with residents of color.
The report detailed the results of an investigation of more than 1,000 foreclosed homes in and around Atlanta; Baltimore; Dallas; Dayton, Ohio; Miami; Oakland; Philadelphia; Phoenix andWashington, D.C.
Jennifer Langan, a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo, said in a emailed statement that the company “conducts all lending-related activities in a fair and consistent manner without regard to race, and this includes maintenance and marketing standards for all foreclosed properties for which we are responsible.”
