Ensuring affordable housing for millions of Americans should not be sole responsibility of the government 

Washington, DC -- John Taylor, President & CEO, National Community Reinvestment Coalition, made this statement today on Administration and Congressional proposals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:"Privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will exacerbate problems in the housing market, not solve them. We must recognize that for 95% of Fannie and Freddie's history they did a great job in assisting millions of Americans to purchase a home. If they go away, I fear we'll see two marketplaces — one for the well heeled, and a more costly system of finance for everyone else.

"If the private market will enjoy the benefit of government guarantees, then there must be a strong duty to serve the affordable housing needs of the country. Putting Wall Street in the driver seat without adequate oversight and a commitment to affordable housing would be a mistake. We still don't have adequate funding and authority for oversight by the SEC and other agencies to ensure that they behave responsibly.

NCRC extends its small business development initiatives to Houston via newly opened Houston Minority Business Enterprise Center

Houston, TX— The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) announced today the opening of the Houston Minority Business Enterprise Center (HMBEC). Located downtown in the Houston Technology Center at 410 Pierce Street, the HMBEC will provide training and technical assistance to minority-owned businesses. Aligned with NCRC's mission to promote access to credit and capital to underserved communities, the Houston MBEC will join NCRC's two thriving business development initiatives: the DC Minority Business Enterprise Center (DC MBEC) and the DC Women's Business Center (DC WBC).

"We are proud that we can bring to Houston what our DC Minority Business Enterprise Center has been successfully providing to minority businesses in the Washington, DC region: the tools they need to access capital, and to create and sustain business growth," said Owen Jackson, Vice President for Business Development at NCRC.

The Houston center is headed by Director Christopher Bilton. Joining Bilton on the HMBEC staff are Mark Praigg, Business Consultant, and Janet Murillo, Administrative Assistant & Business Consultant.

Christopher Bilton, Director of HMBEC said, "We're confident that the HMBEC will be a standout in the region and of real service to the business community in Greater Houston. We look forward to advancing NCRC's work, by creating the conditions for business growth and ensuring the economic sustainability of minority business enterprises in the Houston area."

The Houston MBEC is operated by NCRC and funded in part by a grant from the Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA). Comparable to the DC MBEC, the Houston MBEC will offer professional services and expert advice to existing minority business enterprises grossing $500,000 or more in annual revenue. HMBEC offers advice on access to capital, finance, accounting, business management and development, government contracting, marketing, strategic planning, and bonding and venture capital investing.

For media inquiries, please contact Jesse Van Tol at 202-464-2709 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text59874 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //--> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . For more information about the HMBEC, please contact Christopher Bilton, Director, at (713) 357-9559 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition is an association of more than 600 community-based organizations that promote access to basic banking services, including credit and savings, to create and sustain affordable housing, job development, and vibrant communities for America's working families. http://www.ncrc.org/

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 Addressing economic insecurity of older adults through regional organizing and advocacy groups

Washington, DC -- The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), with support from Atlantic Philanthropies, is pleased to announce its 2011 Request for Proposals (RFP) for National Neighbors Silver, an initiative to support and empower older adults nationwide.

As the United States suffers from historically high rates of foreclosure and unemployment, older adults across the nation are not only more numerous than past generations, but also more susceptible to financial insecurity and instability. Many older adults who lost their jobs during the economic crisis have been pushed out of the workforce and into early retirement.

"Many older Americans face new challenges in this economic environment. The sharp reduction in the value of most seniors' primary asset -- their home -- means that many are now especially susceptible to financial insecurity. The National Neighbors Silver initiative will support participating regional organizations to directly tackle the root causes of the unique economic challenges faced by America's older citizens," said John Taylor, president and CEO of NCRC.

 Going Forward, Two Big Lessons Learned: Don’t Put the Fox in the Henhouse, and Regulation Matters

Washington, DC -- John Taylor, President and CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, released this statement today about the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission report and proposals to return the government-sponsored entities to the private sector without affordable housing goals:

This report puts the blame where it belongs on Wall Street and the federal regulators who looked the other way. It also puts to rest the myth that making capital available to low or moderate-income borrowers was a cause of the crisis.

