Free Republic

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders. The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring. Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest...

Housing finance company Freddie Mac plans to put $1 billion into mortgages and home-repair loans in areas damaged by Hurricane Katrina, an effort praised by critics of the company as Congress considers legislation to increase regulation of Freddie and its larger rival, Fannie Mae. In Baton Rouge, La., yesterday, Freddie Mac chairman and chief executive Richard F. Syron and members of the Louisiana congressional delegation announced Freddie Mac's plan to buy $1 billion worth of bonds from state and local housing finance agencies. By accepting a below-market rate of return on the bonds, the purchase will allow cut-rate financing for...

ABC News' David Wright reports: At a joint rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa Thursday, Republican John McCain slammed the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) for being "asleep at the switch" saying that if he were president, he would fire Chris Cox, the chairman of the SEC since 2005 and a former Republican congressman. McCain said the SEC has allowed trading practices such as short selling to stay in place that turned the "markets into a casino." "The regulators were asleep, my friends," McCain said. "The chairman of the SEC serves at the appointment of the president. And in my view...

Members of Congress are making a last-ditch effort to head off an Oct. 1 ban on the use of seller-assisted down payments on federally insured mortgages with a compromise measure designed to win over skeptical federal housing officials. The proposed bill would resurrect the programs, which Congress, with the backing of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, axed earlier this year. The compromise measure would limit their use to borrowers with higher credit scores. In exchange, HUD would be able to institute risk-based pricing for federally insured mortgages, allowing the agency to charge higher premiums for less-creditworthy borrowers. Supporters...

Andrew Cuomo, the youngest Housing and Urban Development secretary in history, made a series of decisions between 1997 and 2001 that gave birth to the country's current [housing] crisis. He took actions that—in combination with many other factors—helped plunge Fannie and Freddie into the subprime markets without putting in place the means to monitor their increasingly risky investments. He turned the Federal Housing Administration mortgage program into a sweetheart lender with sky-high loan ceilings and no money down, and he legalized what a federal judge has branded "kickbacks" to brokers that have fueled the sale of overpriced and unsupportable loans....

The Talk Shows Sunday, August 10th, 2008 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Rick Davis, John McCain's campaign manager; Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; Amy Zantzinger, White House social secretary.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Gov. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Karl Rove, former deputy chief of staff to President Bush. THIS WEEK (ABC): Govs. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., and Bobby Jindal, R-La.LATE EDITION (CNN) : T. Boone Pickens, chairman of the energy investment fund BP Capital and creator of an alternative energy plan; Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and...

The Countrywide sixBy John Bender web posted June 16, 2008The news that former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson was one of the sleaze bags who enriched themselves with sweat heart deals on mortgages from Countrywide Financial makes it a bipartisan scandal and eliminates the slim possibility that any of them will be brought to justice.  The ruling political class doesn't like to bring its members to justice. But if one political party can gain political advantage by going after a few members of the political class who happen to be in the other party, they will grab...

In 2004, as regulators warned that subprime lenders were saddling borrowers with mortgages they could not afford, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development helped fuel more of that risky lending. Eager to put more low-income and minority families into their own homes, the agency required that two government-chartered mortgage finance firms purchase far more "affordable" loans made to these borrowers. HUD stuck with an outdated policy that allowed Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to count billions of dollars they invested in subprime loans as a public good that would foster affordable housing. Housing experts and some congressional leaders...

President Bush met with officials at the American Red Cross National Headquarters in Washington to discuss the relief efforts for the millions suffering in the aftermath of the China earthquake. (Transcript) I've just been briefed about how the United States private sector, faith-based community, NGO community is responding to what is a horrible human disaster in China -- estimated 70,000 people have died, 18,000 people missing, 15 million people homeless, and the tally is still being counted. The president later spoke at the swearing in ceremony for new HUD Secretary Steve Preston at the Department of Housing and Urban Development...

House Republicans are spreading the word about the La Raza earmark in the pork-laden housing bill that I’ve been reporting on (see here and here). Fresh from the desk of House GOP leader John Boehner: Democrats are prepared to bring to the House floor legislation purportedly written to assist Americans impacted by the recent housing slump. But in recent days, it has become increasingly clear who this legislation is really out to serve: scam artists, speculators, and trial lawyers. That’s right: the bill forces taxpayers to pay for a massive $300 billion bailout at the expense of innocent victims who...

