{"id":488389,"date":"2010-03-30T06:00:36","date_gmt":"2010-03-30T10:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/?p=80845"},"modified":"2010-03-30T06:00:36","modified_gmt":"2010-03-30T10:00:36","slug":"survey-finds-racial-disparities-under-anti-foreclosure-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/488389","title":{"rendered":"Survey Finds Racial Disparities Under Anti-Foreclosure Program"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_68467\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"width: 490px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/foreclosure-photo1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-68467\" title=\"20090528_mms_mj3_033.jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/foreclosure-photo1-480x319.jpg\" alt=\"A foreclosed home in Winchester, Va. (Jay Mallin\/ZUMA Press)\" width=\"480\" height=\"319\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A foreclosed home in Winchester, Va. (Jay Mallin\/ZUMA Press)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Black homeowners are roughly 50 percent less likely than whites to  receive help under the largest of the administration\u2019s anti-foreclosure  programs, according to a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncrc.org\/images\/stories\/mediaCenter_reports\/hamp_report_2010.pdf\">new  survey<\/a> of qualified families.<\/p>\n<p>The findings have  raised questions on Capitol Hill about the fairness of the program, led  housing advocates to reiterate calls for a more aggressive foreclosure  prevention initiative, and put the White House on the defensive just as  it steps up its multi-pronged strategy to stabilize the troubled housing  market.<\/p>\n<p><div id=\"attachment_2754\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"width: 140px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-2754\" title=\"debt\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/debt-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Image by: Matt Mahurin\" width=\"130\" height=\"130\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image by: Matt Mahurin<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"floatButtons\">\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/digg.com\/tools\/diggthis.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\"\n\tsrc=\"http:\/\/d.yimg.com\/ds\/badge2.js\"\n\tbadgetype=\"square\">\n\t<?php the_permalink(); ?><\/script><\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\">\n\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\ntweetmeme_source = \"TWI_news\";\ntweetmeme_service = \"bit.ly\";\n<\/script> <script src=\"http:\/\/tweetmeme.com\/i\/scripts\/button.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left;\"><a name=\"fb_share\" type=\"box_count\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php\">Share<\/a><script src=\"http:\/\/static.ak.fbcdn.net\/connect.php\/js\/FB.Share\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> Launched by the Obama administration 13  months ago, the $75 billion <a href=\"http:\/\/www.treas.gov\/press\/releases\/tg33.htm\">Home Affordable  Modification Program<\/a> provides financial incentives to mortgage  lenders and servicers who agree to reduce monthly payments for  struggling homeowners. Candidates for the program must live in the home  in question, and their mortgage payments must exceed 31 percent of the  family&#8217;s income. The program, designed to reach between 3 million and 4  million homeowners by 2012, has led to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.housingwire.com\/2010\/02\/17\/servicers-make-116000-hamp-trials-permanent\/\">roughly  116,000 permanent modifications<\/a> thus far.<\/p>\n<p>Yet  just 24 percent of black respondents eligible for mortgage modifications  under the HAMP have received one, according to a survey conducted over  the last two months by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, an  advocacy group. By contrast, roughly 36 percent of HAMP-eligible whites  benefited from a modification under the program. The disparity  surrounding modifications, NCRC President John Taylor said last week,  should compel the White House to take a closer look at the participating  banks to ensure that they&#8217;re complying with the nation&#8217;s  fairness-in-lending laws.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot only is the program  really just not making the dent in the [foreclosure] problem,\u201d Taylor  told lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee on Thursday, \u201cit&#8217;s not  really being administered in a way that&#8217;s fair across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It didn\u2019t take long for committee members to take notice,  particularly those in the Congressional Black Caucus. At the Thursday  hearing, Reps. Danny Davis (D-Ill.) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) were  quick to press White House officials about their efforts to close the  gap. Rep. Diane Watson (D-Calif.) blasted the subprime lenders who  targeted minority communities for using tactics &#8220;bordering on the  illegal.&#8221; And Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) accused the mortgage  lending industry of \u201cracial insensitivity.\u201d Clay wondered out loud what  the administration is doing to repair what he called the &#8220;wanton, onward  aggression that was displayed towards a class of people.