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More than 1,600 Californians have been evicted during pandemic
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5 months agoon
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The coronavirus pandemic enters a new month, meaning struggling Americans once again worry about paying their rent. That includes Jade Brooks, facing eviction from a Boston apartment she shares with her mother and an 8-year-old cousin. (July 31)
AP Domestic
Like any parent, Jamie Burson didn’t want her 11-year-old son to discover how frightened she really was about the coronavirus. But it’s hard to mask anxiety when you’re living and sleeping together in the same car.
After Burson was evicted from her two-bedroom apartment in Vacaville the second week of April, she heeded Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order to shelter in place by cooping up in a two-door sedan near her Walmart job. With school campuses shuttered, her son propped his school-issued laptop on top of the glovebox and attended class in the same passenger seat he slept in.
It helped that he could occasionally spend a night at a relative’s or friend’s house, although Burson hesitated to ask to sleep there herself, partly out of fear of spreading the virus to friends and family.
“I was scared because of how many people were dying on a daily basis,” said Burson, who was evicted for a late February rent payment. “Made me feel like mankind was going to go extinct. I’ve never lived to see any type of disease take people out the way this one has.”
More than 1,600 California households like Burson’s have been evicted since Newsom declared a statewide state of emergency March 4, according to data CalMatters obtained via public record requests from more than 40 California sheriffs’ departments. Nearly a third of those evictions took place after Newsom’s March 19 shelter-in-place order, and more than 400 since Newsom issued a self-described March 27 “eviction moratorium.”
The 1,600 evictions are likely a significant undercount of how many renters have been forced to leave their homes since the pandemic struck, as both court-sanctioned and informal evictions often do not show up on the sheriffs’ lockout lists obtained by CalMatters. Additionally, sheriffs’ departments in 14 counties did not respond to data requests; more than 14 million Californians live in those counties, including Los Angeles County, the state’s largest, with 10 million residents.
Newsom’s moratorium — which tenant groups criticized as belated and inadequate — focused on delaying eviction cases related to financial hardship from the pandemic until May 31. An April 6 emergency rule passed by the Judicial Council, the governing body for the state court system, went further, halting nearly all eviction court proceedings in California.
But neither Newsom’s executive orders nor the Judicial Council rule addressed a major subset of eviction cases: tenants like Burson who already lost in court, often for missed rent payments in February or March, and were simply waiting on sheriffs’ deputies to lock them out. Federal eviction moratoria also did not stop these evictions.
As state lawmakers scramble to find a solution for a looming “eviction wave” when courts reopen as early as this month, tenant groups and public health experts warn that the loophole in state protections continues to endanger renters who may become homeless or move into unsafe and overcrowded housing.
Just last week, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department resumed serving its backlog of nearly 1,000 scheduled eviction lockouts, even as the county remains on a state watchlist for surging coronavirus cases. When performing eviction lockouts in the past few months, San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies encountered two separate households where tenants claimed they were quarantining because of COVID-19, according to a sheriff’s spokesperson. Those households were allowed to complete their quarantine before being evicted.
“(These evictions) could have been prevented, and it really is distressing to hear that this many people have been evicted when we have these shelter-in-place orders,” said Madeline Howard, senior staff attorney at the Western Center on Law and Poverty, which has lobbied for tighter eviction protections during the pandemic.
Unclear authority
Burson now stays in a one-bedroom motel room in Fairfield, paid for by a temporary Solano County homelessness program. She’s unsure where she’ll live once the program ends this week.
She was evicted because of a late February rent payment, lost the eviction lawsuit by default when she says she misunderstood how to respond within the legally required five-day window, and was given until early April to vacate the property. She left before she thought law enforcement was scheduled to lock her out.
While she understands that it was technically within her landlord’s right to kick her out, she wonders why the eviction wasn’t postponed.
“Why wasn’t everything set aside, period?” said Burson, who had been living in the Vacaville apartment for more than a year.
ROEM Development Corporation, owner of the apartment complex from which Burson was evicted, and FPI Management, the building’s property management company, did not respond to requests for comment.
Upon being informed by CalMatters that Burson was no longer occupying the apartment, Todd Rothbard, the landlord attorney who represented ROEM in the eviction lawsuit, said his firm would consider no longer contesting a legal motion Burson had filed to remove the eviction from her record. Evictions stay on tenant records for seven years, and can make it very difficult for renters to find another place to live.
But although Rothbard sympathizes with some tenants, he pushed back on the notion that Burson should not have been evicted in the first place.
“Life can be hard,” Rothbard said. “To the extent people need help, it’s nice to see when society is able to provide help. But it is somewhat unfair to say to a landlord who is in business ‘Hey, it’s now your obligation to support this person.’ Because it’s not.”
Rothbard also said Newsom and the Judicial Council have already overstepped their constitutional powers by the eviction protections they’ve mandated. Instructing sheriffs to not perform eviction lockouts would likely be challenged in court.
Some constitutional law experts say it’s at best unclear what is and isn’t within Newsom’s power when it comes to “enforcing writs” in eviction cases — legalese for court orders to sheriffs’ departments to perform lockouts. Separation of powers between the court system and the executive branch complicate his authority.
