Could 2012 Be the Best Year for Massachusetts CDCs in Decades?
Posted by Joe Kriesberg on January 9, 2012
Starting in the mid 1970s, Mel King and other visionary leaders of the community development movement worked systematically to build a support infrastructure for CDCs in Massachusetts. They understood that such a system could grow what was then a nascent movement of community based development organizations, largely in Boston, and transform it into a robust, statewide field that could achieve impact at scale. So they created CEDAC, CDFC, the CDC Enabling Act, Chapter 40F, the CEED program, LISC and ultimately, in 1982, the Massachusetts Association of CDCs. These institutions laid the foundation for what quickly became one of the strongest community development sectors in the country and left a legacy from which we continue to benefit today -- 30 years later.
The past few years have seen a similar wave of system building for the community development field. Starting with, and emerging from, the Community Development Innovation Forum that MACDC launched with LISC in 2008, we have seen the creation of the Mel King Institute for Community Building, the transformation of CDFC into the Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation, and the modernization of the 1977 CDC enabling law into Chapter 40H, which creates, for the first time, a formal CDC certification process. We have also seen a wave of efforts to lift CDC practice in areas as diverse as community engagement (LISC’s Resilient Communities/Resilient Families program), financial management (MHP’s efforts to promote Strength Matters) and asset management, real estate development and small business development (through programs at the King Institute.) And we have formed new cross-sector partnerships between the community development movement and sister movements in transit equity, smart growth, public health, and energy, enabling us to move toward more comprehensive and systemic change.
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At the Crossroads
Posted by David Holtzman on January 5, 2012
On a map of the rural county where I live, there are many placenames that identify crossroads, significant in that many cars pass through them each day. When I go to these crossroads, I often find an abandoned general store, sometimes with a canopy out front where the gas pumps used to be. The store is usually placed close to the intersection of the two or three roads that meet there, so as not to be missed by travelers. Sometimes a few houses nearby are also located close by the right of way, and a handful of other old commercial structures.
Once upon a time these crossroads were the core of villages that served the surrounding districts -- areas of perhaps a few thousand people, spread over a radius of a few miles. Many people used to do their shopping here, and some lived here, too, sometimes in the very buildings that also housed the general store.
I often wonder if the many old stores at these now-forlorn crossroads could be used again, for business and/or habitation. We talk a lot, in rural as well as urban areas, about organizing new development so that people can walk or bike to shops, civic activities, and so forth. Yet while we consider building new centers of growth out of virgin forest and farmland, we pay no attention to the historical centers where village life existed for generations. These old crossroads, with their still standing storefronts, represent infrastructure ready to be expanded upon. Granted, the infrastructure is rather minimal. But situated as they often are on major traffic routes, these villages could serve their old purpose again. It would take just one business, really, (a service-oriented or retail business that attracted customers throughout the day) to begin to re-capture the identity these crossroads once had.
Photo courtesy of Ben Adamson via Creative Commons
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Dear Mom, Here’s What Crashed the Economy (Part III) - And How to Fix It
Posted by Michael Hickey on January 3, 2012
Happy New Year! And what better time to talk about my favorite ideas for getting us out of this fine mess of an economic jim jam we’re all bunched up in. But first, a recap of my previous two posts:
In Dear Mom (Part I) I talked about the absolutely bizarre and vitriolic discussion around what role US federal housing policy played in the collapse of the global economy. Basically, it played a very minor role, in spite of lingering (or, should I say, malingering) opinions to the contrary. When even the industry publication American Banker weighs with a super geeky online commentary saying pretty much what I already said in my blog post, I think we can all put this bugbear to bed.
In Dear Mom (Part II) I took a pretty heady Wall Street Journal editorial by Republican dissenters to the Federal Crisis Inquiry Commission and broke down their top ten reasons for the economic collapse into plain English. I’m proud of this blog post, really. It works. And my mom says you should read it because it’s good for you.
