March 2011

  • Time to Move On: Families Facing Foreclosure Need Better Solutions than HAMP

    More than one million Latino families have either lost or will soon lose their homes. In California, Hispanic-owned homes account for nearly half of all foreclosures. The rapid loss of homes among Latino and Black homeowners has increased the gap in homeownership rates between white families and families of color. Our research shows that foreclosures wipe out wealth that should have paid for retirements and college educations, depress neighborhoods and home values, and harm family relationships. Our efforts to support community-based housing counselors working with families in foreclosure has helped us better understand how national foreclosure prevention programs and policies can effectively reach the 10 to 13 million families expected to lose their home during this calamity. As did others who are deeply concerned about the impact of the housing crises on families, we worked tirelessly to share information and provide guidance and recommendations to Congress and the administration. We had high hopes for the Obama administration’s signature Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). And when we recognized signs of trouble with HAMP’s implementation, and complaints from the community began to mount, we offered additional options and solutions to administrators. Unfortunately, many of our recommendations went unheeded. While HAMP set out to provide three to four million modifications, only 600,000 families have received permanent loan modifications through the program. Treasury has made some tweaks, but fundamental changes are needed to reach more families in distress. Our counselors still report difficulty obtaining modifications for worthy homeowners, and the lack of compliance has made justice unattainable for those wrongfully foreclosed upon. Moreover, the private sector’s move away from HAMP — proprietary modifications outnumber HAMP modifications two to one — suggests that the program’s influence and relevance are waning. At best, HAMP addresses the housing crises of yesterday; continued congressional focus on the program is preventing us from taking the bold steps that are needed to help millions of Americans facing foreclosure today. more

  • “No More Crumbs”

    When I attended a housing-focused conference right after Election Day last year, there was an understandable pall cast over any discussions of politics and political will. So I thought this year’s National Low Income Housing Coalition’s conference might involve conversations…

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    Can We Stay, Can We Go? A Discussion on Displacement, Mobility, and Concentration of Poverty

    As part of a research project funded by the Open Society Institute, one of the sessions Monday at the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s annual policy conference was a “guided discussion on housing preservation, investment, and mobility,” titled “Should we…

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    The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire at 100: Businesses and Politicians Still “Cry Wolf”

    A year and half ago Donald Cohen and I created the Cry Wolf Project to expose how business organizations and conservative politicians repeatedly evoked the claim “job killer” to fight financial regulation, ending subsidies to banks offering student loans, OSHA…

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    Homeownership Is a Bad Investment?

    This chart from Visualizing Economics calls into question the bedrock assertion that housing is a good investment, showing that its real value doesn’t actually rise. The accompanying post says basically that all the asset building that people get out of…

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    What Is the Emergency in Michigan?

    From one perspective, the recent expansion of the Michigan’s 1990 Emergency Financial Management Act is just the latest salvo in a right-wing-led war against the rights of workers to organize. The expansion will allow financial managers appointed to oversee bankrupt municipalities and school districts the rights to invalidate union contracts, dismiss elected officials, and dissolve municipal boundaries. It sounds like extreme stuff. And it is. In the current political climate and when it would be carried out by governor appointees with little to no democratic oversight, the implications are really worrying. Looking at the behavior of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, and the assertions from many Tea Party Republicans about their disregard for the democratic process or collective bargaining rights, not to mention corporate tax breaks being passed at the same time, it is an understatement to say that it is hard to feel at all confident that the actions of Michigan’s emergency managers would actually be in the best interests of struggling cities—especially when those struggling cities are often Democratic strongholds. That said, many of these cities are in serious, long-term distress, and they have been since well before the current financial crisis, even though that has pushed many to or over the edge. And actual fiscal collapse is also harmful to residents and workers. more

  • House Votes Down NSP3

    The Republican-controlled House voted to eliminate the $1 million allocated by the third round of Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds this week, and while the NSP Termination Act is unlikely to pass the Democratically-controlled Senate, much less stand a chance in…

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    FHA Commissioner Stevens Heading to MBA

    FHA Commissioner David Stevens, who announced last week that he would leave the administration effective March 31, will take over at the Mortgage Bankers Association, according to DSNews.com. Stevens will replace John A. Courson, who is slated to leave MBA…

  • Fed Report: No Wrongful Foreclosures By Banks?