“While a governor possesses broad authority under the Emergency Services Act to respond to the pandemic, directing county sheriffs to disobey or slow-walk lawful court orders is beyond a governor’s emergency powers,” said Stephen Duvernay, a senior research fellow at UC Berkeley’s California Constitution Center.
But pro-tenant attorneys disagree, arguing Newsom has remarkable powers during public emergencies — powers they urged the governor to deploy in early March as the first reports of hospitalizations and deaths mounted.
Navneet Grewal, litigation counsel for Disability Rights California, said that there was nothing legally restraining Newsom from ordering sheriffs to stop performing evictions for cases that pre-dated the pandemic. Newsom had included such a provision in one of his executive orders, although it only applied to cases where tenants could demonstrate financial hardship because of the virus.
“I think part of the unique thing here really is that there is no precedent of the situation that we’re in,” Grewal said. “There’s clearly a lot of broad powers to deal with emergencies; we just haven’t had an emergency like this in our lifetime.”
The Newsom administration declined multiple requests for comment.
Tenant groups also approached Attorney General Xavier Becerra to intervene.
“The reports of ongoing evictions in communities across the state and in the midst of the public health crisis are profoundly troubling,” Becerra’s press office said in an emailed statement. “Our office does not have the authority to direct Sheriffs to refuse to comply with lawful orders issued by Courts hearing eviction cases.”
But pro-tenant lawyers say Becerra is constitutionally empowered to oversee how local law enforcement executes court orders.
“I think the attorney general seems to have some priorities that are focused on dealing with the Trump administration, which are obviously very important,” Howard said. “But some of these very important issues are not getting addressed.”
Sheriff choices
On the morning of March 19, Sgt. Lydia Montoya anxiously awaited an announcement from the governor. She had heard news reports that a shelter-in-place order was coming.
The civil unit she oversees at the Kings County Sheriff’s Department had performed three evictions already that day, which they believed they were legally obligated to carry out. But Montoya and other officers in the department harbored concerns about the potential health risks — to the community and the deputies themselves — of pushing renters onto the street.
When Newsom issued the shelter-in-place order that afternoon, Montoya believed she had the legal justification she needed to stop evicting people. Conferring with a county attorney and the publicly elected sheriff, the department decided to stop performing eviction lockouts except in emergency cases that threatened public health and safety. Six evictions on their calendar have been indefinitely postponed. If the shelter-in-place order had come a day earlier, so would the three performed the morning of the 19th.
“The (shelter-in-place) order implies that it is a public safety issue to have people out and about,” said Montoya, who also supplied her deputies with handmade masks before her department acquired personal protective equipment. “And certainly evicting people, them out and about looking for rentals or whatnot, or making them homeless, is not in line with his shelter-in-place order.”
But not every California sheriff’s department shared Kings County’s interpretation of the governor’s executive order. Without clear guidance from the state, individual sheriffs’ departments were left to choose whether to continue with evictions already on their lockout calendars.
Many did just that. According to data obtained by CalMatters, three counties in the Inland Empire and Central Valley led the pack: San Bernardino, with 135 evictions since shelter-in-place; Riverside, with 93; and Kern County, with 68.
“It was a combination of considerations looking at both sides, obviously with the stay-at-home orders as well as the other side of the actual landlords and the people that own the property and their ability to make rent, pay bills and things like that,” said Adam Plugge, a commander at the Kern County Sheriff’s Office that oversees its eviction unit.
After Kern County sheriff’s deputies paused lockouts in late March, Plugge said his department fielded phone calls and emails from frustrated landlords and attorneys, including those referred his way from local elected officials. The lockouts resumed in April.
Plugge said that an explicit directive from the state would have avoided considerable confusion.
“It would have made decisions a lot easier to decide whether or not something could be done, and I think it would have been clearer for the public as well going forward in any shape, fashion or form,” Plugge said.
Evicting without masks
On July 1, deputies from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department showed up at 7886 Myrtle Avenue in Eureka to tell Ernie Bull and Mary Wildman the two had to leave.
Bull, 59, had lost a dispute with his step-brother about who should inherit the property he had been living at with his late father and step-mother. Bull said he missed a key court date because he accidentally dialed into the wrong Zoom number for a remote court hearing. Humboldt County Superior Court stopped in-person hearings because of coronavirus.
A group of Wildman’s friends were there to help them with the move. While some of their friends wore masks, Bull and Wildman didn’t — and neither did the sheriff’s deputies who came to evict them.
“If we can socially distance six feet away, then we’re not going to wear a mask,” said Lt. Mike Fridley, who oversees the department’s eviction unit.
While he couldn’t speak to the specifics of Bull and Wildman’s eviction, Fridley said that his deputies carry masks with them, and can put them on at their own discretion. Wearing masks makes it difficult for the deputies to use their radios, he said.
Like most sheriffs’ departments, Humboldt County deputies typically perform multiple lockouts on the same day at different addresses. On the day they evicted Bull and Wildman, three other addresses were scheduled for lockouts, according to sheriff’s department documents.
Asked if he believed there was a health risk in performing multiple evictions on the same day, Fridley said “I wouldn’t see any more risk than five people going to the cashier’s line in Costco.”
Dr. Margot Kushel, director at the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations, said she knows of no documented case of sheriffs’ deputies spreading coronavirus through eviction lockouts. But she does fear a “nightmare scenario.”
