Seattle, Wash. – Good mortgage lending stewardship is key to affordable homeownership, a UNC Center for Community Capital researcher and partners told a national audience.
“Not only did community lending not cause the crisis — the flexible and sound lending that was typical of CRA mortgage programs can show us how to get out of it,” center executive director Janneke Ratcliffe told community development professionals Wednesday at the 2012 National Interagency Community Reinvestment Conference in Seattle. (Read her remarks)
Ratcliffe and colleagues Carolina Reid of the Center for Responsible Lending and David Min of the Center for American Progress led a panel discussion on “The Future of Affordable Housing” at the annual conference of community reinvestment officers, community development lenders and investors, community development financial institutions, government officials, and nonprofits. The conference is hosted by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.
The current affordable housing finance model has been challenged by changing fiscal priorities and the struggling economy. Panelists discussed what has been learned from the crisis and policies that will affect financing for affordable housing.
Ratcliffe is an expert in mortgage finance and co-author of Regaining the Dream: How to Renew the Promise of Homeownership for America’s Working Families. The new book, written with center director Roberto Quercia and senior research associate Allison Freeman, examines the real causes of the foreclosure crisis and how to rebuild a sustainable U.S. housing finance system.
The UNC Center for Community Capital is the leading center for research and policy analysis on the transformative power of capital on households and communities in the United States. The center is part of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Its in-depth analyses help policymakers, advocates and the private sector find sustainable ways to expand economic opportunity to more people, more effectively. For more information, visit www.ccc.unc.edu or call (919) 843-2140.
Topics(s): Affordable Homeownership, Mortgage Finance