    A report issued by the Federal Reserve has found no wrongful foreclosures following an investigation into abusive mortgage practices. Though we must quickly note that the definition of “wrongful foreclosures” has been immediately called into question by consumer advocates. Nonetheless,…

  • Private Sector Funding in Public Housing Would Compromise Quality

    Peter Marcuse, a professor emeritus at Columbia’s School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and Shelterforce contributor, says that the infusion of private capital in public housing would almost certainly spell a compromise of quality in public housing, and to think…

  • Bank Protests and Making Wall Street Pay

    This is some great film of National People’s Action holding a protest in DC to raise awareness of the possible deal brokered between 50 attorneys general and large U.S. banks accused of “flawed and fraudulent foreclosure practices,” or “foreclosuregate.” NPA managed to temporarily close down the particular BofA branch at which they protested, but the rally was meant to underscore part of the deal that proposes a $20 billion settlement. Elizabeth Warren, head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and former overseer of TARP, and FDIC chair Sheila Baer are also pushing for larger fines, Why? As Hugh Epsey, executive director of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement eloquently states in The Post’s coverage, $20 billion is “peanuts. It’s chump change.” He added that penalties “should be in the hundreds of billions of dollars.” This protest is only the latest in a rising tide of bank protest as distrust in banking industry remains high and as banks remain profitable, and are on track to pay out $146 billion in bonuses this year! In a recent interview with Shelterforce, Amy Schur, director of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), characterized the sustained level of protests as “little brush fires going on all over the place.” People are waiting to take action against the banks. What we’re starting to see is a broader recognition, and a broader determiniation by those affected to put themselves on the line. We do expect to see more more families who would normally not get inovolved in this type of activity. While this particular NPA effort was planned as part of the Make Wall Street Pay initiative, it’s in line with the Bank Accountability Campaign, which is a new alliance between PICO, National People’s Action, SEIU, Northwest Federation of Community Organizations (NWFCO), Southeast IAF, and ACCE. Getting banks to engage in mortgage principlal reduction is part of this campaign strategy. “We’ve been working hard to get the attention of attorneys general around the country. we see this as a campaign to hold accountable to pressure big banks to stop the rip off from cities and states and to start keeping people in their homes,” Schur said. more

  • The Suburban Frontier Won’t Provide the Answers

    There’s a clever term that gets thrown around in densely populated and densely developed areas like New Jersey, where all the land’s spoken for. It’s called “built out,” as in “this is a built-out community and there’s no more room…

  • Preserving Communities: Live From New Jersey Future

    Rooflines is reporting from the annual redevelopment forum held by New Jersey Future, a statewide research and advocacy organization today. The even highlights advancements and analyses on many of the policies and policy proposals addressing state and local needs, as well as the financing and strategies involved in redevelopment – commercial or residential, and more specifically, affordable housing. One of challenges here, and all over the country, is striking the right balance between redevelopment, and preserving a neighborhood’s resident base and history. In other words, avoiding the adverse effects of gentrification. With that, the explicit theme today is how all this affects our communities, so we’re keeping an eye on several things today, including presentations on fostering local agriculture, which Shelterforce examined in Arionna Brasche’s Fall 2010 report, Greening Vacant Land, the survival of inner-ring suburbs (featuring a presentation by Alan Mallach, a senior fellow at National Housing Institute), inclusionary redevelopment, and transit-oriented development. Stay tuned and follow us Twitter @Shelterforce more

  • In Wisconsin: On the Ground In Solidarity

    This past Saturday 80,000 of my closest friends and I rallied at the capitol in Madison. This time I volunteered to be a marshall. We had a brief orientation at 9 AM, got our cool orange vests, and then were…

  • In Wisconsin: Do You Hear the People Sing?

    We just had our second amazing Saturday in a row, with estimates ranging from 70,000 to 120,000. The problem with the estimates was that it was snowing and cold and at any given time a whole bunch of people were…