“If you had a situation where there was a group of deputies going into different people’s households in a highly charged atmosphere, where people might be upset and might be yelling, I think you could potentially have risks for both the deputies going in and for the households being evicted,” Kushel said.
Other sheriffs’ departments interviewed for this story say they require deputies to wear protective gear while performing lockouts.
Neither Bull nor Wildman — who has kidney problems — have shown symptoms of the coronavirus since the eviction. Wildman has been staying at a friend’s place, while Bull has slept outside.
“I want to stay away from people. I’m scared,” said Bull. “I gotta admit, I’m scared.”
Landlord costs
Of course, keeping tenants in a unit for multiple months while they can’t pay rent has a cost. For Karen Clark, that cost is $10,000 — and the fear of falling behind on her mortgage.
Clark, who owns and lives in a triplex in walking distance from the University of Southern California, rents one of her units to a single father and his twin teenage daughters. She was charging $2,400 for the unit — a deal she said was well below market value for the three-bed, three-bath home near downtown Los Angeles.
“I just really liked them and I wanted to help them,” said Clark, who preferred the stability of renting to families instead of students.
Her tenant began to fall behind in his rent payments last fall when his catering business began to decline, according to Clark. Then COVID-19 hit this spring — evaporating most of what remained of her tenant’s income and, along with it, the rent.
Clark said she had seriously considered evicting the tenant in March, but never filed the necessary paperwork with a court. Now those courts are closed to new eviction cases, and Clark said she has been digging into her savings to pay for utilities and other costs. She has explored forbearance options on her mortgage, but was scared of the prospect of a lump-sum payment due at the end of the forbearance period.
“I don’t know what to do,” said Clark, who has kept her job working at City National Bank during the pandemic. “I’ve got to get my cash back. I went through some of my savings, now I’m robbing other bills. It’s just not gonna give forever.”
Clark helps financially support her son and grandchild in Oregon, and rents her other unit to her daughter and son-in-law. When courts resume eviction proceedings, she plans on filing.
Stopgap measures
While sheriffs’ departments across the state continue evictions for cases that pre-date the pandemic, Newsom and state lawmakers are scrambling to head off what experts say is a looming “eviction wave” of tenants who have lost their income because of COVID-19. A UC Berkeley analysis found that as of June, nearly 1 million renter heads of households in California lost their job because of COVID-19.
In the Coachella Valley, some cities like Palm Springs have put in place temporary eviction moratoria. Palm Springs adopted a moratorium in April and has extended it through Sept. 30. The ordinance prohibits landlords of residential and non-residential property from moving to evict tenants if tenants can demonstrate they have suffered financially due to the pandemic, according to the city. Other local cities that have passed moratoria include Cathedral City, Coachella, Desert Hot Springs, Rancho Mirage and Indian Wells.
Statewide, two proposals to compensate landlords and prevent more evictions are making their way through the Legislature, but both face daunting questions about how they’ll actually work.
California State Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, who chairs the state Judicial Council, said the state court system could resume eviction proceedings as early as Friday. If tenants contest them, proceedings can take weeks. Because supplemental federal unemployment benefits of $600 per week expired last month, tenants groups fear swelling ranks of renters unable to afford a roof over their heads.
Unless the state intervenes or a new round of federal support is extended, 24-year old Gabriella Aldana is one of those at-risk renters, and could be evicted for the second time since the virus hit California.
Just before 10 a.m. on March 26, three Riverside County Sheriff’s deputies banged on Aldana’s front door. None of the deputies wore a mask, she said, and they told her she had to leave the premises with her two children, ages 6 and 3. The family was permitted to take only what they could carry.
Aldana, then two months pregnant, and her two children piled what they could into her 2013 Honda Accord and drove off into a pandemic at a time when public health officials didn’t know much about the virus.
She left her job at Walmart, she said, over fears of infecting her daughters or complicating her own pregnancy. The night of her eviction, she stayed in a hotel, then moved in for a few days with her parents. She eventually found a studio apartment for the April for $1170. After that, they moved into a two-bedroom duplex in downtown Riverside. The new place is beyond their current means, but also the only place that would accept Aldana, who said she has bad credit.
She has survived on unemployment benefits and, especially, the $600 weekly federal unemployment boost.
If the federal unemployment boost isn’t renewed by late August, Aldana and her children will likely once more be evicted. Even if she gets one of the jobs she’s interviewed for recently, her monthly take-home pay after taxes would be about $1,600. Her rent is $1,595.
“I have some savings to cover some of (rent) next month, I might look for a roommate if the job doesn’t come through and the (federal unemployment benefits) goes away,” Aldana said. “I have to start looking for all of that because now it’s just me.”
Ben Christopher contributed to this article.
This article is part of The California Divide, a collaboration among newsrooms examining income inequity and economic survival in California.
Read or Share this story: https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/2020/08/12/more-than-1-600-californians-have-been-evicted-during-pandemic/3355104001/
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How to Buy a House With Bad Credit: Guide for 2021
Published
19 mins agoon
January 25, 2021By
Creditadmin
Our goal is to give you the tools and confidence you need to improve your finances. Although we receive compensation from our partner lenders, whom we will always identify, all opinions are our own. Credible Operations, Inc. NMLS # 1681276, is referred to here as “Credible.”
