Various snipets from the archives:
July 9, 2001
NATIONAL AFFORDABLE HOUSING TRUST FUND PROPOSED - On June 27, Rep. Barbara Lee (D., Calif.) introduced the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act of 2001. The bill proposes using a portion of profit surpluses generated from the Federal Housing Administration Mortgage Insurance Program to create a trust fund to provide for the construction of affordable rental units and homes for low- and middle-income Americans. The bill is co-sponsored by Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and John McHugh (R., N.Y.). It is supported by ACORN, the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the National Coalition for the Homeless, and the Macauley Institute.
Press Release
Lifestyles of the Rich and Subsidized Tour
Oct. 18, 2001
Minnesota ACORN
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now
757 Raymond Ave Suite 200, St. Paul, MN 55104
Phone: (651) 642-0003 Fax: (651) 642-0060
_________________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CONTACT: Sasha Baltins
Thursday, October 18, 2001 (651) 642-0003 (612) 296-6195
Who: Busloads of shocked and angry taxpayers and affordable housing advocates
What: Lifestyles of the Rich and Subsidized Tour: Homes they never wanted the poor to see
Where: The parking lot across from ACME Comedy Club (708 N 1st Street)
When: Saturday, October 20th, 1 p.m.
Why: The city neglects affordable housing while subsidizing luxury developments
In recent years members of ACORN and other affordable housing advocates have watched with growing concern as Minneapolis rental prices have skyrocketed and housing prices have put homeownership beyond the reach of many low and moderate income families. This affordable housing crisis has reached such enormous proportions that over half of the people in homeless shelters have jobs and many more are being forced to move out of the city by rising housing costs.
In this context it came as a complete shock when ACORN discovered that our city government was not just ignoring this crisis, the city was making the problem worse! As it turns out 358 million dollars of city taxes are being funnelled into the pockets of luxury developers. These developers are in turn building totally unaffordable housing along the Mississippi river. This housing includes upscale loft condominiums, riverfront mansions and luxury apartment buildings. These units carry up to a one million dollar price tag and an average tax subsidy of $69,000.
ACORN members, taxpayers and those bearing the brunt of rising housing costs are understandably outraged that the city government has used our tax dollars to build housing that we could never afford to live in or own. We feel strongly that tax money should be spent on building housing for low and moderate income people who are the majority of the population and also the ones who need it. Taxes should not be spent on housing for the rich who are a tiny minority of the population that already have a tremendous advantage when it comes to finding good housing.
It is for these reasons that ACORN members and our allies are committed to exposing this injustice and then stopping it. Our first step will be to see for ourselves just where our housing money is going. On Saturday October 20th at 1 p.m. busloads of people from North and South Minneapolis will converge at the parking lot across the street from the ACME comedy club. From there we will begin our visit of the luxury developments entitled, “Lifestyles of the Rich and Subsidized Tour: Homes they never wanted the poor to see.”
*** Good Visuals ***
Archive snipet:
Household International Drops Practice of Selling Single-Premium Credit Insurance!
ACORN’s Campaign Against Household Goes On, July 2001
ACORN has won an important victory in our campaign against Household Finance’s predatory lending practices, and we intend to continue the fight until Household has taken additional crucial steps. After almost a year of ACORN efforts focused on this lender, Household Finance announced on July 11 that it will discontinue the sale of single-premium credit insurance with real-estate-secured loans. As Household was the most visible and largest remaining hold out in continuing to sell this insurance, the announcement likely spells the death knell of this product, which has cost borrowers untold millions in stolen equity, and is thus a major step forward.
Household Finance is among the largest subprime lenders in the country, and among the most abusive. Aggressive and deceptive sales of single-premium credit insurance have been one repeated feature of its loans, and a repeated target of our attack; ending such sales is a crucial piece of the proposal for reform, which we have presented to Household both in writing and in discussions. Unfortunately, Household’s sale of single-premium insurance has also been a part of a much broader pattern of abuses, which includes:
- Misrepresenting loan terms, conditions, and payments, to convince borrowers to refinance, when these refinancings leave the borrowers worse off in every way than they were before.