While the report may be a day late and a dollar short, the lessons going forward are that regulators need the authority and the resources to stay on top of financial innovations and make sure risk taking does not become reckless. The other very important lesson is that regulation matters when it comes to protecting consumers.  There is an appropriate and necessary federal role in ensuring access to capital and markets for nontraditional borrowers, which is why the affordable housing goals must remain a part of the mission of the government-sponsored entities.

NCRC's Housing Counseling Network joins DC program to provide foreclosure prevention counseling to the unemployed

Washington, DC— the National Community Reinvestment Coalition's Housing Counseling Network (NCRC HCN), a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) certified housing counseling organization, announced that it will provide housing counseling under the District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency's (DCHFA) HomeSaver program. The DCHFA program will provide foreclosure prevention to an estimated 1,000 unemployed DC homeowners, and is funded by the $1.5 billion dollar Hardest Hit Fund Initiative created by the Obama administration last year.

Washington, DC – A new report from the Congressional Oversight Panel shows that the Administration's leading foreclosure prevention program, the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), will modify less than 5% of the loans that will go into foreclosure by program end. An estimated 8 to 13 million foreclosures will take place by 2012. The report also shows that the program will only spend a fourth of the $50 billion allocated. John Taylor, president & CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition had this to say:

"As we approach the holidays, millions of Americans facing foreclosure can find no comfort in the idea that the government is doing everything it can to help them. The statements of Treasury officials regarding the foreclosure crisis sound hollow, as if they've given up trying. They're not even going to use all of the resources available to them. Instead of recognizing and improving poor performance, they're acting out an elaborate shell game, in which they hide the ball from the real problem: millions of Americans are heading to foreclosure, and the solution isn't working."

"The Administration needs to stop acting like it doesn't have the power to stem the foreclosure crisis. I'd like to see a prime time address from the President on this issue. Stemming the foreclosure is critical to economic recovery, and it would also help reestablish the trust of the American people that government helps solve their problems. The Administration has more than the bully pulpit to address this problem; they have many very powerful tools to bring to bear," said Taylor who, beginning in 2007, told the Bush Administration and then the Obama Administration that banks would not voluntarily assist borrowers in a meaningful way and that a mandatory effort should be put into place to stop foreclosures.

"HAMP needs to be revamped and made more effective. But more importantly, the Administration cannot continue to rely on a voluntary approach to this problem, and they must address principal reduction. Through the Federal Reserve, the GSEs or the FHA, the government has control over almost the entire mortgage market. These institutions could write down loans they currently hold, or remove their willingness to lend, purchase and securitize loans, unless the industry does more. Through these entities, the government has the power to force the industry to write down principal and prevent unnecessary foreclosures," said Taylor.

"The idea that HAMP has succeeded because it promoted more private loan modifications gives only faint comfort. There is little data to support the idea that private modifications are quality, sustainable fixes. We want solutions that don't simply kick the can down the road, but result in affordable and sustainable loan modifications. This is yet another attempt to draw attention away from HAMP's poor performance," said Taylor.

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>> Download the press release

>> Download the COP report

NCRC Calls For Federal Investigation Into Lenders' Refusal to Make Loans to Working Class Families

Files 22 Complaints With HUD Over Lenders' Unfair & Discriminatory Policies

WASHINGTON, DC -- The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) today called on federal agencies and banking regulators to investigate the nation's largest Federal Housing Administration (FHA) approved lenders for possible violations of federal housing rules by refusing to offer loans to qualified Americans to the FHA policy of a minimum credit score of 580 and above with a 3.5% downpayment.

A recent NCRC investigation found that the majority of top FHA lenders failed to offer applications for federal-guaranteed loans to potentially qualified borrowers with credit scores below 620 or 640, even though FHA guarantees loans with credit scores to 580. These lenders have policies that establish "credit overlays" above the FHA policy, with minimum credit score requirements as high as 640. One-third of all Americans have credit scores under 620.

"Critical to our nation's economic progress is the ability of homeowners to get quality refinancing, and for homebuyers to reclaim vacant houses by accessing quality mortgage credit, " said John Taylor, president & CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

"The decision by some banks to not follow the FHA's policy is cutting qualified borrowers off from accessing credit, and in doing so, causing harm to their ability to prosper, build wealth and for our economy to grow. And this decision is arbitrary, because the loans are 100% guaranteed, whether the borrower's credit score is 580 or 780. That means the loans with lower credit scores don't pose additional risk to the company, so there's no legitimate business defense for this across-the-board practice. A lender is only at risk if they fraudulently or improperly originated the loan, against FHA's underwriting criteria. As is the case across the secondary market, in that situation, the lender can be forced to buy back the bad loan," said Taylor.