Having bad credit makes it harder to get a mortgage. A low credit score makes you look riskier to lenders; it suggests you might be financially unstable or unwilling to repay your debts.
A poor score, however, can also simply be the result of not knowing how the scoring process works or having gone through a brief rough patch that required you to take on debt.
If you think you’re ready for homeownership despite your bad credit, here’s what you need to know:
What counts as a bad credit score?
How do you know if your credit is bad? Once you know your score, see where it falls in the ranges below:
- Poor (less than 640): Lenders consider borrowers in this credit score range to be high risk. Having poor credit means you probably won’t qualify for a conventional mortgage, but you might be able to get a government-backed home loan.
- Fair (640 to 699): Lenders see borrowers in this credit score range as less risky. You might have less debt or a stronger payment history than borrowers with poor credit. You can qualify for a conventional mortgage with fair credit, but you might need to be stronger in other areas to make up for it, and you could be saddled with a higher mortgage rate.
- Good (700 to 749): With good credit, you’ll have a much easier time qualifying for a mortgage and getting a low interest rate. You’ll probably secure offers from more than one lender.
- Excellent (750 and above): An excellent credit score demonstrates your ability to manage debt. You consistently make your payments on time and don’t use too much of your available credit. Combined with a steady income, you’ll qualify for a mortgage from multiple lenders and have the luxury of choosing the least expensive option.
While potential borrowers with poor credit will find it challenging to get a home loan, it can be done. You just need to learn about the options available and how lenders will look at your application.
Find Out: 800 Credit Score Mortgage Rate: What Kind of Rates Can You Get?
Credit score needed to get a mortgage
While your credit score is an important factor in your home loan eligibility, it’s not the only one. Here’s what else lenders care about:
- Down payment: Depending on the loan and the lender, you’ll need a minimum of 0% to 5% down.
- Debt-to-income ratio: Typically, you want a debt-to-income ratio of 36% or less when applying for a mortgage. In most instances, it can’t total more than 45% to 50% of your income.
- Cash reserves: You might need up to six months’ worth of mortgage payments in the bank with a low credit score and/or low down payment.
Minimum credit score by loan type
Loan type | Min. credit score | |
---|---|---|
Conventional | A home loan not insured by the federal government | 620 |
FHA | Government-insured mortgage for borrowers with low credit scores | 580 (with 3.5% down; 500 with 10% down) |
VA | Government-backed mortgage for military service members (including qualified reservists) who meet length and character of service requirements, and their unmarried surviving spouses | None (though individual lenders might impose limits) |
USDA | Government-insured home loan for low- and very-low-income applicants in eligible rural areas | None |
What having bad credit means for your mortgage rate
The lower your credit score, the higher your mortgage rate, all else being equal. If you have poor credit, expect to pay at least 1.5% more than someone with excellent credit.
The result will be a higher monthly mortgage payment and a higher long-term borrowing cost.
Assuming you’re able to secure a loan with bad credit, you won’t necessarily be stuck with the same rate forever. It might be possible to refinance to a better rate after improving your credit score.
It’s safer to only take on a mortgage now if you feel confident you can afford it long term, even if you hope to refinance or sell your home in a few years.
Learn More: What Is a Mortgage Rate and How Do They Work?
How to get a mortgage with bad credit
You might already be able to get a mortgage despite your bad credit. For example, if your score is at least 580, you can put down just 3.5% and get an FHA loan.
However, working to improve your score and other aspects of your finances gives you more options and can save you money. Follow the steps below to increase your chances of getting a mortgage:
1. Keep an eye on your credit
It’s never been easier to get a free copy of your credit report. You can receive a free copy of your credit report from each of the three national credit reporting agencies at AnnualCreditReport.com.
Tip: Some sites make it look like you need to pay for your report. You don’t. The three national credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — are required by federal law to provide you with a free annual credit report.
Analyze your reports to make sure all the information is accurate. If you find a mistake that could be weighing down your score, dispute it with the credit bureau or with the company that reported the incorrect data.
Check your score weekly as well. This allows you to see how your financial activity is affecting your score. If it’s moving in the wrong direction, frequent checks will help you take quick corrective action.
2. Pay your bills on time
Payment history is the most important factor that determines your credit score, making up about 35% of it.
Make sure all your credit card, auto loan, and other debt payments post to your account by the due date to boost this part of your score.
3. Work on paying down debt
How much you owe makes up 30% of your credit score. Specifically, your credit score evaluates your balance relative to your available credit, often referred to as your credit utilization ratio. The lower that ratio, the better.
For example, your score will look better if your balance on a $5,000 credit line is $500 (10% utilization) instead of $2,500 (50% utilization).
If you rack up a high credit card balance one month, try to pay it down before your next statement is issued to keep your credit utilization down on your credit report.
4. Stay away from hard credit inquiries
Applying for a loan or credit card will usually ding your credit score if the creditor conducts a hard credit inquiry.
Credible lets prospective homebuyers shop for rates without impacting their credit scores. We’ll show you actual, prequalified rates from our partner lenders — our process is secure and simple, and it only takes a few minutes to complete.
- Instant streamlined pre-approval: It only takes 3 minutes to see if you qualify for an instant streamlined pre-approval letter, without affecting your credit.
- We keep your data private: Compare rates from multiple lenders without your data being sold or getting spammed.
