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Florida Foreclosure Maintenance Company Target of Discrimination Complaint  July 22, 2014 | WMFE, Orlando - A Florida based company that maintains foreclosed homes is the subject of a national civil rights investigation.
[Sixty nine homes were investigated by Orlando's Fair Housing Continuum. Map of Cyprexx-maintained REO's in Orlando courtesy of the National Fair Housing Alliance.] The National Fair Housing Alliance is filing a complaint against Cyprexx, which is a national maintenance contractor for Fannie Mae. The complaint alleges the Tampa-based company discriminated against foreclosed homes in African-American and Latino communities while Real Estate Owned properties in white communities were being maintained better. David Baade from the Orlando-based Fair Housing Continuum, says they reviewed 69 Cyprexx-maintained homes in Orlando to count deficiencies like overgrown shrubbery or broken windows. “The decomposition of these neighborhoods hurts the homes and the lives of people who live there," Baade said. Cyprexx-maintained homes in African-American and Latino communities were five times more likely than those maintainained in white communities to have unsecured windows and ten times more likely to have overgrown grass. This isn’t the first time a government-sponsored mortgage company has been under investigation for civil rights violations. In 2009, the NFHA investigated Freddie Mac. NFHA president and CEO Shanna Smith says the investigation resulted in positive changes at Freddie Mac. “Freddie Mac put in a completely new business model that included hiring people who were local, not big national companies who would do trickle down money to people who are supposed to take care of the property," Smith said. Four other cities nationwide were also named in the complaint. |
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