Impact from Foreclosure Crisis Expanding, Churches Feeling the Pain As Thanksgiving Comes

Washington, DC – Dozens of faith leaders today joined Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr., in calling for congressional action to address the foreclosure crisis and to strengthen and enforce the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), in order to stabilize communities nationwide that have been devastated by home and job losses. The faith leaders convened for a National Emergency Faith Leadership Summit called "Turning Pain Into Power," at the Shiloh Baptist church in Washington, DC. The National Community Reinvestment Coalition and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition organized the pre-Thanksgiving summit.

"This is the most critical civil rights issue of our time. We've been hit with a massive scheme to profit off of homeowners," Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr., founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, told faith leaders. "Banks ran amok, because there was no oversight to ensure the integrity of the system. It's time to return some integrity to the system, to help homeowners and to strengthen and enforce CRA."

"As Thanksgiving comes around, we face the prospect of homeowners becoming homeless, of the middle class becoming the working poor," said John Taylor, president & CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. "It's unconscionable that we've let malfeasant and abusive behavior by financial institutions ruin the lives of millions of Americans. Congress has unfinished business to protect the interests of blue-collar Americans. We're demanding that they help homeowners facing foreclosure, and we're demanding that they expand and strengthen the Community Reinvestment Act to cover the most abusive lenders, the mortgage lenders that targeted our communities and caused the foreclosure crisis."

"Thousands of churches are also facing financial difficulties nationwide," said Rev. Jackson. "During the housing and credit boom, churches were expanding and lenders saw them as an easy target. Many churches were given loans to help them expand. Unfortunately, as members of the church lose their jobs and, in many cases, their homes, donations have dried up and memberships have declined, making it more difficult for the church to stay current on payments to the lender. The most solid institution in our communities is the church, but now they are in trouble."

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About the National Community Reinvestment Coalition:

About the Rainbow PUSH Coalition

The Rainbow PUSH Coalition is a progressive organization protecting, defending and expanding civil rights to improve economic and educational opportunity. The organization is headquartered at 930 E. 50th St. in Chicago. For more information about the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, please visit  http://www.rainbowpush.org/ or call (773) 373-3366

Organization Praises Web Portal as Complete Solution for Submitting Loan Modification Applications

(WASHINGTON, DC) – HOPE LoanPort™ announced today that the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), an association of more than 600 community-based organizations, is endorsing its web-based loan modification portal. Both the NCRC and many of its members are already using the groundbreaking new web-based housing counselor tool in order to streamline submission of completed loan modification applications for homeowners. On November 6, 2010, NCRC's Housing Counseling Network used the portal to provide mortgage assistance to 150 distressed households in a faith-based community in Prince Georges County, MD. The event was held in partnership with the National Black Church Initiative and Citi Mortgage.

NCRC provides a wide range of counseling services to homeowners nationwide, including default resolution counseling, loss mitigation and document file review, and will now be adding HOPE LoanPort™ to its arsenal of homeowner assistance options. Several NCRC members, including Detroit Non-Profit Housing, Home Repair Resource Center, Community Justice and Advocacy, Wayne County Foreclosure Prevention Program, United South Broadway Corporation and Operation Hope, are already using HOPE LoanPort™ to assist struggling homeowners.

HOPE LoanPort™ currently has thirteen (13) major mortgage servicers actively using its web portal, including American Home Mortgage Servicing, Inc., Bank of America, Bayview Loan Servicing, Chase, Citi, GMAC, MetLife®, Ocwen Loan Servicing, OneWest Bank, PNC Mortgage, Saxon Mortgage Services, SunTrust Mortgage, Inc. and Wells Fargo.

HOPE LoanPort™ also has commitments from more than 1,700 housing counselors from 360 organizations in 47 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

The web portal is endorsed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Maryland Congressman Steny Hoyer. The portal is also supported by state housing finance agencies in Arizona, Maryland, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio.

President and CEO of NCRC, John Taylor, said, "NCRC is impressed with HOPE LoanPort™'s versatility, ease of use and ability to simplify the loan modification process for homeowners. We believe the portal gives our network of counselors a boost in dealing with the high volume of loan modification applications. It allows counselors to more easily send completed applications to the servicers with the assurance those applications will be reviewed on a timely basis. Because the servicers using the portal have agreed to provide regular status updates on the application, homeowners will also be able to more easily follow the progress of their applications."