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's top housing official, under criminal investigation and intense pressure from Democratic critics, announced Monday he is quitting.Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson said his resignation will take effect on April 18. The move comes at a shaky time for the economy and the Bush administration, as the housing industry's crisis has imperiled the nation's credit markets and led to a major economic slowdown....

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson resigned Monday, amid multiple ethics investigations and criticism from top lawmakers. Jackson said he will step down on April 18. He did not mention the allegations in his brief statement Monday, saying only that he wanted to attend to personal and family matters. The resignation came after criticism from members of Congress that Jackson has refused to respond adequately to allegations of impropriety. No names have been floated as candidates to replace Jackson, a long-time friend of President Bush from their days in Texas.

Two top Democrats on Friday called for the resignation of U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson, citing questions about his leadership and his agency's operations during the national housing crisis... Democrats have raised allegations about potential improper political interference at HUD, particularly regarding to the use of contracts and federal spending. Mr. Jackson has consistently denied wrongdoing. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.) and Sen. Patty Murray, who chairs the Senate subcommittee that controls HUD's appropriations, sent a letter to President George W. Bush on Friday calling for Mr. Jackson's removal. "Unfortunately, the allegations surrounding Secretary...

Pleasantries have given way to earnest conversations among retired accountants, senior salespeople, company executives and others about what many perceive as the Habitat problem. A chapter of Habitat for Humanity wants to build a 90-home development of modest residences at one of the primary entrances to Greenwood Forest, whose homes range from 2,000 to 5,000 square feet.

Marietta Daily Journal Lewis votes against our vets Published: 01/20/2008 By Laura Armstrong Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards' holiday ad said this: "One of every four homeless people on our streets is a veteran. Who speaks for them? We do. This is the season of miracles, of faith and love… So let us promise together you will never be forgotten again. We see you. We hear you. And we will speak for you." Memo to John before he goes: Not enough Democrats hear you. His message seemed sincere, there before the yuletide tree. But in Edwards' universe, after espousing the...

In Christmases past, residents of Kingston House in West York hung a tree with Santa Clauses and decorated a common room with puzzles showing Christ in a manger. School groups and carolers came through the halls singing "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and other popular Christian hymns. But things are different this December. At Kingston House and other properties owned by the York Area Development Corporation, songs or decorations in common areas must be secular. The same policy applies to hundreds of tenants in York City's Delphia House and other apartments managed by the development...

Ever since it took over the public housing projects of New Orleans more than a decade ago, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has been itching to tear them down. Now, after years of lawsuits and delays, it looks as if the agency will finally get its Christmas wish. The New Orleans City Council is scheduled to vote on Thursday on whether to sign off on the demolitions of three projects. HUD already has its bulldozers in place, engines warm and ready to roll the next morning. Arguing that the housing was barely livable before the flooding unleashed by...

Presidential hopeful Senator John Edwards (D-North Carolina) released the following statement on the New Orleans City Council’s approval of the HUD plan to begin demolishing public housing in New Orleans: “I am disappointed in the decision today by the New Orleans City Council to approve the demolition permits that HUD needs to begin demolition of public housing in New Orleans. As I’ve said before, knocking down historic and livable housing that withstood the winds of Katrina is counterproductive to the goal of giving residents a home to which to return. Decentralizing poverty by encouraging new mixed-income income makes a lot...

NEW ORLEANS - Despite occasionally violent protests outside, the City Council voted Thursday in favor of demolishing some 4,500 public housing units, a milestone in the city's effort to balance its heritage and its hurricane rebuilding efforts. The unanimous vote to permit the federal government to tear down four public housing developments — a critical moment in a protracted fight between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and residents, activists and preservationists — followed hours of debate and periodic clashes in the street.Police used chemical spray and stun guns as dozens of protesters tried to force their way...

Former President Bill Clinton and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg joined the federal housing secretary this morning in the Bronx to announce a wide-ranging plan to help New York City’s public housing system — the nation’s largest, with 2,600 buildings and 408,000 residents — reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

"RENEWING THE AMERICAN DREAM" Thanks to your efforts, the Plant City Living Center recognized they were mistaken in not allowing residents to display Christian symbols. HUD says its policy is clear and that discrimination against Mrs. Arnold (and angels) will not be tolerated in HUD approved facilities. Plant City Living Center attorney Steve Edelstein issued this statement today: "I am pleased to report that the Plant City Living Center's recent newsletter regarding holiday decoration policies has been rescinded. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) guarantees the rights of citizens to display religious symbols in public. We support...

Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development officials have announced a ban on any decorations in HUD housing complexes that mention Jesus or represent religion for the Christmas season, and the American Family Association has responded with a petition drive to overturn the decision.

Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development officials have announced a ban on any decorations in HUD housing complexes that mention Jesus or represent religion for the Christmas season, and the American Family Association has responded with a petition drive to overturn the decision. The AFA has set up a link to allow constituents to send e-mails to the HUD secretary or President Bush expressing their objections to the policy. The issue arose at the Plant City Living Center in Plant City, Fla., where 85-year-old Mrs. Arnold was told that federal law now prohibits her from displaying anything that references...

The Plant City Living Center has told Mrs. Arnold, an 85-year-old grandmother in Florida, that federal law prohibits her from displaying any religious words or items associated with Christmas in the common area of her apartment building. According to the Center, The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a directive banning "any religious symbols or religious words associated with Christmas." Under the guidelines issued by HUD, the elderly grandmother cannot place a small Christmas tree outside her door (because that area is a "commons area") if it contains any religious symbols or religious words, even an angel! If...

I keep seeing this talking point phrase in multiple MSM stories about the Libby conviction; "Libby was convicted in March, the highest-ranking White House official ordered to prison since the Iran-Contra affair roiled the Reagan administration in the 1980s."(emphasis, mine) This is a misleading statement that makes the reader imagine that no high-ranking Presidential appointee, adviser, or member of the White House has been convicted of anything or sentenced to anything since Reagan's era. But, at least one past official's name should be placed above that of Libby's. Henry Cisneros was the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, appointed to...

Federal housing assistance for more than 120,000 families displaced by Gulf Coast hurricanes in 2005 will continue through March 1, 2009, officials announced today. Beneficiaries of the extension include about 34,000 families in apartments, including about 14,000 in the Houston area, and 88,000 families in mobile homes and travel trailers, mostly in Louisiana and Mississippi. On Sept. 1, the Department of Housing and Urban Development will take over management of evacuee housing assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the officials said. Advocates for evacuees have long advocated this change. "The fact is that we're not in the long-term housing...

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Monday that she wants to temporarily reopen the New Orleans public housing projects that have been closed since Hurricane Katrina, despite federal plans to demolish them and make way for new housing developments. Blanco said the projects that can be repaired should be reopened to families who were driven out by Katrina floodwaters _ at least until the federal government gets closer to its goal of replacing them with new structures. Blanco said she got encouragement for the idea last week, when she met on Capitol Hill with the chairman of the...

Alphonso Jackson, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, says that black leaders like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Julian Bond are doing a disservice to blacks by perpetuating an ideology of victimhood. "They [black leaders] have created an industry," Jackson, who is black, told NewsMax. "If we don't become victims, they have no income. They have no podium." Rather than confronting real issues that face blacks, African-American leaders suggest that "it's racism that's stopping everything that we're doing," Jackson said. "They are in the business of making excuses," he said. "White folks have nothing to...

Government Test Tracks Families Who Moved; Girls Flourish, Not Boys ___ JACKSONVILLE, N.C. -- A decade ago, Lydia Grayson got as far away from her drug-addled, East Harlem housing project as she could. At the time, she was a 28-year-old mother of three, and, she says, a drug user. She took a federal housing voucher and packed her family on a Greyhound bus with one-way tickets to North Carolina. Climbing out of poverty hasn't been as easy as getting on the bus. She says her life is now drug-free and more stable, and her children are growing up in a...

Mortgage fraud continues to escalate in Southern California, FBI figures show, raising concerns of increased defaults and foreclosures as the housing market cools down. Lenders filed 4,228 reports of suspicious activity in the region during the first 11 months of the government's fiscal year, which ends Saturday, the FBI said. That puts 2006 on track to nearly double last year's total. ... A seven-county region from Orange County to San Luis Obispo County has seen a fourfold increase in suspicious loan activity since 2003 ... When home prices in California began to throttle up in the early years of the...

