~~Cuomo ?? Get this to McCain PING!
It is SO infuriating to digest how
and how much we’ve been robbed.
Bump.
I was wondering when Cuomo’s name would come up again.
No direct link - related link:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_pwwi/is_200001/ai_mark07000832
70.5 million families, or 67%, now own homes
Tulsa World - November 13, 1999
Author: DANA SIMON, World Staff Writer
In July, Cuomo announced a policy to require the nation’s two largest housing finance companies to buy $2.4 trillion in mortgages over the next 10 years to provide affordable housing for about 28.1 million low- and moderate-income families. The historic action by HUD raised the required percentage of mortgage loans for low- and moderate-income families that finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must buy from the current 42 percent of their total purchases to a new high of 50 percent in 2001. The percentage will first increase to 48 percent in 2000.
In addition, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), which is part of HUD, insured nearly 1.3 million home mortgages in the 1999 fiscal year — many of them going to minorities and central city residents. FHA has insured more than 6.8 million home mortgages since 1993. Without FHA insurance, many families would be unable to get mortgages to become homeowners. On Jan. 1, FHA began insuring home mortgages loans of up to $115,200 in communities where housing costs are relatively low and up to $208,800 in communities where housing costs are high. This was the second increase in the loan limits since October 1998 — and will open up homeownership to more families in the years ahead.
The National Partners in Homeownership — a coalition of 66 national groups representing the housing industry, lenders, nonprofit groups and all levels of government — has also helped boost homeowner- ship. The Partners group was created in 1995. It has implemented initia- tives to make buying a home more affordable, faster and easier. Activi- ties to increase homeownership also are being carried out by 157 local homeownership partnerships established to support the national strategy. Amongthe activities developed by the Partners are homeownership counseling sessions, homebuying fairs, and help with locating homes.
On top of these initiatives, the Community Reinvestment Act — a federal law that requires lenders to make loans to all segments of the communities they serve — has resulted in more loans to people in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods since it was enacted in 1977. A significant portion of these funds has been used for mortgage lending that has boosted homeownership. Community groups estimate that lenders have pledged more than $1 trillion in CRA loans since 1977.
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GAPS SEEN IN LOANS TO BLACKS AND HISPANICS
Boston Globe - September 16, 1999
Author: Bruce Butterfield, Globe Staff
EXCERPT
But ACORN officials said their study should raise concerns about the long-term commitment of big banks everywhere. Other housing advocates in Boston agree, though they note that minority lending by major banks has shown signs of improving recently.
The ACORN study agreed. Minority home lending in Greater Boston improved between l997 and l998, particularily for Hispanic borrowers, it found.
The number of Hispanic loans rose dramatically, by 37 percent in Greater Boston, outdistancing for the first time the increase in loans to whites, which was 12 percent.
Loans to African-Americans reversed their downward trend in the final year of the four-year study, posting gains as well. But the gain was just 5 percent.
In Washington, Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo , citing the ACORN study and another by the Urban Institute that disclosed wide discrimination in minority lending, said he would use the findings to help fight Congress over proposed cuts in spending for housing discrimination laws.
The ACORN study was based on a survey of mortgage data from major lenders in 41 cities.
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MORTGAGE-LOAN DISCRIMINATION IS STILL COMMON, STUDIES FIND
Miami Herald, The (FL) - September 16, 1999
Author: TONY PUGH, Herald Washington Bureau
At a time of record home ownership, two new reports suggest mortgage lenders still routinely discriminate against minorities.
Last year, blacks were twice as likely to be rejected for conventional loans as whites in each of 41 cities examined by the grassroots housing activist organization ACORN , the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The same study found Hispanics were at least 11/2 times more likely than whites to be denied a mortgage loan.
A study commissioned by the Department of Housing and Urban Development found that the discrimination typically begins early in the process of buying a house, sometimes in pre-application inquiries in which minority buyers receive less time and information from loan officers and are quoted higher interest rates.
In Miami, ACORN said, blacks make up 20.6 percent of the population but got only 6 percent of conventional mortgage loans in 1998. But Hispanics, who make up about 49 percent of the population, got 57.1 percent of the loans in 1998.
The studies, released Wednesday, contain information obtained through the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act and also relied on white and minority ``testers,’’ who posed as home buyers with similar credit and income but received vastly different treatment.
``Nothing else can explain it,’’ HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo said. ``All the numbers are same. All the facts are the same. The only difference is the color of the skin.’’
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$7.5 MILLION STUDY WILL TARGET HOUSING BIAS
Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA) - November 17, 1998
Author: Tony Pugh
Warning the housing industry to “think twice before you discriminate,” HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo announced Monday a $7.5 million study to document the extent of housing bias against blacks, Hispanics, Asians and American Indians.
The yearlong study by the Department of Housing and Urban Development will include more than 3,000 individual tests of mortgage lenders, rental agents and real estate agents to see if customers are treated differently because of their race or ethnic origin.
Cuomo said the effort would be the most comprehensive and sophisticated analysis of housing discrimination ever conducted.
Testers will look for evidence that lenders and others steered minorities to certain neighborhoods and lending institutions, provided less favorable credit assistance, quoted higher security deposits and fees to minority renters and withheld information about the availability of homes or rental units.
If proven to be racially motivated, such activity would violate federal fair housing laws.
“We will not hesitate to enforce the law,” Cuomo said. “And if you’re a large organization, don’t think you’re immune from the law. We’re serious.”
Local housing advocates with the Oakland-based nonprofit group Acorn have for years called for HUD and other agencies to monitor the rate of lending to minorities in the East Bay.
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It is infuriating to watch our republican leaders sit on the sidelines with their thumbs in their mouths...when THEY KNOW THE DEMOCRATS CAUSED THIS CRISIS!! The leaders and McCain should buy TV time and explain to the American people what happened! Something...anything to get the truth out! This crisis could have been turned to our favor because it IS THE DEMS FAULT!! But...nonono...we can’t do squat because someone might call us ‘racists’...(eye roll)...isn’t that fear what got us into this mess in the first place?
If you can’t afford to buy a home...you should not ge given a loan. It’s that simple! It has nothing to do with race.
Very disheartened this morning...but thanks for the ping.