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NCRC Reacts to Supreme Court Decision Upholding Use of Disparate Impact Analysis in Fair Housing

Washington, DC – Today, in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project upholding the use of disparate impact analysis in the enforcement of the Fair Housing Act, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition’s (NCRC) President and CEO John Taylor made the following statement: […]

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While HAMP Program Continues to Fail, Treasury Hides the Ball

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

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NCRC Calls For Federal Investigation Into Lenders’

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.

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NCRC Files “Landmark” Fair Housing Complaints

An investigation by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) discovered that a majority of the top 50 FHA lenders have instituted policies that limit access to credit to working families in low- and moderate-income communities, and in communities of color, the very same communities that have been most harmed by the greed and malfeasance of

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NCRC Releases Safe & Sound Lending in Neighborhoods Study (Sept 2010)

Community Reinvestment Act Mitigates Damage to Communities Caused by Financial Crisis A new study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition finds that Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulated lenders avoided significant decreases in lending accompanied by the current foreclosure crisis and severe recession. The study compared home and small businesses lending and bank branching in two

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