WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, released a proposed outline to reform our nation’s housing finance system. The plan calls to privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while also converting the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) single-director structure into a bipartisan board.
The Center for Responsible Lending, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, NAACP, National Fair Housing Alliance, National Urban League, National Community Reinvestment Coalition, UnidosUS, and National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development released the following joint statement:
At the start of Black History Month, it is disappointing to see a proposal that weakens the regulatory authority over the GSEs and returns the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie and Freddie’s regulator, to the same frail status the regulator was in leading to the housing crash of 2008 that hurt so many hardworking families and significantly contributed to the current lagging rates of Black and Latino homeownership in the country.
While we do not question Chairman Crapo’s sincere attempt to improve the complex and difficult secondary mortgage market system, his outline offers an untested model that would introduce anxiety and high cost projections that will increase the cost of homeownership for all borrowers, and that would provide less access and affordability for America’s working families. To date, Congress has exercised extreme caution in repairing the housing finance system. It must continue upon that path by making sure that any GSE reform, above all else, ensures equity for all credit worthy families and lenders of every size.
For more information, or to arrange an interview with a CRL spokesperson on this issue, please contact Ricardo Quinto at ricardo.quinto@responsiblelending.org.