<p>Two members of the Yes Men, a group of environmental and corporate ethics activists, duped business executives and some news organizations earlier today when they posed as top HUD officials and announced the agency planned to renovate several housing developments now slated for demolition. One of the men said they set up the hoax after receiving an e-mail solicitation from Equity International -- the group staging the conference -- in search of conference speakers.</p>

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges that a federal plan to demolish four sprawling public housing complexes in New Orleans is discriminatory and violates international laws that protect people displaced by natural disasters. The suit was filed by several residents against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Housing Authority of New Orleans, or HANO. HANO was effectively taken over by HUD four years ago because of mismanagement. Following the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, HUD recently laid out a plan to demolish four complexes, reopen others and give public housing residents more money to...

Good overview on how the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) turns a blind eye to massive corruption and fraud in programs designed to create "affordable" housing. The result? Inflated housing costs in poor neigborhoods and financial ruin for poor and working class people who are ripped off by politically connected "nonprofits" and corrupt local governments. Who cleans up the mess? You guessed it -- the taxpayer.

Federal Housing Agency and Residents File Complaints Saying the Program Is Biased Against Hispanics Federal housing officials said yesterday that they are investigating whether a two-year-old program to combat crowded housing in Manassas is unfairly targeting Hispanic families in violation of the Fair Housing Act. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development filed a complaint Tuesday alleging a pattern of discrimination. Yesterday, a group of Manassas residents and civil rights advocates filed 11 more complaints, saying that the city has selectively enforced its overcrowding rules and other ordinances against Hispanic residents in what amounts to a systematic campaign of...

Getting on the right government list can make you wealthy. That's the gist of what Alphonso Jackson, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, told a group of influential minority business leaders in Dallas on April 28. During that talk Jackson warned HUD contractors against criticizing President Bush. A Dallas Business Journal report on his comments has led to a political firestorm, calls for his resignation, a formal probe by the HUD Inspector General and an apology from Jackson. Because of intense interest in that April 28 talk, here are additional details of Jackson's comments, which included the story of...

Lawyers for Baltimore public housing residents are asking a federal judge to order the creation of 3,000 new low-income housing units and an additional 3,750 housing vouchers, mostly in well-off suburban neighborhoods with good schools and access to jobs. The request comes 14 months after the judge found that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development violated fair housing laws by failing to take a regional approach to the desegregation of city public housing. It asks the federal agency to provide tenants with 675 new "housing opportunities a year over the next decade to reduce the effects of decades...

Another Senator is questioning the decision to spend billions of dollars to help especially hard hit areas of southeast Louisiana rebuild – especially areas that will continue to be vulnerable to another storm. Utah Republican Senator Bob Bennett made his comments at a hearing of the Congressional appropriations committee where the head of the Department of Homeland Security and the director of HUD were asking for an additional $19 billion to continue rebuilding. “I’m happy to appropriate money to people who are in trouble,” said Bennett. “But, if we are going to appropriate money and rebuild in a place that...

The government junkets you fund By Michelle MalkinFeb 8, 2006 $1,401,104,263. That's how much of our hard-earned money has gone to subsidize the spring break-style trips and conferences of the federal government over the last five years. Spending on bureaucracy boondoggles has increased some 70 percent in that time period.We wouldn't know anything about this binge if Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., hadn't asked. Last summer, the pork-busting chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information and International Security surveyed all federal departments and agencies and directed them to document their conference, meetings and...

Programs and agencies geared at stamping out homelessness in Erie County will get $9.4 million in 2006 from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. The grants, to be announced locally Thursday, include nearly $3.7 million for new projects and services. In 2005, programs in Erie County received no new funds through HUD's annual competitive grant-making process. But local advocates for the homeless said the latest round of grants was smoothing over the disappointment from the 2005 grant announcements. "For the first time in a long time, we got everything we asked for from HUD," said William T. O'Connell,...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Federal officials have set aside $200 million to help homeowners whose residences were damaged by recent hurricanes. The Department of Housing and Urban Development said Monday it will make mortgage payments for up to one year for disaster victims with mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration who want to move back home. To be eligible for this mortgage assistance, families must have homes that are "repairable" within an "adequate" time and in a presidentially declared disaster area designated for individual assistance. Potential aid recipients must have funds from insurance proceeds, loans or personal resources...

The Associated Press found that most inner cities targeted by the federal government's primary urban economic programs lost jobs... In fact, the best-performing cities were not part of the federal empowerment zone and renewal community programs, which provide businesses with billions of dollars in tax incentives to expand and hire workers. A HUD-commissioned assessment of the first empowerment zones found mixed results from 1995 to 2000. Although many individual projects were creating jobs and reviving neighborhoods, the study found no widespread, sustained job creation. "There is little evidence to indicate that major reform or 'reinvention' occurred," the assessment said.

