Housing Archives - Page 9 of 10 - Americans for Financial Reform

Fact Sheet: Private Equity Vultures Eye Real Estate During Coronavirus Crisis

Now, with 26 million workers unemployed and countless businesses closing indefinitely, private equity firms are salivating at the potential business opportunities that might arise from the expected economic fallout. Unless we take immediate action to prevent it, private equity firms will take advantage of this unprecedented crisis to make even greater asset grabs.

“Coronavirus distress is the ‘opportunity of the century’ for real estate investors,” according to a recent headline in The Real Deal, a New York real estate news publication. The article quotes Meridian Capital Group’s David Schechtman saying “But I will tell you, real-estate investors — when you take the emotion out of it — many of them have been waiting for this for a decade.”

Policy Recommendations: Critical Post-CARES Act Financial Policy Steps to Respond to the Coronavirus

Americans for Financial Reform released a set of financial policy recommendations for Congress to fix the problems and loopholes in the CARES Act, to further protect and support individuals, families and communities in the face of this crisis, and to lay the groundwork for an equitable and sustainable economic recovery.

Joint Letter: FHFA RFI on PACE Loans

AFREF and partners sent a letter to FHFA on how FHFA should approach PACE loans.

Joint Letter: Letter to HUD Opposing Changes to AFFH Rule

Coalition letter to HUD opposing changes to AFFH rule.

Joint Letter: Letter to HUD Opposing Deregulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing

Letter to HUD opposing the set of deregulatory efforts now under way that are withdrawing crucial commonsense oversight from the housing and financial markets, enabling discrimination, and thereby increasing barriers to affordable housing

News Release: AFR Ed Fund Criticizes HUD Proposal for Thwarting Fair Housing Goals

If the proposed rule went into effect, HUD’s assessment of whether localities were meeting their AFFH obligations would not include consideration of race, religion, national origin, families with children, or other protected classes that the Fair Housing Act was intended to shield from discrimination. The proposed rule eliminates the community participation process, which was proven to be extremely effective in helping communities develop meaningful fair housing goals, and does not even have a requirement that state and local governments conduct a fair housing analysis for their communities at all.

Letter to Regulators: Coalition letter to CFPB on mortgage data disclosure (HMDA)

A coalition of 27 civil rights, community, consumer and other groups challenges CFPB’s consideration of reducing home lending disclosure, a critical tool to stop lending discrimination and hold banks accountable for their record of lending to communities of color and lower income neighborhoods.

News Release: HUD Proposing to Roll Back Civil Rights Protections in Housing

“HUD’s proposed rule makes it virtually impossible for a disparate impact claim to stand in court,” says Linda Jun, senior policy counsel for Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund. “By raising the threshold for disparate impact, the new rule creates a nearly unsurmountable bar for plaintiffs to prove discriminatory outcomes and makes it much easier for defendants to shield themselves from any responsibility for discrimination.”

Fact Sheet: Wall Street Private Equity Landlords Snapping Up Apartment Buildings

Private equity owns over a million U.S. apartment units. Tenants pay a price when corporate landlords buy their buildings. In some cases, private equity buyers have pushed out lower-income tenants – through rent hikes, eviction threats, and more – to flip buildings into high-rent properties to sell for big profits.

Fact Sheet: Continuing Threat of Private Equity Investment in Single Family Rentals

Wall Street private equity funds are continuing to snap up homes to pad their expanding portfolio of rental properties. Institutional investors own nearly a quarter million single-family rental homes. Wall Street landlords often hike rents, avoid repairs, gouge tenants with fees, and are more likely to evict tenants.