As part of the new deal, President Franklin Roosevelt’s administration sponsored and helped to establish the Home Owners Loan Corporation. HOLC was created to protect white homeowners and push back on the defacement of white neighborhoods from ethnic settlers. The home Owners loan corporation still has a long living legacy on the housing market in New York City. HOLC assigned a distinct set of four colors in the cities in which they operate. A neighborhood that was assigned the color green meant that the federal government could back the mortgages. Being assigned a red color or “redlining” meant that there was a concentration of a less desirable ethnic or religious groups. Redlining made it difficult for African Americans in New York to get housing. Harlem was assigned the red color and marked as a high-risk neighborhood due to the high concentration of African Americans living there. Black people were viewed as a contagion and lowered the value of the housing market wherever they ended up. Even one African American family could give the whole neighborhood a red rating. Neighborhoods with Jewish and Italian families were also at risk of that rating. HOLC’s rating made it difficult for minorities and poor immigrants to take out loans to buy homes.