[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1025 Introduced in House (IH)]
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116th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 1025
Expressing support for the designation of June as ``National
Homeownership Month'', honoring the critical importance of increased
homeownership to overall affordable housing goals, and acknowledging
the necessity of using comprehensive resources within the legislative
and policy toolbox, together with vital public-private partnerships, to
allow communities across the United States to provide access to safe
and secure housing for all Americans, regardless of income level, while
promoting diversity consistent with the ideal of the American Dream
during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
June 26, 2020
Mr. Clay submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the
Committee on Financial Services
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing support for the designation of June as ``National
Homeownership Month'', honoring the critical importance of increased
homeownership to overall affordable housing goals, and acknowledging
the necessity of using comprehensive resources within the legislative
and policy toolbox, together with vital public-private partnerships, to
allow communities across the United States to provide access to safe
and secure housing for all Americans, regardless of income level, while
promoting diversity consistent with the ideal of the American Dream
during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Whereas for over 80 years it has been the policy of the United States to promote
the general welfare of the Nation by employing its funds and credit to
assist States and localities to remedy unsafe housing conditions and the
acute shortage of decent and safe dwellings for low income families
under the United States Housing Act of 1937;
Whereas the House of Representatives, which has over a period of many years
endeavored to address housing and homeownership, and has had some
success in doing so through related appropriations and authorizing
legislation, has committed itself to meeting the affordable housing and
community development needs of the country;
Whereas the disparate impact standard under the Fair Housing Act is a
longstanding protection that allows people to challenge policies that
might seem neutral on their face but result in discriminatory outcomes;
Whereas a government-sponsored corporation, the Homeowners Loan Corporation
(HOLC), established in 1933, implemented a system of redlining for years
that rated neighborhoods based on a number of factors, including race;
Whereas, in 1911, a St. Louis, Missouri, neighborhood enacted a racially
restrictive covenant designed to prevent African Americans and Asian
Americans from living in the area and in 1945 the Shelleys, an African-
American family, moved into the neighborhood prompting Louis Kraemer to
sue to enforce the covenant and prevent them from moving into their
house, resulting in a Supreme Court decision that although restrictive
covenants did not fall under constitutional protection, State
enforcement of such covenants violates the Equal Protection Clause of
the Fourteenth Amendment;
Whereas the National Association of Real Estate Boards, which became the
National Association of Realtors, had harmful racial discrimination as
part of its ethics code;
Whereas prior to the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, Federal, State,
and local governments actively and explicitly enforced policies that
discriminated against racial minorities seeking homeownership
opportunities, making it harder for them to purchase homes in certain
neighborhoods or to obtain financing on fair terms, and during much of
the 20th century, State and local governments promoted segregation in
neighborhoods across the Nation by actively enforcing racially
restrictive covenants, which were legally enforceable provisions in
property deeds that prohibited racial minorities from purchasing homes
in White residential neighborhoods;
Whereas during the height of the foreclosure crisis, about a quarter of African-
American and Latino homeowners had lost their homes to foreclosure or
were seriously delinquent, compared to just under 12 percent for White
homeowners and just under 14 percent for Asian-American homeowners, and
by 2011, 25 percent of Black homeowners and 28 percent of Hispanic
homeowners had underwater mortgages, a home purchase loan with a higher
outstanding principal obligation than the fair-market value of the home,
compared to just 15 percent of White homeowners;
Whereas a National Fair Housing Alliance report in December 2019 found an 87-
percent rate of racial steering, perverse redlining, and other harrowing
forms of discrimination for families seeking to purchase homes in 12
cities across the United States;
Whereas 2018 Census Bureau data found the homeownership rate was 73 percent for
non-Hispanic White households, 42 percent for African-American
households, 47 percent for Hispanic or Latinx households, and 58 percent
for Asian or Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander households, and in the
past 15 years, Black homeownership has seen the most dramatic drop of
any racial or ethnic group and it is now as low as it was when
discrimination was legal, contributing to the racial wealth gap;
Whereas a 2016 DEMOS study found that eliminating disparities in homeownership
rates and returns would substantially reduce the racial wealth gap;
Whereas the 2016 DEMOS study found that Black and Latino homeowners saw less
return in wealth on their investment in homeownership, finding that for
every $1 in wealth that accrues to median Black households as a result
of homeownership, median White households accrue $1.34, while for every
$1 in wealth that accrues to median Latino households as a result of
homeownership, median White households accrue $1.54;
Whereas the Center for Responsible Lending testified in May 2019 to the
Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development and Insurance of the
Financial Services Committee of the House of Representatives that data
from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act continues to demonstrate low
levels of conventional mortgage loans to African-American and Latino
families and, further, the Center for Investigative Reporting Reveal
report analyzed 31 million mortgage records and found that, in 61
metropolitan areas in the United States, African Americans and Latinos
are more likely to be turned down for a conventional mortgage
application than similarly situated White borrowers, among other forms
of invidious discrimination; and
Whereas equal access to homeownership opportunities enhances social and economic
diversity, promotes inclusion, and reaffirms equality and is consistent
with principles of capitalism: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives supports the
designation of ``National Homeownership Month'' and honors the
importance of the sacrosanct and uniquely American idea of
homeownership.
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