But now that I've debunked the junk and laid down the ground, I owe it Mom and to you, dear reader, to put my money where my mouth is and talk about what my favorite fixes include. So to begin:
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Accountability for Countrywide is Good for the Market
Posted by Janis Bowdler on December 29, 2011
The annoucement of the Justice Department's settlement with Countrywide over violations of fair lending laws is a landmark victory that deserves recognition. For years, NCLR (the National Council of La Raza) has called attention to a particularly egregious form of predatory lending known as "steering." This practice occurs when a lender deliberately sells a subprime loan to a family even when they have good credit and qualify for a standard 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. Unscrupulous lenders and brokers would steer families to subprime loans because doing so would earn a higher profit, often for doing less work. In fact, the more toxic the loan, the higher the payoff to the lender or broker. Latino and Black homebuyers were more than twice as likely to be steered to subprime loans, even after controlling for credit and other risk characteristics. While many lenders engaged in these practices, Countrywide was the largest player in the subprime market and top lender to Latino homeowners.
The unfair and deceptive tactics perpetrated by Countrywide and other subprime lenders, fueled by Wall Street's insatiable appetite for the fees generated by risky loans, contributed directly to the foreclosure crisis that persists today. Fortunately, new protections included in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Protection Act, if enforced, will prohibit steering going forward. But that does not do much to alleviate the harm homeowners have already suffered. An estimated 17 percent of Latino homeowners are facing foreclosure or have already lost their homes. The DOJ settlement is a critical step to delivering justice to families that may have lost their homes thanks to the actions of a predatory lender. We have every reason to expect that this is just the first in a series of enforcement actions by the Obama administration against those responsible.
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The New Bottom Line: A Coalition Built to Last
Posted by Matthew Brian Hersh on December 27, 2011
The New Bottom Line, an alignment that is highlighted in the Fall 2011 issue of Shelterforce, recently received the "Most Valuable National Coaltion" honor from The Nation as part of the magazine's "Progressive Honor Roll":
"Objecting to a politics that makes Wall Street's bottom line the nation's top priority, National People's Action, People Improving Communities through Organizing (PICO National Network), the Alliance for a Just Society, the Right to the City Alliance and the Main Street Alliance declared in 2011, "We need a new bottom line that puts the economic interests and financial security of working American families first." As the New Bottom Line coalition, they organized multi-state projects like the Move Our Money campaign to take $1 billion out of big banks. And the coalition allied with the Occupy movement in its Occupy Our Homes campaign, which supports families fighting foreclosure and eviction and helps homeless families move back into their vacant foreclosed homes."
Those organizations mentioned in that blurb are only the national ones -- The New Bottom Line's scope comprises a much larger group of local and regional organizations as well.
In the Shelterforce article, "The New Bottom Line," SEIU's Stephen Lerner and NPA's George Goehl explain the foundations of the coalition, and how so many organizations, while sharing common goals but disparate in many ways, came together behind certain fundamental principles:
Wall Street bankers crashed the economy, but none of them have been held accountable for their crimes. They have not paid to fix what they broke, and they continue to duck from paying their fair share of taxes. The result: a shrinking middle class, widening gaps in wealth inequality, and our most vulnerable populations spiraling into deeper debt, wealth loss, and joblessness.
Read more here.
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Do As I Say, Not (Necessarily) As I Do
Posted by Matthew Brian Hersh on December 23, 2011
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has issued some guidance to banks about the “obligations and risks related to foreclosed property.” The memo, released last week, asks banks to consider local locals laws, issues related to safety and soundness, as well as overall community impact of vacant properties.
“As a matter of safe and sound banking practices, banks should have robust policies and procedures in place to address risks associated with foreclosed (or soon to be foreclosed) properties.”
There’s some useful material in the memo about how “some localities may require registration of foreclosed properties, properties in foreclosure, or vacant properties” and that “banks should be aware of and comply with such requirements” as well as some property disposition recommendations.
But while the OCC is saying that banks “should be aware of and comply with” local laws, you have the FHFA suing the city of Chicago over an existing vacant property ordinance that “makes lenders liable for the upkeep of vacant homes before they take possession of the title.”
To make things more confusing, you have Las Vegas passing an ordinance that “holds lenders liable for the upkeep of vacant homes even if a default or foreclosure is pending and the borrower still holds the title.”
While the OCC dictum appears to only address properties after they’ve gone through sheriff’s sale and become REO, here you have one part of government that says “comply with local laws,” while another fights those laws. It makes your head spin.
