Trident’s loans in Philadelphia went to whiter and wealthier neighborhoods, Inquirer analysis shows

The six zip codes in which the highest percentage of new mortgages came from Trident are an average of 11% black and 6% Latino, according to the U.S. Census.

West Philadelphia resident Sabrina Morgan (right) gets clarification for her question about the Justice Department's settlement with Trident, a Philadelphia-area mortgage lender.Read moreALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / Staff Photographer

by Chris A. Williams and Dylan Purcell

Published Jul. 27, 2022, 6:10 p.m. ET

Trident Mortgage Company, a subsidiary of Fox & Roach LP, has agreed to reinvest more than $20 million due to a history of what officials called racist lending practices in Philadelphia and elsewhere, the Justice Department announced Monday.

An Inquirer analysis of city property records and U.S. Census data shows most of the loans the Philadelphia-area mortgage company wrote in the city between 2015 and 2019 were clustered in neighborhoods that were largely white and comparatively wealthy.

Philadelphia public records cannot show who was denied a mortgage by Trident.

But during those five years, the company wrote 5,535 mortgages in the city, according to an Inquirer analysis of property records, making it the second-largest lender after Quicken Loans.

The six zip codes in which the highest percentage of new mortgages came from Trident are an average of 6% Latino and 11% Black, while the entire city is 15% Latino and 41% Black, according to the U.S. Census.

The loans were in Chestnut Hill (19118), Center City (19102, 19103 and 19106), Spring Garden and Fairmount (19130), Bella Vista and Queen Village (19147).

“Trident’s unlawful redlining activity denied communities of color equal access to residential mortgages, stripped them of the opportunity to build wealth, and devalued properties in their neighborhoods,” said Kristen Clarke, an assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.