Fannie Mae accused of neglecting foreclosed homes in nonwhite communities

Chicago Tribune ^ | 5-13-2015 | Mary Ellen Podmolik

[Citizen Zed]

A national fair housing organization has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, charging that Fannie Mae is not properly caring for and marketing foreclosed homes it owns in nonwhite communities.

The National Fair Housing Alliance alleges Fannie Mae violated the federal Fair Housing Act in nonwhite, working-class communities in the Chicago area as well as in 33 other metropolitan areas. Nineteen fair housing groups in various cities, including three in the Chicago area, joined the alliance in the complaint against Fannie Mae.

"Fannie has more foreclosures in the United States than anybody else," said Shanna Smith, the alliance's president and CEO. "Fannie controls the market. Fannie controls the buying market for home purchases and wielding that kind of power requires responsibility."

Inspections during the past five years of more than 2,100 foreclosed properties owned by Fannie Mae showed a widespread pattern of neglect in nonwhite communities that included homes with broken or damaged windows and doors, safety hazards, overgrown lawns and accumulated trash, according to the complaint. It found, for instance, that almost 24 percent of properties in nonwhite communities had unsecured, broken or boarded doors, while that problem was present in 11.6 percent of properties in white communities.

Fannie Mae disputed the charges.

"We strongly disagree with these allegations and firmly believe they have no merit," spokesman Andrew Wilson wrote in an email. "We are confident that our standards ensure that properties in all neighborhoods are treated equally, and we perform rigorous quality control to make sure that is the case. We remain dedicated to neighborhood stabilization efforts across the nation, including with respect to our maintenance of foreclosed properties."

[smokingfrog]

Those houses were probably trashed before the people moved out.

[CorporateStepsister]

It wasn’t the Democrats so much as it was people suing banks because the banks wouldn’t loan to them. So frankly it’s not the entire fault of the liberals, just the idiots who gambled on having the money in the future, but lost. Regrettably they’re taking us down with them.

[tacticalogic]

Maybe they maintained the homes that were worth maintaining.

I'm guessing somebody's been getting paid to maintain them.

[trebb]

Maybe they maintained the homes that were worth maintaining. Does a foreclosed home have civil rights? Funny how they call it racist to not throw good money after bad by putting it into areas with a history of being "depreciated" by those who prowl the areas.

[DiogenesLamp]

It wasn’t the Democrats so much as it was people suing banks because the banks wouldn’t loan to them. So frankly it’s not the entire fault of the liberals, just the idiots who gambled on having the money in the future, but lost. Regrettably they’re taking us down with them.

See my earlier post for a brief synopsis of why it *IS* the Democrat's fault. I could go into much greater detail, but the housing crises/fannie mae crises is indeed entirely on the heads of Democrats, though the media will never tell you so.