Turner releases report on housing and foreclosure crisis U.S. Representative Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio-3) today announced the release of a report offering an analysis and policy considerations to the national foreclosure crisis. The policy considerations are based on the testimony of local and federal panelists. The report, "The Impact of the Housing Crisis on Local Communities and the Federal Response," was compiled as a follow-up to a housing forum Rep. Turner convened in coordination with the Northeast-Midwest Institute and the Northeast-Midwest Congressional Coalition.
Last August, in coordination with The Northeast-Midwest Institute and the Northeast-Midwest Congressional Coalition, Rep. Turner convened a housing forum in Dayton with local and national housing experts to examine the impact of the foreclosure and mortgage lending crisis. This report contains testimonies and policy considerations from the nine panelists who participated. It also highlights both local and federal policy perspectives on the current problem and offers strategies on how the federal government can help communities recover from the decline in the housing market.
The report summarizes a number of policy considerations based on the individual testimonies and discussions held at the housing forum into broad based themes consisting of the following: preventing predatory lending by increasing financial product transparency and preventing the issuance of inappropriate loan products; streamlining the mortgage servicing industry; standardizing housing counseling and loan modification regulations; improving the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) and building local organizational capacity in distressed communities; and rethinking the impact of the low-income housing tax credit on older cities.
"Mortgage foreclosures have played a major role in destabilizing the nation's economy," Rep. Turner said. "The influx of toxic mortgage loans has led to a significant increase in home foreclosures and abandonment, and declining property values across the country. With over 6,000 foreclosures, the Dayton region has been severely affected by the national housing crisis. This report will help encourage ideas for additional federal action to help address this issue."
"This report addresses the critical and growing housing needs of low-income homeowners in our communities. Congressman Turner should be commended for taking action on this issue," said Amy Radachi, President and CEO of Rebuilding Together Dayton.
"For most Americans, housing is the most significant investment any of us will make in our lifetimes," said Jim McCarthy, President and CEO of the Miami Valley Fair Housing Center, Inc. "Housing is also integral to the vibrancy of our neighborhoods and the health and stability of our country's economy; all of which are being undermined by the housing crisis. This report is essential to documenting both the housing crisis and the innovative strategies being implemented on the ground to address the crisis. I appreciate the leadership of Congressman Turner in convening the Congressional forum that resulted in this important report."
"Congressman Turner is to be commended for holding his forum on the Impact of the Housing Crisis on Local communities. The forum underscored the devastating impact of the housing crisis on communities that have not only suffered through the subprime mortgage crisis, but continue to struggle with foreclosures that are expected to persist unabated through 2012 driven by unemployment and underemployment," said Diane DeVaul, Director of Policy for the Northeast-Midwest Institute. "Unfortunately foreclosures rend the fabric of the communities in which they occur. As Alan Mallach of Brookings Institution pointed out-it's been decades since we have had new, creative thinking nationally about housing and community revitalization. New federal responses to the problem are urgently needed. We are grateful to Congressman Turner as Co-Chair of the Revitalizing Older Cities Congressional Task Force for his leadership in proposing new federal responses to this crisis."
Since its inception in 1996, Rebuilding Together Dayton, a non-profit, volunteer-driven organization, has provided home rehabilitation services for over 900 low-income homeowners in the Dayton area.
The Miami Valley Fair Housing Center is a private, non-profit corporation which works to eliminate housing discrimination by assisting victims of housing discrimination and advocating for improved fair housing laws.
The Northeast-Midwest Institute is a Washington, D.C.-based, nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to economic vitality, environmental quality, and regional equity for Northeast and Midwest states.
Congressman Turner is Co-Chairman of the Revitalizing Older Cities Congressional Task Force, a bipartisan member organization that brings together Members of Congress who have an interest in exchanging legislative ideas and creating policy that will rejuvenate America's historic industrial cities.
Reader Comments Posted: Monday, March 22, 2010
Comments
Scott Brown
THE SOLUTION TO THE FORECLOSURE CRISIS
A Workforce Housing Program which has been around for more than 30 years and actively utilized in the ski resorts and many major cities could simply be applied to resolve the foreclosure crisis.
The plan would be to offer an opportunity to all homeowners to participate in launching a National Workforce Housing Program by placing a “Deed Restriction” on their home (must live in the home, own no other home and work for a living) with a 3% yearly cap rate for sale purposes. The home would be reappraised at the new value (30% to 50% less than a similar free-market home). The mortgage would be rewritten and payments adjusted to the new appraised value.
It would not be a “give-away” or a “bail-out” since the participants would buy-in to the program by forfeiting the “free-market” appreciation value of their home and by also participating in launching a National Workforce Housing Program, which is much needed, plus there would be no negative stigma on participants since they paid to participate.
The home would remain affordable to workforce people and families forever due to the restricted appreciation and sale price (3% compounded yearly).
It would not encourage homeowners who own a home they can afford to jump in on a “give-away” or “bail-out” they don’t need, but would reward them by solving the foreclosure problem in their neighborhoods and cities and allowing their home to start appreciating again and allow the economy to repair it self.
The Plan could also be offered to bank owned and developer owned homes, which would also help the housing industry by doing away with the over-supply of homes for sale in our country which is a major problem.
It would also create and opportunity for renters and 1st time homebuyers to purchase a home at an affordable price which is also much needed and deserved.
This is a once in a life-time opportunity to create a national workforce housing program at a fraction of the cost of a piece-meal price while solving the foreclosure crisis and the homes would be scattered throughout communities instead of concentrated in projects.
It is a solution to the foreclosure crisis and one that we already understand, and know how to run and implement not one we made up for the crisis.
Families would be able to keep their homes and homes would once again become a home like in the not so long ago times of our grandparents who burned the mortgage as soon as they could and never borrowed against their home again.
The “delta” between what is owed and the new appraised value would be paid by the federal government in the form of “tax credits” to the holder of the mortgage. This would also provide an incentive for the country to go back to work since tax credits are only applicable as write-offs against profits and taxes owed.
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