- A modern approach to mortgages: Complete your mortgage online with bank integrations and automatic updates. Talk to a loan officer only if you want to.
Opening a new account — or closing an old one — will also decrease the average age of your accounts, a factor that accounts for 15% of your credit score.
There are situations, however, where the benefit of applying for new credit might outweigh the impact on your credit score.
One example of this is transferring high-interest debt to a lower-interest card, which could help you pay down debt faster.
5. Consider a rapid rescore
If you’re in a hurry to boost your credit score, a rapid rescore might help. Normally, your credit report and score get updated each billing cycle.
This means that after you pay down a credit card balance, for example, your new credit utilization rate might not be reflected in your score for up to a month.
Rapid rescoring can speed up the change to your credit score. Your lender might recommend it if you’re close to having a good enough score to qualify for a loan or better rate.
Tip: Only your lender can request a rapid rescore; you can’t do it yourself.
Keep Reading: Credit Score Needed to Get a Home Loan
6. Save up for a larger down payment
A larger down payment gives you more skin in the game, which makes you look less risky to lenders. It also means you won’t need to borrow as much.
If your income is too high to qualify for other low-credit-score conventional loan programs such as Fannie Mae’s HomeReady, you may still qualify for a conventional loan with a credit score of 620. You’ll need to put 25% down and your debt-to-income ratio must be 36% or less.
In this case, you won’t have to pay for private mortgage insurance. Your monthly mortgage payment will be smaller and your long-term interest expense will be lower. So, while you’ll pay more up front, you’ll pay less each month and over time.
7. Bring on a co-signer
A co-signer whose credit is better than yours could help you get approved for a mortgage or lower interest rate.
However, they will be taking on a huge responsibility: the obligation to pay your mortgage payments if you default. If they can’t, their credit score will be impacted.
In other words, a co-signer must put their savings and their credit reputation at risk to help you. That’s a big ask.
8. Consider a loan type with less stringent credit requirements
As we’ve noted, FHA loans have low credit score requirements. VA loans and USDA loans technically don’t have a minimum credit score requirement. However, these two loan types do have stricter eligibility requirements:
- VA loans: Only available to military service members who meet length and character of service requirements, and their unmarried surviving spouses
- USDA loans: Only available to low- and very-low-income applicants in eligible rural areas
9. Shop around to find the best offer
Even with poor credit, you should shop around to find a great mortgage rate. With Credible, you can check prequalified rates from multiple lenders for free, all on one platform.
You might be eligible for better rates than you think. And if you’re not, you now know the steps to get your score into better shape.
Get started today by checking out the table below, and see what rates you prequalify for from our partner lenders.
About the author

Amy Fontinelle
Amy Fontinelle is a mortgage and credit card authority and a contributor to Credible. Her work has appeared in Forbes Advisor, The Motley Fool, Investopedia, International Business Times, MassMutual, and more.
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More accountability among council proposals for Akron police
Published
6 hours agoon
January 25, 2021By
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Akron City Council wants more resources for the city’s only independent police auditor and more public access to police records, from use of force reports to citizen complaints and logs that track the race of everyone stopped by police.
Those are among the recommendations to be released publicly on Monday by council’s special committee on Reimagining Public Safety. Members are trying to answer a community call for a police force that better reflects the demographics and lived experiences those it serves and protects following the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota last year.
There would be no age limit for police cadets, which the city recently upped from 35 to 40 years. A new “Pathway to Law Enforcement” would ask community and education leaders to steer young adults into careers with the city and the Akron Police Department.
More so than they do now, social workers would help police handle 911 calls involving mental health and addiction. Officers would spend more time walking or biking their beats in an effort to build trust and understanding with the neighborhoods they police.
And council would keep up with the latest in law enforcement technology as city police deploy drones or consider feeding camera footage into crime-solving software that can scan faces and license plates, which would prompt leaders to weigh public safety against personal privacy.
Council President Margo Sommerville will present the full list of recommendations and special committee findings during council’s regular public meeting Monday. The 22-page document is the culmination of 22 subcommittee meetings, each averaging about an hour.
But the report is not the end of the road to “Reimagining Public Safety,” Sommerville explained. The end goal is “more equitable” policing systems and stronger bonds between police and the policed.
As he searches for a new police chief, Mayor Dan Horrigan and his deputy mayor for Public Safety, Charles Brown, express agreement with council in recognizing the best elements of policing in Akron while considering improvements outlined in the listed recommendations.
Next, Sommerville said council will take its newfound knowledge of policing in Akron to the public and rank-and-file officers.
University of Akron President Gary L. Miller said he’s honored and excited that council has asked his faculty and students to develop a community engagement process of surveys and virtual town hall meetings. The information gathering process will solicit feedback from residents, officers and the police union, which as an organization was not given an opportunity to address council’s special committee.
“We know at the end of the day, when we really begin to finalize these recommendations, we’re going to need the Fraternal Order of Police (Lodge #7),” Sommerville said, pinning successful implementation of any reform or enhancement on the commitment of everyone impacted.
FOP President Clay Cozart will see the recommendations Monday. While continuing to disagree with the prominence given to police reform in the wake of Floyd’s death, Cozart said he’s watched every minute of the 22 meetings discussing the work of his members, and he appreciates Sommerville’s willingness to work with the union.
