Working to expand affordable housing
For the last 50 years, the homeownership rate for African-Americans has remained 20 percent below the national average. A whopping half of African-Americans live in unaffordable, crowded or inadequate housing.
In response to such inequalities, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) recently joined together to produce “Building on a Dream,” a joint housing policy report on ways to expand housing opportunity for minority households.
“For far too long, the dream of homeownership has eluded too many of America’s minority families. It’s time to take action,” said David Pressly, NAHB president and a home builder from Statesville, N.C. “Working together, the NAACP and NAHB have identified opportunities for change and steps we can take to open doors for all Americans.”
“Building on a Dream” assesses the state of minority housing and examines barriers to housing choice and affordability. It concludes with a series of joint policy recommendations designed to improve minority housing opportunity. While focusing on minorities, the report makes a case for affordable housing for everyone.
Common barriers exist to housing choice for minorities. In order to help solve this discrepancy in housing affordability, these barriers need to be addressed. These include:
“A lack of homebuyer education for minorities;
“Excessive development regulations that drive up the cost of housing;
“Predatory lending practices that increase the cost of mortgages and the risk of default;
“Restrictions on multifamily housing that diminish the supply of moderately priced for-sale and rental housing;
“Fair Housing Act violations that diminish minority families’ access to quality housing in many neighborhoods.
One of the nine recommendations made in the report is to provide home-buyer education programs from public and private housing market players. Many different organizations — including mortgage companies, home-builder associations and other nonprofits — offer home-buyer education classes to the public. Staff at the Spokane Home Builders Association can help direct you to the best resources.
Clearer definitions of predatory lending also are needed and federal regulators should be encouraged to develop and enforce strict anti-predatory lending laws.
Increased funding for federal housing programs and the accommodation by local planning and zoning boards of a range of housing types that meet the needs of families across the economic spectrum also will lead to greater housing affordability. Communicating with your local representatives and members of Congress can help convey the importance of addressing these challenges.
“Owning a home is the foundation of prosperity and conveys to families many social and economic benefits,” said NAACP president and CEO Bruce S. Gordon. “Yet for minority families, African-American families in particular, great variances remain in homeownership rates and affordable housing opportunities. It is time to bridge that gap. The NAACP and NAHB have chosen to make a difference, one family at a time, one community at a time.”
One of the ways NAHB and the NAACP will put the report into action is by bringing townhall-style meetings to various cities nationwide such as Boston and Atlanta to discuss how to change the course of minority housing in the U.S. By meeting with policymakers and constituents across the country, they hope to find solutions to affordable housing for minorities.
To download a copy of the report, go to www.nahb.org/buildingonadream. For more information on homeownership and affordable housing, visit www.nahb.org/forconsumers or contact the Spokane Home Builders Association at www.shba.com or (509) 532-4990. To sign up for NAHB’s free consumer e-newsletter, visit www.nahb.org/housekeys.
Fall Festival of Homes
The SHBA will present the Fall Festival of Homes during the next two weekends: Oct. 20-22 & Oct. 7-29. The event is free and open to the public and will include 39 new homes in a variety of price ranges built by a number of our region’s renowned homebuilders. The show will be open for touring from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. See the event guide in this Thursday’s issue of The Spokesman-Review or go to www.spokanefestivalofhomes.com for a listing of builders and maps to the homes. Our thanks to Tomlinson Black, Direct Buy and Golf Savings Bank, proud sponsors of the 2006 SHBA Fall Festival of Homes.