Obstructing the American Dream: Homeownership Denied and Neighborhood Crime

A persistent goal of United States housing policy is homeownership, an achievement emblematic of the American Dream. Homeownership also plays an essential role in stabilizing communities and protecting neighborhoods from crime, as documented in the extensive communities and crime literature. For most Americans, homeownership is achieved via mortgage lending, but few studies examine the link between housing policy and crime. The present study investigates an unexplored aspect of mortgage lending which is concentrated in disadvantaged communities of color: mortgage denials. In this analysis of Boston, Massachusetts, neighborhoods, results demonstrate that mortgage denials have a positive relationship with neighborhood crime and that this relationship is partially explained by the impact of mortgage denials on community social problems. The concluding discussion proposes that mortgage denials contribute to neighborhood marginalization and estrangement. Policy implications address the Community Reinvestment Act and access to lenders, and areas of future research are also discussed.