Informed by Akron police officers serving as “liaisons,” the special committee involving every member of council broke out into four working groups.
Police oversight
The Accountability and Transparency group, which met seven times, delved into issues of external oversight, officer discipline and public access to records, drawing on the expertise of police auditors, civilian review board members and national experts on the subject from coast to coast.
Background: Who polices Akron police? Auditor says his office is understaffed, under-resourced
“In our society, we entrust police with the critical responsibility of protecting public safety, including by using force, if necessary,” the working group concluded. “External oversight recognizes that the seriousness of this delegated power requires particular scrutiny in order to ensure that the rights of the public are protected. On both a national and local level, historic injustices have created a trust deficit in how the public, particularly communities of color, interact with law enforcement, and government more broadly. Community trust is essential for effective policing.”
The group settled on two formal recommendations:
- Give Akron Police Auditor Phil Young, who answers to the mayor, a role codified in city law with “sufficient authority to access information, adequate staffing and funding and independence from the political process.”
- Ensure “that more police data and information is made publicly-available online and updated on a regular basis.”
Prevention
The prevention working group discussed community policing and best practices around responding to mental health, addiction and other 911 calls that can end tragically for officers and citizens.
While identifying funding as the greatest barrier to more robust training, the group recommended that every officer undergo Crisis Intervention Team training. Currently, 76% of officers lack the 40-hour training.
More: Akron’s police chief to retire in 2021
To “help solidify stronger relationships between police officers and the communities they diligently patrol and serve,” the group also recommended more walking and biking for beat cops, something previous councils and mayors have tried to achieve.
The final recommendation recommended a shifting, or at least sharing, of the burden of solving society’s problems, which armed officers encounter daily.
There’s some appetite for the concept, even among officers. Police1, an online source of information and resources for law enforcement, surveyed 4,000 American officers for a special report called “What Cops Want in 2021.” Officers named serving their community as the top reason for becoming officers. They also ranked the types of 911 calls they’d rather see other agencies handle: housing for homeless people (93%), animal control (88%), nuisance abatement (64%), parking enforcement (61%) and dispute mediation (53%), responding to mental health crises (45%) and drug overdoses (29%).
“Throughout our working group meetings, there was a continuing discussion of whether it may be appropriate for social service agencies to respond to some 911 calls relating to mental health or other issues, the idea being that a social service-focused approach might be more effective in some cases, and could also free up APD to focus on issues that clearly need a police response,” the group concluded. “Our APD liaisons made clear that they believe there should be a police response to all calls, as situations are fluid and could endanger non-police responders.”
We also heard from the Police Chief in Alexandria, Kentucky, a small city south of Cincinnati, who described a program in which the department employs two social workers, who follow up on calls (and in some cases respond to calls where the scene is deemed safe).”
The group heard from a Kentucky police chief who sends social workers out on many calls, sometimes without an armed officer. They said Akron, as a community, should involve more social service providers on 911 calls, when “appropriate,” and expand programs where counselors and health professionals follow-up after the fact.
Personnel and culture
A third committee tackled hiring and staffing as commanders must take officers from their patrols to fill specialized units like Neighborhood Response Teams — the backbone of community policing in Akron — or Quick Response Teams that respond to overdoses.
The group recommended more ongoing training and identified potential problems with hiring like not testing for steroids in the screening process because it costs twice as much or disqualifying applicants because they have or lie about a history of bad credit or minor drug offenses.
Background: Akron police force struggles to reflect city’s diversity
To get a more diverse and broader pool of candidates, the group recommended abolishing the current 40-year maximum age for cadets, as other large cities have done.
They also recommended bringing back an Akron Urban League program that prepared candidates for the city’s civil service exam and the creation of a Pathway to Law Enforcement program.
The Pathway program would use neighborhood “figureheads” and public educators to recruit 18 year olds and hold their interest in becoming cops until they turn 21 and are allowed by state law to carry a firearm as a civil servant. For a couple years, they would get city jobs dealing with the public while earning criminal justice credentials through UA or Stark State.
The group added two suggestions: APD should update its mission statement “to include the need for a workforce that reflects community and the need for diversity” and bring in an outside group that would take confidential and “unvarnished opinions” of officers “that could provide constructive feedback for further institutional change.”
Technology and equipment
No formal recommendations, aside from getting a body-worn camera for every officer who interacts with the public, came out of the technology and equipment committee.
More: Akron is ‘Reimagining Public Safety’ with drones, diversity and license plate readers
This last group learned about policing gadgets and systems like unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), “less-lethal” weapons (tear gas, pepper spray, tasers) surplus military rifles and body-worn cameras.
City information technologists informed them of existing software that allows detectives to stake out drug houses or solve crimes by accessing 277 cameras mounted around the city on buildings, lights and traffic poles. The footage is recorded 24/7 and kept for 21 days. And they discussed emergent technology like Briefcam, a program of computer algorithms that scans faces and reads license plates then automatically generates turn-by-turn video of stolen cars or suspects.
“Going forward, it will be important to gauge public opinion about how cameras in public spaces should be used,” the committee cautioned. “With Ring doorbells and other consumer camera systems becoming ubiquitous, it may be that the public is willing to accept greater surveillance by police within public spaces. Still, there should be transparency and clear rules on what is and is not permitted.”
