Not everyone is participating in the ongoing recovery buoying the Valley housing market.

---

According to a new report released this week by a Bay Area public policy research institute, many African American and Hispanic borrowers in Fresno continue to be denied access to mortgages.

The report, entitled “Locked Out of the Market: Poor Access to Home Loans for Californians of Color,” was written by Zach Murray and Sasha Werblin, researchers at the Berkeley-based Greenlining Institute.

The Greenlining Institute report focused specifically on three California cities — Fresno, Long Beach and Oakland.

According to its website, Greenlining Institute “works to overcome the lingering effects of redlining” by helping communities of color “build wealth and ensure that our financial system works for all.”

Redlining is a discriminatory, illegal practice once used by certain lending institutions to deny loans to people living in specific geographic areas, especially poorer inner-city neighborhoods.

While doing the research for their report, the Greenlining authors found that statewide in 2013, of the more than $187 billion in mortgage credit lent to Californians, only $53 billion went to Asian, African American and Hispanic borrowers.

“California is a critical housing market and a bellwether for national trends,” the authors note. “Unfortunately, access to affordable and sustainable home loans remains elusive to many in California’s new majority, particularly to African American and Hispanic borrowers across the state.”

Read more about the Greenlining report in this week’s print edition of The Business Journal.