{"id":3248,"date":"2021-12-07T18:54:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-07T18:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalfairhousing.org\/?p=3248"},"modified":"2021-12-10T18:59:28","modified_gmt":"2021-12-10T18:59:28","slug":"nfha-commends-hud-on-release-of-guidance-to-advance-racial-equity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalfairhousing.org\/nfha-commends-hud-on-release-of-guidance-to-advance-racial-equity\/","title":{"rendered":"NFHA Commends HUD on Release of Guidance to Advance Racial Equity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"content-wrap-item post__paragraph\">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"content-wrap-item post__paragraph\">December 7, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"content-wrap-item post__paragraph\">Contact: Izzy Woodruff | 202-898-1661 |&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:IWoodruff@nationalfairhousing.org\">IWoodruff@nationalfairhousing.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"content-wrap-item post__paragraph has-text-align-center\"><strong>NFHA Commends HUD on Release of Guidance to Advance Racial Equity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"content-wrap-item post__paragraph has-text-align-center\"><em>HUD\u2019s guidance on Special Purpose Credit Programs will expand credit opportunities for underserved borrowers<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"content-wrap-item post__paragraph\">Washington, D.C. \u2014 Today, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)\u00a0released a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hud.gov\/sites\/dfiles\/GC\/documents\/Special_Purpose_Credit_Program_OGC_guidance_12-6-2021.pdf\"><strong>legal opinion<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hud.gov\/sites\/dfiles\/FHEO\/documents\/FHEO_Statement_on_Fair_Housing_and_Special_Purpose_Programs_FINAL.pdf\">statement<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>supporting the use of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.consumerfinance.gov\/about-us\/blog\/expanding-access-credit-underserved-communities\/\"><strong>Special Purpose Credit Programs<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(SPCPs) and clarifying that SPCPs, where instituted in conformity with the Equal Credit Opportunity Act\u00a0(ECOA)\u00a0and Regulation B, would not\u00a0violate the\u00a0Fair Housing Act.\u00a0In response, the\u00a0National Fair Housing Alliance\u00a0(NFHA)\u2019s President and CEO, Lisa Rice, issued the following statement:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"content-wrap-item post__paragraph\">\u201cThe National Fair Housing Alliance applauds HUD for this&nbsp;ground-breaking&nbsp;development, and we are grateful to Secretary Marcia Fudge for acting quickly to release guidance on the application of the Fair Housing Act to Special Purpose Credit Programs (SPCPs). We also appreciate HUD\u2019s leadership team, including the Office of General Counsel and Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, for the significant roles they played in issuing this guidance. HUD\u2019s clarification that SPCPs fulfill the letter and spirit of the Fair Housing Act will provide much-needed confidence to lenders&nbsp;and other entities who want to&nbsp;provide meaningful solutions to consumers and communities long&nbsp;blocked from accessing fair credit opportunities.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"content-wrap-item post__paragraph\">\u201cInequity is baked into our housing and finance systems. Our markets are unfair&nbsp;by&nbsp;design. As a result of centuries of discriminatory policies and practices, too many communities are&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/nationalfairhousing.org\/access-to-credit\/\">credit deserts<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zillow.com\/research\/nfha-where-you-live-matters-29661\/\">lack access to banks, credit unions, and other traditional financial services<\/a>. These communities are often&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/chicago.suntimes.com\/consumer-affairs\/2021\/11\/26\/22799745\/payday-title-installment-rate-cap-illinois-predatory-loan-prevention-act-woodstock-institute\">plagued by higher-cost financial service providers<\/a>, like payday lenders, check cashers, and hard money lenders. This dual credit market fuels segregation, housing instability,&nbsp;and&nbsp;financial inequities, and&nbsp;it&nbsp;is part of the reason why&nbsp;consumers of color&nbsp;are&nbsp;disproportionately credit-invisible.&nbsp;The dual credit market&nbsp;also perpetuates the racial wealth and homeownership gaps.