“In a letter from April 8, the National Housing Conference responded to proposed changes to CRA rulemaking, stating that ‘we have no idea how severely the pandemic will impact our economy, the financial system and communities throughout the nation. Committing resources to regulatory initiatives that do not directly support our national response to the COVID-19 pandemic is a dangerous distraction.”
“Banks, regulators and community groups must be singularly focused on responding to this unprecedented crisis, and not on bureaucratic and regulatory diversions that will sidetrack essential resources from the task at hand.” David M. Dworkin
“While some constructive changes have been made to the proposed rule, the fundamental basis of our objections remain intact as the final rule demonstrably guts the purpose and intent of the CRA. In many ways, the rule reduces the clarity and consistency that served as the impetus to modernize CRA in the first place.” – David M. Dworkin
“Housing construction is going to play a critical role in getting people back to work,. It really reframes the whole conversation because it’s not just a housing issue. It’s a jobs issue. There are going to be millions of people who need to go back to work, who are not going to have jobs, and we have a pre-existing shortage of affordable housing.” – David M. Dworkin
“In order to actually get rental assistance enacted into law, the industry, from conservative industry groups to progressive advocates, have got to be on the same page.” – David M. Dworkin
“We want to have a diverse economy. We don’t want to create opportunities for bottom feeders to take advantage of a crisis. We don’t need to enable that by forcing small and independent apartment owners into bankruptcy.” – David M. Dworkin
“Rather than this waterfall of options, we need a clear, concise national approach to mortgage forbearance. Otherwise, it will continue to be confusing to borrowers and more labor intensive for servicers.” – David M. Dworkin
“The numbers are big, but are going to get even bigger. We are only two mortgage payments into this crisis, and already 6% of the people paying mortgages are asking for help. Others can’t pay but haven’t asked for help yet. By May, we will have millions more unemployed and unable to pay.” – David M. Dworkin
“Right now, we’ve got to focus on crisis mitigation, because the housing crisis is coming, and if we don’t get in front of it, it will bury us.” – David M. Dworkin
“Having companies go out of business or having individuals go into foreclose 3 or 6 months from now just kicks the can down the road and buys us a housing crisis on top of health care crisis.” – David M. Dworkin