- Charging outrageous rates and fees, even to borrowers with excellent credit.
- Trapping borrowers in high-cost Household loans by making ‘packages’ of two loans, with the second often at interest rates well over 20percent, which together, along with included points, fees, and credit insurance, total more than the value of the home. However good their credit, borrowers are then effectively prevented from refinancing into loans at better terms.
- Including large prepayment penalties, mandatory arbitration clauses, and other abusive terms.
As hundreds of borrowers with abusive Household loans have become part of our organization and joined with other community members and leaders, ACORN’s campaign to push Household to change its lending practices has been far reaching, and this move on credit insurance clearly comes as a result. At the same time, Household would not have made this shift right now had it not been for Citigroup’s recent announcement on ending credit insurance sales, itself the result of major pressure on that giant lender by organizations around the country, including the Coalition for Responsible Lending in North Carolina, the Greenlining Institute, the California Reinvestment Coalition, Inner City Press, and others too numerous to name.
ACORN’s campaign to push Household to change its practices has included a shareholder strategy, which included demonstrating at the company’s shareholder meeting in Tampa Florida. Along with our presence outside the meeting, we supported a shareholder resolution on predatory lending sponsored by Responsible Wealth and United for a Fair Economy, and were able to have an ACORN leader speak to this inside the meeting, thanks to Domini Social Investments’ willingness to let us use their proxy. The resolution, which asked that executive compensation be tied to efforts to combat predatory lending, garnered more than 4 percent of the vote; this is considered a very high level of support for such a resolution the first time out, and guarantees that it will be on the proxy statement again next year.
We have also been working with city councils and other elected bodies to support divestment from Household until and unless the company changes its practices. These efforts were kicked off by the passage of a resolution to this effect in St. Louis, which has now been joined by Los Angeles, and Chelsea (MA), with many more such resolutions underway. In a similar vein, ACORN moved New York City Comptroller Hevesi, as controlling trustee of the City’s giant pension and retirement funds to add his voice to the demands that Household cease predatory practices. At the same time, we have worked with local labor bodies, and with the AFL-CIO to use Labor’s power, both as pension fund managers, and through its business relationship with Household through the Union Privilege credit card program, to put additional pressure on the company. Working with ACORN, local labor bodies from Louisiana to Philadelphia have passed resolutions and written letters urging Household to change.
Still closer to the ground, ACORN’s campaign has included repeated direct actions targeting Household’s offices in more than 25 cities around the country, and at central locations like Household’s government affairs office in Washington, DC; neighborhood outreach to warn people about Household loans; and a media strategy that has resulted in extensive print, radio, and TV coverage of Household as an abusive lender, in cities from Minneapolis, to Boston, to Phoenix, to Sacramento and more. ACORN has also submitted complaints to state bank regulators and attorneys general in more than 10 States. And we have stepped up the pressure by targeting Household business partners like Best Buy - by warning that company’s shoppers that their names and credit information are made available to Household, which then solicits them for its high cost loans.
Our struggle to push Household to change its abusive lending has been a part of our broader fight against predatory lending, both contributing to and taking strength from our work to win legislative and regulatory changes. Household has been among the most active opponents of the antipredatory lending legislation we fought for and won in Philadelphia, and are poised to win in Oakland, and of the legislation we, along with allies including the AARP, are promoting in California and New York. These fights, too, have helped keep up the pressure for change on this company.
Again, we are extremely pleased that our members’ work means that going forward borrowers will no longer face this abuse from Household. At the same time, Household’s abusive practices will continue to rob homeowners of countless millions until the company makes additional changes, and we are extremely troubled by the suggestion made by some advocates that this change in policy alone makes Household a responsible lender.
For more information, contact Lisa Donner at acorncampaign@acorn.org or (718) 246-7900.