Redlining

Redlining involves restricting access to goods, services, employment, credit, or other resources to the residents of certain neighborhoods of a metropolitan area. It is a form of discrimination, because the denial of such resources is based on prejudice toward a neighborhood and/or the personal characteristics of its residents.

The term redlining is frequently associated with mortgage lending discrimination. The earliest form of redlining in mortgage lending was devised during the Great Depression, in an effort to relieve urban homeowners at risk of foreclosure with new federal loans. The Home Owners Loan Corporation of 1933 (HOLC) devised a property appraisal [Page 1375]system that systematically underrated dense or older inner-city neighborhoods, resulting in a lack of credit in such areas.

However, the practice of redlining need not be explicitly ...