A number of college athletes, including several football players at the University of Iowa and other Top 25 schools, are living in apartments set aside for the poorest Americans. The investigation found some of the most successful programs in college athletics have players living in subsidized housing, including Virginia Tech, which has 19 players living in Cambridge Square apartments, a federally-subsidized Section 8 complex in Blacksburg paid for by the government to house needy people. Section 8 refers to federal code that includes subsidized housing. As first brought to light by the Des Moines Register, dozens of full-scholarship Hawkeyes players,...

Housing projects destroyed by Hurricane Katrina will be rebuilt as mixed-use, mixed-income neighborhoods, with $1.8 billion planned to begin work in Louisiana and Mississippi, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson said Wednesday. "Within the next two weeks, we will begin to see results," he said, without giving details. The $1.8 billion is part of President Bush's request for $17.1 billion for long-term recovery along the Gulf of Mexico. "It will be the first of many" allocations, Jackson told reporters after meeting with four City Council members whose districts include housing projects. He said the type of redevelopment was...

A Bush Cabinet officer predicted this week that New Orleans likely will never again be a majority black city, and several black officials are outraged. Alphonso R. Jackson, secretary of housing and urban development, during a visit with hurricane victims in Houston, said New Orleans would not reach its pre-Katrina population of "500,000 people for a long time," and "it's not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again."

Four Bay Area communities will receive nearly $4 million in grants today to help bring chronically homeless alcoholics off the streets. EHC Lifebuilders' ``Off the Streets for Alcohol'' pilot program was awarded a $998,831 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the federal agency that funds homeless services. The largest provider of shelter, housing opportunities and support services to homeless people in Santa Clara County, EHC Lifebuilders is expected to use the grant to help approximately 42 people. San Francisco County will receive $988,458; Contra Costa County, $996,786; and Santa Cruz County, $706,773, for their pilot programs....

WHEN PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. Roosevelt launched the New Deal in the 1930s, nearly half of the U.S. population still lived in rural areas. By the last census, in 2000, almost 80 percent of citizens were living in urban communities. Between 1950 and 1990, the U.S. metropolitan population – located in central cities and close-in suburban areas – skyrocketed by 103.4 million, reaching a total of 192.7 million. During the same period, the nonmetropolitan population declined by 6 million. In the wake of these dramatic shifts in population, metropolitan areas have split into two separate, but interdependent, worlds: one suburban, predominately...

SIERRA VISTA - The Center for Biological Diversity and Maricopa Audubon Society are seeking court orders to force several federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Defense and Fort Huachuca's commanding general, into compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act or the federal Endangered Species Act. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal district court in Tucson, names as defendants the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, U.S. Small Business Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Department of Defense and "Barbara Fast, in her official capacity as commanding general of Fort Huachuca."...

Money to house poor spent on arena project The government agency that oversees how federal housing dollars are spent blasted the Newark Housing Authority for "questionable expenditures" of $6.5 million that should have gone to house the poor. .....HUD said yesterday that $3.9 million of that money went to purchase 12 building lots in the downtown arena redevelopment zone. HUD ordered the NHA to return that amount to the accounts used to provide housing for some of the city's needy residents. "The (Newark) housing authority has 30 days to appeal and explain ... why the money was used to purchase...

Undocumented Immigrants Buying Homes With Fake IDs Government-Backed Loans Going To Those With Phony Social Security No. POSTED: 11:04 am MST February 23, 2005 UPDATED: 12:42 pm MST February 23, 2005 More Americans are homeowners than ever before thanks in part to government-backed loans that help young homeowners get into their first house. But with a government system so focused on homes sales, is any agency checking to make sure that undocumented immigrants are prevented from getting such loans? Who is verifying identification? Video 7NEWS Investigation: Illegal Immigrants Getting Government Home Loans How is it that an undocumented immigrant can...

Over 800 hundred people living at the Jesse Jackson Town Homes in Greenville County may be displaced if a government grant goes through. The question is, "Is it too good to be true?" Civil Rights Activist Jesse Jackson says, "Well until we see where the monies are, it's not true." Tonight Jesse Jackson came to meet with residents not because the Town Homes bear his name. "I'm here because I grew up here .. . here because I have friends here." The neighborhood may look idyllic with children out riding their bicycles but at night resident Dianna Turner says it's...