Housing Industry on the Rise, but Homeowners Still at Risk
TheNational Council of La Raza is launching anew campaign to draw attention to the disproportionate effect the nation۪shomeownership crisis has had on the Latino community and on minoritypopulations as a whole. This is a reminder that, despitea recent bump in home construction, millions of Americans are stillstruggling to hang on to their houses.
Expertsestimate that onein six Latino homeowners more than one million people is at imminentrisk of losing his or her home or has already lost his or her home toforeclosure. The same is true for onein nine African American homeowners. This isn۪t helped by the fact that thefederalgovernment has cut funding for housing counseling, one of the tools thatdecreases a borrower۪s chances of defaulting on a loan. A report released lastmonth from the JointCenter for Housing Studies of Harvard University only reaffirms the realitythat not only are many Americans not purchasing homes, they cannot affordrental housing either. The State of theNation۪s Housing 2011 finds that the national homeownership rate fell below67 percent last yearover two percentage points below the 2004 peak.
Thefederal government can do things to help. For instance, the WhiteHouse recently established a new policy allowing Federal HousingAdministration homeowners to put their mortgage payments on hold for up to 12months while they secure new employment. NCLR thinks the feds can do more, and isurging people to send an e-card to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner askinghim to take action to stop wrongful foreclosures, protect affordable housing,and keep safe homeownership available. Find out moreinformation about the campaign here.
Postedby Hannah
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