Larry Gilmore, CEO of HOPE LoanPort™, added, "We are pleased that NCRC is partnering with us to assist homeowners. Together the NCRC and HOPE LoanPort™ will provide greater access to the portal to homeowners across the country."

HOPE LoanPort™, powered by RxOffice® and developed by the HOPE NOW Alliance, is a new web-based tool that streamlines loan modification applications on behalf of borrowers at-risk of foreclosure, allowing housing counselors to efficiently transmit completed applications to mortgage servicers. HOPE LoanPort™ is designed to improve the quality of both the application itself and the ability of servicers to make decisions on that application. For more information, please visit www.hopeloanportal.org.

About the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC):

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Media Contacts:

NCRC Urges Fed To Stimulate Economy By Demanding Principal Reductions On Its Loans Worth $1.1 Trillion

Taylor Says Federal Government Has Power, Authority to Obtain Reductions on Majority of Mortgage Market

Washington, DC – In its efforts to stimulate the economy, the Federal Reserve should demand that banks reduce the principal balances on $1.1 trillion worth of loans it currently holds in mortgage-backed securities to prevent foreclosures and increase consumer spending, said John Taylor, President and CEO, National Community Reinvestment Coalition. He noted that the Federal Reserve, and other government entities, own or have authority over most of the mortgage market.

Taylor said foreclosures could also be reduced with carrot or stick incentives for banks borrowing from the Federal Reserve, or seeking to sells loans or do business with any other government entity. Through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration, the Federal government has power and authority over most of the mortgage market.

"The Administration needs to stop talking like it doesn't have the power to stem the foreclosure crisis. They have more than the bully pulpit; they have tremendous leverage. The Fed, the GSEs and FHA are the secondary market today. Whether they write down loans they currently hold, or remove their willingness to lend, purchase and securitize loans, these entities have the power to force the industry to write down principal and prevent unnecessary foreclosures," said Taylor.

"Ben Bernanke himself has tremendous power over these mortgages, and he should use it to demand principal reductions on the Fed's loans and reap the benefits of greater consumer spending. If he does it, others will follow. By the way, it's also the right thing to do," said Taylor who, beginning in 2007, told the Bush Administration and then the Obama Administration that banks would not voluntarily assist borrowers in a meaningful way and that a mandatory effort should be put into place to stop foreclosures.

Both Administrations rejected that advice. Today most economists and housing experts agree that the banks are not doing enough to help borrowers and that the government's voluntary approach has failed, especially since a growing number of homeowners owe more than their homes are worth.

The Federal Reserve is expected to announce today or Thursday the purchase of $500 billion in Treasury bonds to help avoid economic stagnation. Taylor said the Fed also has the power to help stabilize the economy by requiring banks to align mortgage loans with home values to stop foreclosures and steer money from mortgage payments to consumer spending.

Paul S. Willen, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, said at a recent Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation conference that both private and public efforts to date amount to "three years of failed policy." As reported by The New York Times, Willen offered the conference attendees two solutions: "Require banks to modify loans, basically imposing the cost on them; or pay banks to modify loans, imposing the cost on taxpayers."

Taylor said banks and investors should bear the costs, not taxpayers.

"By and large, homeowners aren't underwater because of something they did to themselves or to their neighbors. They are underwater because Wall Street and the industry colluded to drive up our home prices and their profits. It's time for them to eat their losses," said Taylor.

The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that of the estimated 15 million homeowners underwater, about 7.8 million owed at least 25% more than their properties were worth in the first quarter of this year, according to Moody's Analytics' calculations of Equifax credit records and government data. More than 4 million borrowers, including 672,000 in California, 424,000 in Florida and 121,000 in Illinois — three of the biggest real estate markets — were underwater more than 50%. Their average negative equity: a whopping $107,000.

Many homeowners in this situation still have jobs and can afford to make payments but cannot refinance to benefit from much lower interest rate because they owe too much. Economists fear a significant number of these homeowners may stop making payments, if the economy continues to deteriorate.

NCRC's Board of Directors recently met with the Federal Reserve about foreclosure problems. "He seemed concerned about the issue; we hope he pursues the full range of actions at his disposal," said Taylor.