New York City blasts 32 banks over mortgages.

A New York City commission on Monday criticized the mortgage lending records of 32 banks belonging to the Community Preservation Corp., an organization that makes loans to renovate housing for low-and moderate-income New Yorkers.

In a study titled "Residential Lending Disparities in New York City," the city Commission on Human Rights singled out individual banks for criticism as well as criticizing the organization itself.

The Community Preservation Corp. limited its housing construction loans to four neighborhoods between 1974 and 1987m the commission said.

The panel also singled out several institutions, including Marine Midland Bank and Apple Savings Bank, as favoring communities populate by whites over neighborhoods with large minority populations.

"The mortgage lending record of its individual member banks was dismally poor," the commission said in a prepared release.

The Community Preservation Corp. has lent more than $700 million for the renovation of housing for low- and moderate-income New Yorker since it was founded in 1974. The organization works on many of its multifamily housing renovations projects with the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

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