Photo courtesy of sigma via Creative Commons.
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BPC’s Housing Commission Sounds Promising…
Posted by Matthew Brian Hersh on December 22, 2011
The DC-based think tank Bipartisan Policy Center announced the full member roster of its housing commission last week. The announcement comes two months after former HUD secretaries Henry Cisneros and Mel Martinez, and former senators Kit Bond and George Mitchell were named to lead the commission.
The commission, designed to address the future of housing policy, is supported by a grant from the John D and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and is slated to host a series of regional forums throughout 2012. We’ll check in with progress and feedback as the commission’s work progresses.
Bipartisan Policy Center Appoints Housing Commissioners
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Cleveland Has a Foreclosure Problem?
Posted by Matthew Brian Hersh on December 21, 2011
You might have caught 60 Minutes flying over Cleveland last Sunday for a quick look at the city’s challenges stemming from rampant foreclosures and vacant properties. If you did and you were familiar with what’s happening on the ground in Cleveland, images of bulldozers clearing away vacant homes and a sobering interview with former Cuyahoga County treasurer Jim Rokakis provided few revelations. If you were not familiar with this situation, you could have had the same sympathetic, but detached, response that 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley had when one of his interview subjects, Cleveland resident Roberta Bryant, offered to sell him her home:
“I don’t live in Cleveland.”
That’s not to say running a piece about how abandoned properties bring down property values and decimate neighborhoods and what that community is doing about it is a negative, but as Alyssa Katz so aptly noted on Facebook, “Sadly, 60 Minutes could have done this segment in 2006. And yes, the prior sentence can be interpreted, correctly, two different ways.”
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Occupy Giving Organizers a “Shot in the Arm”
Posted by Matthew Brian Hersh on December 20, 2011
The Occupy movement took a welcome turn in the last few weeks when it began organizing around the issue of foreclosures. For a populist movement that aims to represent the 99 percent, this tack made a lot of sense.
One area where the positive impact of this more focused effort is in North Minneapolis, where residents, invigorated by the OccupyMN movement, are calling on banks to work with homeowners in foreclosure. Just last week protestors and clergy — already deep in the fight to keep people in their homes — spoke publicly about new ways of thinking and new tactics spurred by the Occupy movement.
“Occupy MN has pushed us to think broader and to think of new tactics,” said David Snyder of Jewish Community Action and an organizer of the interfaith Northside Community Reinvestment Coalition. “It has opened up political space to make broader demands. It’s a critical movement. We’re grateful that they’re putting their bodies on the line to make the space for us to articulate these demands.”
In Shelterforce’s fall 2011 issue”:http:www.nhi.org/go/167 we feature a package of articles on bank accountability that touches on a whole new crop of protestors who hadn’t taken to the streets before, but were compelled to do so as they, their families, and their neighbors were losing their homes.
How has the Occupy movement sparked renewed energy in your community? Let us know by commenting below.
Photo courtesy of joe.makes.art via Creative Commons.
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Dear Mom, Here’s What Crashed the Economy (Part II)
Posted by Michael Hickey on December 19, 2011
In case you missed the first post in this series, you can link to it here. You should read it. My mom says so.
My goal is to answer my mom’s simple question: Why did the economy crash? She was asking me because she had read two newspaper articles that had completely different views as to why this very bad thing happened: Five Good Reasons Why Wall Street Breeds Protesters (USA Today), and Wall Street’s Gullible Occupiers (Wall Street Journal).
In a nutshell, these two opposing views are:
1. Wall Street greed, lax regulatory oversight, and excessive executive compensation fueled a global debt glut that finally imploded; and:
2. Federal housing policies forced Wall Street financiers to provide high risk mortgages to unworthy borrowers, ultimately leading to an unstable housing market that finally collapsed and brought the economy down with it.
In my first post, I explained some of the background for these opposing views, and I also spent a substantial amount of time discussing why view #2 appears to be (a) freakishly out of touch with reality, (b) so freakishly out of touch with reality that even people who normally want to blame the government for everything can’t agree with it, and in spite of (a) and (b), freakishly popular.
To add vinegar to gall, I don’t think view #1 really does justice to the issues either.
OK, So What Really Caused the Financial Crisis?
National Housing Institute
