WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, released a plan to significantly alter the U.S. housing finance system. The plan would eliminate the affordable housing goals, the government-sponsored enterprises’ (GSEs) Duty to Serve rule and repeal their charter obligation to facilitate the financing of affordable housing for low- and moderate-income families.
Jesse Van Tol, CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (www.ncrc.org), made the following statement:
“This is a reckless plan to get rid of affordable housing goals that have made homeownership possible for millions of creditworthy Americans since the goals were mandated in 1992. In the midst of an affordable housing crisis, with homeownership rates at near record lows, this plan makes no sense. It’s a plan for the U.S. government to turn its back on hard-working, credit-worthy poor and middle-class Americans who want to buy homes.
“Abolishing the affordable-housing goals is a bad idea. Period. Almost 40 percent of renters are rent burdened. The gap between white and African-American homeownership is the largest it has ever been. Why would Congress support a plan that places the economic ladder of homeownership even further out of reach? GSE reform that ignores our affordable housing crisis isn’t reform, it’s a retreat.”
