75A - PUBLIC HEARING 5 YR CONSOLITATED PLAN

Home Browse Search

America have branches in Anaheim and Santa Ana, there are still disproportionately few branches in those locations than in smaller, less heavily Hispanic cities like Irvine and Huntington Beach. For example, there are 16 Chase branches in Irvine and seven in Huntington Beach as opposed to five in Anaheim and one in Santa Ana Bank of America's distribution of service is somewhat more balanced (though not when accounting for population) with six branches in Santa Ana, eight in Anaheim, eight in Irvine, and six in Huntington Beach. Lack of access to conventional financial services like those offered by banks can prevent residents of underserved neighborhoods from building credit that will help them attain homeownership and can leave residents with few options but to patronize predatory financial services providers like payday lenders. A 2016 report from the California Department of Business Oversight noted that, while 38.7% of California's population was Hispanic, the average percentage of Hispanic residents in zip codes with six or more storefront payday lenders was 53%.13 Payday loans often lead to a cycle of debt that impedes individuals' access to opportunity and economic mobility more generally. In Orange County, that phenomenon appears to be especially likely to harm Hispanic residents, particularly in Santa Ana. Access to Publicly Supported Housing for Persons with Disabilities Access to publicly supported housing for persons with disabilities is a significant contributing factor to fair housing issues in Orange County. Although persons with disabilities are generally able to access Housing Choice Vouchers at rates that are commensurate with their share of the income -eligible population, access to Project -Based Section 8 is more limited in many cities. For Project -Based Section 8, cities with disproportionately low concentrations of residents with disabilities include Costa Mesa, Garden Grove, La Habra, and Westminster. Admissions and Occupancy Policies and Procedures, Including Preferences in Publicly Supported Housing Admissions and occupancy policies and procedures, including preferences in publicly supported housing are a significant contributing factor to fair housing issues in Orange County. In particular, housing authorities, including the Orange County Housing Authority, provide live -work preferences to applicants for Housing Choice Vouchers. Given that Los Angeles County is significantly more heavily Black than Orange County, live -work preferences in Orange County may have the effect of disproportionately excluding Black families that might want to move to Orange County. Housing authorities also have some criminal background screening policies that might be overly restrictive. For example, the Orange County Housing Authority and the Anaheim Housing Authority consider violent criminal activity that occurred as long as five years ago, even if that activity consisted of minor misdemeanor conduct. The Garden Grove Housing Authority also denies assistance based on arrest records alone in certain cases, a policy that contradicts applicable HUD guidance. "The Demographics of California Payday Lending: A Zip Code Analysis of Storefront Locations, CALI oRNIA DEPARTMENT of BusiNEss OVERSIGHT (2016), https:Hdbo.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/296/2019/02/The- Demographics-of-CA-Payday-L ending-A-Zip-Code-Analysis-of-Storefront-L ocations.pdf. 306 75A-585