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s  going to take some aggressive actions on the part of the Treasury to  really crack down on these abuses and eliminate [them] from the  marketplace,&#8221; Clay said.<\/p>\n<p>Government  officials have long acknowledged that minorities were targeted by  subprime lenders as the housing bubble inflated over the last decade.  And that trend shines through in the NCRC survey. Indeed, although black respondents to the survey claimed higher income levels than their white counterparts,  47 percent of them said that problematic loan terms were a factor in  their difficulties making monthly payments, versus 26 percent for white  respondents.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s no coincidence, then, that those  same borrowers are having the toughest time getting mortgage  modifications under the HAMP, experts say.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They  started out with disproportionately bad loans,&#8221; Gene Dodaro, who heads  the Government Accountability Office, told lawmakers Thursday. &#8220;They&#8217;re  starting with just a more difficult problem in terms of having to modify  those loans.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Herbert Allison, Jr., the Treasury  official charged with monitoring the HAMP, echoed that message.  Acknowledging the \u201cwidespread predatory lending practices\u201d in recent  years, Allison vowed to &#8220;take action&#8221; if officials &#8220;find any type of  discrimination&#8221; among lenders and servicers participating in the  program. The administration, he said, is compiling race- and  gender-specific data surrounding the HAMP, to be published &#8220;as soon as  we have enough statistically valid data.&#8221; The target date for that  release, he added, is June.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf it&#8217;s found that &#8230;  people did not get a modification who deserved one under our rules, we  go back and rectify that,\u201d Allison said.<\/p>\n<p>But there&#8217;s  another reason that blacks are likely benefiting less than others from  the HAMP: They&#8217;re losing their jobs at a faster clip. While the nation&#8217;s  unemployment rate was 9.7 percent in February, that figure <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bls.gov\/news.release\/empsit.t02.htm\">jumps<\/a> to 15.8  percent for black workers, according to the Labor Department. And no  amount of mortgage reduction will help those without an income.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The HAMP program does not really  help you if you&#8217;ve lost your job,&#8221; Mark Calabria, a financial expert at  the conservative Cato Institute, testified last week. &#8220;[There is]  absolutely no way we can address the foreclosure situation without  addressing the jobs situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s good  indication that the administration is catching on. Indeed, the White  House last week <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424052748704100604575145543626196382.html?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDDLEForthNews\">launched<\/a> a program that provides financial incentives for banks to write down  principal balances, rather than reducing payments by simply altering  interest rates. More important for the unemployed, the program also puts  a three- to six-month moratorium on foreclosures for homeowners who  have been laid off.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, the administration <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/80825\/administration-sends-housing-assistance-to-five-more-states\">announced<\/a> $600 million in emergency housing aid for high-unemployment states.  That move follows the arrival of <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/80639\/obamas-new-mortgage-modification-plan-relies-on-banks-beneficence\">a  similar program<\/a> that allocates $1.5 billion to states where home  values dropped more than 20 percent amid the recession.<\/p>\n<p>Housing  advocates have applauded those changes every step of the way. Many,  however, contend that no program relying on the voluntary compliance of  the banks &#8212; which can often profit more from a foreclosure than a  modification &#8212; will ever be as successful as a program that forces the  lenders to participate.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We now know it&#8217;s really not  working, and the fundamental reason it&#8217;s not working is because it is  voluntary,&#8221; Taylor, of the NCRC, said of the HAMP. &#8220;It&#8217;s not that the  program design is bad. It&#8217;s that participation is bad.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A foreclosed home in Winchester, Va. (Jay Mallin\/ZUMA Press) Black homeowners are roughly 50 percent less likely than whites to receive help under the largest of the administration\u2019s anti-foreclosure programs, according to a new survey of qualified families. The findings have raised questions on Capitol Hill about the fairness of the program, led housing advocates [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4315,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-488389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4315"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}