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A Message From the Affordable Homeownership Team

We are officially at the end of Homeownership Month! We know these are challenging times, but this crisis has made it clear that we must continue our work to help change systems so that all Americans can achieve prosperity. While exploring “Homeownership Now and After COVID-19,” we continue working to expand affordable housing and increase opportunities for homeownership, even in changing times. This month, we spotlighted an array of housing partners to discuss the challenges of serving their communities and protecting homeownership while embracing key principles to shape the future. This crisis presents many challenges, but it is also an opportunity to change how we work by reflecting on the lessons of the recovery from the Great Recession and longstanding housing inequities. We are encouraging housing and related organizations to reposition their priorities and programming and to prepare for what comes next.

As we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, we want to assure you that the support we offer the members of our Network won’t falter. Please fill out this survey [[link removed]]to share your stories on the impact of COVID-19 on your communities, your organization and your partners. You can also email [[email protected]]. We want to hear what you're seeing on the ground and how best to support you.

In Case You Missed It

Homeownership Month Blogs

Affordable Homeownership: A Health & Economic Solution

The COVID-19 pandemic, the economic crisis it caused and the nationwide equal justice protests have reminded us that racial economic inequality persists in our country. With unemployment impacting more than 40 million people and many states reopening their economies, we are now thinking about how to move beyond this crisis. Homeownership must be part of the plan. Low-income families and households of color have long faced many barriers to homeownership and the widespread gap in wealth and homeownership has not been clearer since the last recession. Amid the current crisis we must ask ourselves, are we doomed to repeat the same mistakes of the Great Recession?

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Black Home Values and Appreciation

Racial inequities in homeownership are crucial to understanding the racial wealth divide. According to the St. Louis Fed, 73.7% of White Americans own a home, in contrast to 44% of Black Americans. Nonetheless, Black Americans hold more equity in homes than in any other asset, and homeownership represents one of the most tangible ways of building wealth. Consequently, in addition to increasing the Black homeownership rate, we need to address the systemic obstacles that Black homeowners face in using their homes as wealth-building tools.

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Past Webinars

Protecting Homeowners and Affordable Housing in the Age of COVID-19

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, our country was in the midst of a housing affordability crisis that left millions of families cost-burdened. Now, as we fight COVID-19, many households are unable to make rent or mortgage payments and are at risk of losing their homes. Join us as we bring together a panel of professionals to discuss the impact of COVID-19 in our communities, and more importantly, how we can implement solutions that will put our communities on a path to equitable recovery that preserves and creates affordable, high-quality housing for those who need it most.

Recording can be found here [[link removed]].

Conversations on Manufactured Housing: Examining the Impact of COVID-19 to the MH Field

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of households were snared in the nation’s housing affordability crisis. Manufactured housing provided safe, affordable options for thousands of households. Now, as we fight COVID-19, many households are unable to make rent or mortgage payments, and many manufactured housing owners find their homes and parks are at risk. We discussed the impact of COVID-19 in our manufactured housing communities, and more importantly, how we can implement solutions that will put these communities on a path to equitable recovery that preserves manufactured housing and continues promote it as a viable solution to the nation’s housing crisis.

Recording can be found here [[link removed]].

In the News

L.A. County to Consider Shifting $20 Million From Affordable Housing to Rent Relief

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will consider a motion Tuesday to pull up to $20 million in funding earmarked for affordable housing and use it instead for rent relief. The motion, co-authored by Supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Mark Ridley-Thomas, is aimed at preventing a huge uptick in homelessness as a result of the coronavirus. They have asked their colleagues to relax a rule passed by the board in 2015 that requires at least 75% of $100 million set aside for the Affordable Housing Programs Budget Unit to be spent on new housing or renovations.

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Montana's largest affordable housing project to be built in Missoula

The Missoula Redevelopment Agency’s board of directors on Thursday provided the final building block for the city’s largest affordable housing project, which will include 200 units within two five-story buildings. Underground parking and an outdoor play area will help make the Villagio feel like home for 2,000 Missoulians. A collective mix of local, state and federal funds will pay for the $54-million project. Some $1.3 million will come from Tax Increment Financing to extend the city’s water and sewer system, improve roads and construct a retaining wall. And, although the planning was complex, Chris Behan says that the Missoula Redevelopment Agency was glad to help get the project off the ground.

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Moving Forward Act from House Democrats

House Democrats introduce “ Moving Forward Act [[link removed]],” a $1.5 trillion infrastructure package, that includes significant housing resources, including a new tax credit, modeled on the Prosperity Now-supported Neighborhood Homes Investment Act [[link removed]], to develop and renovate affordable homeownership opportunities.

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U.S. Mortgage Delinquency Rate Rises to 7.76% in May

The U.S. mortgage delinquency rate rose to 7.76% in May as Americans struggled to pay their bills during the worst public health crisis in more than a century. Measured as a number, there were 4.12 million mortgages that had payments more than 30 days overdue in May. Last week, there were 4.6 million homeowners with mortgages in forbearance, down 57,000 from the previous week. Some owners get an agreement with their servicers to suspend payments and then keep paying their home-loan bill, the firm has said in the past.

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National Housing Conference: Racial Justice & the GSE Capital Rule

Markets that serve everyone and help create a new generation of first-time homebuyers are the essence of why getting the capital rule right for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is so important – and why the version released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is so bad. As a first step, NHC is working with a diverse group of housing industry and advocacy groups, asking FHFA to extend the comment period from 60 to 120 days. Limiting the time to respond to a highly technical, 424-page rule to 60 days in the midst of a pandemic and economic crisis does not indicate much willingness to consider alternate views and suggests the rule may be ideologically driven.

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CFPB to Eliminate DTI Requirement from Qualified Mortgage Standards

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced Monday two notices of proposed rulemaking surrounding what’s commonly known as the QM Patch. One would remove the debt-to-income requirement from qualified mortgages. In the other, the bureau wants to amend the qualified mortgage definition in Regulation Z to replace the DTI limit with a price-based approach, saying it preliminarily concludes that a loan’s price, as measured by comparing a loan’s annual percentage rate to the average prime offer rate for a comparable transaction, is a more holistic and flexible measure of a consumer’s ability to repay than DTI alone.

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