Reach reporter Doug Livingston at dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.co or 330-719-1756
Bad Credit
Everything You Need To Know About Financing A Car In 2021
Published
11 hours agoon
January 25, 2021By
Creditadmin
Thinking about financing a car? Depending on your job and where you live, owning a car may be the easiest way to get around. But reliable vehicles can be expensive, which is where car financing comes in.
We’ve reviewed several of the best auto loan providers and researched everything you need to know about the car financing process. This article summarizes the most important information into an easy-to-understand guide to help you find your best auto financing options.
We’ll explain why you would finance a car, how car financing typically works, tips for finding the lowest interest rates, and recommend top lenders to get you started. Read on to learn everything you need to know about financing a car in 2021, and click below to start comparing rates from multiple lenders at AutoCreditExpress.com.
In this article:
Is Financing A Car A Good Idea?
If you have the cash to purchase a new car without a loan, take this approach. Unless your annual percentage rate (APR) is zero percent (which is rare), it is cheaper in the long run to purchase a car with cash. Of course, this is not practical or possible for many people. If you need a vehicle soon and don’t have the money saved up, financing may be the only way to purchase a car.
You should finance a car if:
- You need a car and can’t afford to pay for the full value of the car in cash.
- You want a car and can’t afford to pay the full value, but you can budget for the monthly expense of your payments.
You should not finance a car if:
- You cannot afford monthly payments.
- You can afford to pay for the full value of the car in cash.
How Does Car Financing Work?
Car financing is a type of loan. A lender will pay for a certain amount when you purchase the car, which you will be required to pay back, with interest, at a predetermined monthly rate. There are several important variables to any auto loan:
- Purchase price
- Fees
- Down payment
- APR
- Financing term length
The purchase price is the final agreed-upon cost of the car. Typically, the purchase price is set by a dealer but can be negotiated. On top of this price, you will also be required to pay taxes and other fees depending on the state and dealership. Taken together, these represent the total cost of the car.
Most auto loans do not pay for the entire cost of your vehicle. A typical down payment is 20 percent of the car’s total cost. The higher your down payment, the lower the amount you need to finance. The more you can pay as a down payment, the better, as you will be charged interest on the remaining amount.
APR represents the amount of interest you will pay. In the United States, there is no standard for how APR must be calculated for auto loans. This means that depending on how often the interest is compounded, the same APR for the same loan amount can result in a different total interest paid. For this reason, it is difficult to compare offers between lenders based solely on advertised APR.
Luckily, many car financing offers will clearly state your monthly payment amount. If you multiply this number by the number of installments you will pay, you can determine the total price you will pay. If you subtract this total amount from the amount that you financed, you can figure out exactly how much you will pay in interest.
For example, imagine the total cost of the car you purchase is $20,000. You place a 20-percent down payment of $4,000. This means you take out an auto loan of $16,000 to pay the remainder. If your contract requires you to pay $250 per month for 4 years, you will end up paying a total of $20,000 to your lender. This is $4,000 more than the amount you financed – $16,000 – and represents your total financing fee (how much extra you had to pay in order to get a loan).
Beware of dealerships that advertise zero percent APR. Typically, when a dealer advertises this rate, it may give you no interest on your loan but tack on other fees that increase the total amount you must pay back. For example, rather than saying you must pay $16,000 plus 4 percent APR, the dealership will add a “service fee” on top of the sticker price so that the amount you must pay back is much higher, even though your debt does not accumulate interest.
If your loan contract does not clearly indicate the total amount you will need to pay back, do not sign it. Only agree to an auto loan you fully understand. If you have trouble understanding your loan terms, you aren’t alone. Many loans are intentionally confusing so that the customer has a more difficult time realizing if they are being scammed. Consider enlisting the help of a friend or even a loan professional to review your contract’s terms and conditions before signing.
Your financing term is the length of time it will take for you to pay off your auto loan, assuming that you meet all monthly payment obligations. The longer your finance term, the more you will ultimately pay. This is because the longer your loan remains unpaid, the longer you will accumulate interest. Try to pay off your loan as quickly as possible.
How To Get Car Financing
Along with deciding on a vehicle and determining your budget, you’ll need to choose where to get your auto loan from. There are several places to request car financing from, and each has its benefits and downsides:
Option For Financing A Car | How It Works |
---|---|
Dealership financing | Most dealerships offer vehicle financing, typically through third-party lending partners. This is the most convenient option, as you can compare multiple offers at the dealership and see if there are any special rates for certain vehicles. However, be aware that dealer loans may include high fees. |
Bank financing | While it may be more of a hassle to visit a separate location from where you will buy your car, local banks and credit unions can help work within your budget, won’t pressure you to buy, and will likely offer some of the best terms. Credit unions in particular are likely to be less predatory. |
Online lender financing | The easiest way to browse financing offers is online. Many online lenders partner with dealerships so that you can prequalify for a loan and shop for eligible vehicles on the same website. However, there are a lot of online auto lenders out there, so you’ll need to look for one that’s credible. |
Tips For Financing A Car
When you are financing a car, there are several best practices to keep in mind to get the lowest rates:
- Decide how much you can pay beforehand: Before even deciding which car to buy, determine how much you can afford to finance. Think about what monthly payment you can comfortably pay, and work backward from there. Cars depreciate in value, so you can quickly find yourself in debt if you take out a loan you can’t afford. After a few years, is not uncommon for the value of a car to be less than the amount you owe on your loan.
