Author: Henry Weiss Archive

A diverse group of housing stakeholders gathered at the Capitol today to call for substantial investment in housing as part of the budget reconciliation package currently being negotiated in Congress.

A new study finds that workers attracted to jobs created by bipartisan infrastructure legislation would struggle to afford housing across much of the country. The National Housing Conference (NHC) today released its Paycheck to Paycheck Fall 2021 Quarterly Update profiling 15 infrastructure-related occupations that would be in demand if the proposed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is passed. NHC found that homeownership already is unaffordable in a majority of metropolitan areas for all but one of the occupations it profiled. The study also found that many infrastructure workers would struggle even to afford to rent housing across much of the country.

The creation of a federal down payment assistance program for first-generation homebuyers would extend the American dream of homeownership to millions of families who have been excluded from it for too long. Families who lack the advantages of intergenerational homeownership have a harder time affording homes of their own, shutting them out of the opportunity to build wealth through homeownership and perpetuating a cycle of inequality. In concert with other proposals to expand housing opportunities, this bill will go a long way toward ensuring that American families are not locked out of wealth-building due to the circumstances of their birth. It should be funded at the highest possible level.

Today’s announcement by the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the U.S. Department of the Treasury that they have suspended limits on so-called “higher-risk loans” made by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is an essential step towards increasing opportunities for those who have been denied access to the American dream of homeownership. The so-called “limits on loans with higher-risk characteristics” were unnecessary when they were instituted and only served to prevent credit-worthy homebuyers, disproportionately people of color, from becoming homeowners.

These appointments are good news for the housing industry and housing advocates across the board. Alanna McCargo is a major thought leader in the full range of home mortgage lending policy making. She has decades of experience working with a broad range of stakeholders including investors in government securities, mortgage loan servicers, and FHA financed homeowners. She has a deep understanding of the business imperatives and is committed to ensuring that these needs also meet the needs of the Federal Housing Administration’s diverse borrower base.

HUD’s reinstatement of these critically important civil rights rules is an important first step to ensuring that federal, state and local governments are committed to fair housing and closing the significant and unacceptable racial wealth gap.