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"content-wrap-item post__paragraph\">\u201cSPCPs provide a way to&nbsp;overcome&nbsp;structural barriers and enable&nbsp;lenders to develop&nbsp;mortgage&nbsp;and other credit&nbsp;programs that are intended to reach underserved borrowers and communities.&nbsp;They can&nbsp;be designed to&nbsp;serve&nbsp;a class of persons&nbsp;identified&nbsp;as&nbsp;residents of color who reside in low-to-moderate income census tracts, residents&nbsp;of majority-Black census tracts, woman-owned small business owners, consumers with limited English proficiency, or residents living on tribal lands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"content-wrap-item post__paragraph\">\u201cWhile SPCPs&nbsp;are a&nbsp;vital tool in expanding fair access to credit, particularly for consumers and communities impacted by discrimination, and are authorized by&nbsp;ECOA,&nbsp;some&nbsp;have&nbsp;had questions about whether these credit programs&nbsp;comply&nbsp;with the federal Fair Housing Act. Today\u2019s HUD guidance settles&nbsp;those&nbsp;questions:&nbsp;SPCPs&nbsp;designed and implemented in accordance with ECOA do not violate the Fair Housing Act.&nbsp;Moreover, HUD\u2019s guidance emphasizes that while ECOA and the Fair Housing Act regulate overlapping&nbsp;and&nbsp;different types of credit activities and entities, the laws are&nbsp;\u2018complementary and should&nbsp;generally&nbsp;be harmonized.\u2019&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"content-wrap-item post__paragraph\">\u201cThis issue is a&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/nationalfairhousing.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/NFHA-Priorities-for-Biden-Administration-and-117th-Congress-2021.02.03-1-9.pdf\">top policy priority<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;for NFHA,&nbsp;and we have pursued this concept in many settings, including meetings with&nbsp;staff at HUD and other agencies,&nbsp;publication of a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/nationalfairhousing.org\/resource\/using-special-purpose-credit-programs-to-expand-equality\/\"><strong>detailed blog&nbsp;pos<\/strong>t<\/a>,&nbsp;a&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/nationalfairhousing.org\/resource\/special-purpose-credit-programs-virtual-forum-overview\/\">virtual forum<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;on the topic, and&nbsp;in a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/nationalfairhousing.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/HUD-SPCP-Letter_Final.pdf\"><strong>letter<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp;to HUD sent jointly with the Mortgage Bankers Association.&nbsp;The overwhelming feedback we have received has convinced us that there is widespread interest in the use of SPCPs to create more equitable access to homeownership. HUD\u2019s actions today should eliminate a major impediment to their use and help set us on a path toward closing the racial homeownership gap in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"content-wrap-item post__paragraph has-text-align-center\">###<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"content-wrap-item post__paragraph\"><strong><em>The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA)&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong><em>is the country\u2019s only national civil rights organization dedicated solely to eliminating all forms of housing and lending discrimination and ensuring equal opportunities for all people. As the trade association for over 200 fair housing and justice-centered organizations and individuals throughout the U.S. and its territories, NFHA works to dismantle longstanding barriers to equity and build diverse, inclusive, well-resourced communities.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 7, 2021 Contact: Izzy Woodruff | 202-898-1661 |&nbsp;IWoodruff@nationalfairhousing.org NFHA Commends HUD on Release of Guidance to Advance Racial Equity HUD\u2019s guidance on Special Purpose Credit Programs will expand credit opportunities for underserved borrowers Washington, D.C. \u2014 Today, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)\u00a0released a\u00a0legal opinion\u00a0and\u00a0statement\u00a0supporting the use of\u00a0Special Purpose [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":433,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,34,2],"tags":[45,57],"class_list":["post-3248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-media","category-nfha-news","category-press-releases","tag-fair-lending","tag-special-purpose-credit-programs"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - 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