- Check your credit score: Interest rates are largely based on your credit score. You are entitled to a free copy of your own credit report at least once a year. You can request this at AnnualCreditReport.com and other websites. If you have a poor credit score, you might need a bad credit auto loan. One way to get a better APR if you have a low credit score is to have a cosigner with good credit.
- Reduce finance charges: Your goal should be to lower the total amount you will pay on top of the cost of your vehicle. This means looking for a low APR and a short payment term. Also, try to reduce the amount you must finance by making as large a down payment as possible. Twenty percent is standard for a down payment, but if you can afford to pay more upfront, you will pay less later.
- Compare offers: It’s a good idea to compare auto loan offers before you visit the dealership. When doing so, be sure to only request loan offers from lenders that offer pre-qualification that does not include a hard credit check. Hard credit checks lower your credit score, so do not agree to one unless you are ready to finalize a loan offer.
Recommended Lenders
When financing a car, it can be difficult to know which lenders are credible. To help you sift through the hundreds of choices available, we’ve narrowed down the best loan providers in the industry.
Read on to learn more about some of our top picks, or read our full review of the best auto loans for a longer list of recommended lenders. If you’re ready to start comparing loan offers right away, you can do so via AutoCreditExpress.com.
PenFed Credit Union offers some of the lowest auto loan rates we have seen. However, it has stricter credit score requirements than other lenders and may not be an option for some. The company is well-regarded and has a positive reputation online.
PenFed Credit Union Pros | PenFed Credit Union Cons |
---|---|
Offers exceptionally low interest rates | Moderate customer service reputation |
A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) | Does not offer loans to drivers with poor credit |
Customer reviews describe a slow application process |
Auto Credit Express is a good choice for those with bad credit. Even if you are undergoing bankruptcy or repossession, Auto Credit Express will work with you. Plus, Auto Credit Express will help you build your credit score if it is low.
Auto Credit Express Pros | Auto Credit Express Cons |
---|---|
Offers financing for customers with bad or no credit | Currently has a BBB alert regarding licensing issues |
Pairs customers with loans based on credit profile | Poor customer reviews |
Offers special rates for military members |
To learn more about this provider, read our full Auto Credit Express review.
myAutoloan.com is not a direct lender but a portal that connects lenders with customers. It’s a good way to browse loan offers and even find loans for private purchases.
myAutoloan.com Pros | myAutoloan.com Cons |
---|---|
Offers loans for drivers with bad credit history | Not available in Alaska and Hawaii |
Offers loans for private purchases | Not available to drivers with credit scores below 575 |
Good customer service reputation and an A+ rating from the BBB |
To learn more, read our full myAutoloan.com review.
Alternatives To Financing A Car
If you need a vehicle but do not want to take out an auto financing loan, you have a few alternatives.
- Lease: If you lease a car, you will pay a monthly fee that is likely to be lower than an auto loan payment. However, at the end of the lease term, you must return the vehicle and will be charged for excess damages. Some lease contracts have the option to buy the vehicle at the end of the lease.
- Private loan: You might ask for a loan from an individual rather than a loan provider. An individual that you know may loan you money at a much better rate than auto lenders (or with no interest at all).
- Cash payment: If you can avoid making a monthly car payment, it’s the best route to go. Cash payments are the cheapest way to purchase a vehicle in the long run, but most people do not have the funds to take advantage of this option.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if I miss a car payment?
If you think you are going to miss a car payment, contact your lender right away. You may be able to request an extension or have your contract terms changed. If you are able to negotiate any changes, be sure to get them in writing. If you miss too many car payments, your vehicle can be repossessed.
How long should you finance a car?
You should try to finance your car for as short a time as possible. A typical auto loan term is five to six years. Longer auto loans are not recommended because the value of your car may depreciate below the amount you have left in payments.
Can you finance any car?
Which cars you can finance depends on the lender. Many lenders will not provide auto loans unless you buy your car from a dealership, but this is not always the case. A lender will not provide a loan for an especially expensive car if the borrower has a poor credit score or low income. Likewise, if the value of the car is too low, a lender may not offer an auto loan and you’ll need to look into personal loan options.
Which bank is best for car financing?
There is not a single best bank for car financing, though we generally recommend Chase and Capital One – which are generally good banks for auto loans. Typically, a local bank or credit union is your best bet for auto financing.
What credit score do you need to get zero percent financing on a car?
Few lenders offer zero percent financing on auto loans. To be eligible for this interest rate, you would likely need a credit score above 720, as well as a stable income. Most of the time, if a dealership advertises zero percent APR, you will end up paying more in hidden fees.
Is a 72-month car loan bad?
While 72 months is long for a car loan, it’s not uncommon. If you can, try to sign up for an auto loan that does not exceed 60 months (5 years).
What car dealerships are offering zero percent financing?
Few car dealerships offer zero percent financing. Some dealerships advertise “0 percent APR,” but this is usually just a way to get people in the door and doesn’t always equal saving money on your purchase. Rather than charge an interest rate, the final contract may include additional fees that are not legally considered “finance charges.” This has been a common practice among U.S. automakers since the 1980s.
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