CLEVELAND, Ohio – A day before Juneteenth, Secretary of State for Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge said the barriers preventing many blacks from owning a home are in line with the systemic racism that has plagued U.S. history , and said she would use her cabinet position to take important steps.
The former Cleveland area Congresswoman said Friday at Cleveland State University that the gap between the number of white and black homeowners in 2019 was as wide as it was in 1968 when the Fair Housing Act was passed. And while progress is evident, too many black residents don’t feel free just yet, she said.
Fudge, who has headed HUD since the Senate confirmed her nomination in March, said she wanted to change that.
“We never fully adopted the Fair Housing Act in this country,” said Fudge during her speech, interrupted by frequent pauses in applause. “Today we do it. When I say it’s a new day in the HUD, it’s a new day in the HUD. “
Fudge spoke in Cleveland on the eve of Juniteenth commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. President Joe Biden signed law Thursday making June 19 a federal holiday; Many state and federal offices quickly closed their offices on Friday because the public holiday falls on Saturday this year.
The Black Homeownership Collaborative, consisting of more than 100 groups and individuals, organized the event on Friday in the CSU student center. Its purpose was to announce a plan called “3 by 30” to help black people have a network of 3 million more homes nationwide by 2030.
The plan calls for work at the local and state levels in areas such as home ownership advice, borrowing facilitation, and building more housing stocks.
Fudge, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, Youngstown Congressman Tim Ryan, and others attended the announcement, and speakers supported the initiative to combat dismal statistics. The Census Bureau said in April that the home ownership rate for black households was 45.1% for the first quarter of this year, compared with 73.8% for white households.
In Cleveland, where blacks make up most of the population, vacancies remain high in many parts of the city. Researchers have said banks in impoverished, black-majority areas of the city and county of Cuyahoga are still not lending enough to potential homebuyers.
Brown said during the event that Cleveland is still living by the laws of Jim Crow and the redlining, the practice of discriminating against low-income residents by not offering the same service options as people living in less-poor neighborhoods.
“Take a stroll through Cleveland … where you can still see the scars of the foreclosure crisis in the same neighborhoods that were colored red in the 1930s, the outlines of red cards in the 1930s,” Brown said.
David Dworkin, President and CEO of the National Housing Conference, said inaction will cause black home ownership rates “to drop even further and stay there for the next 20 years”.
Fudge said she came to “celebrate” the new housing plan but also announced new updates to a Federal Housing Administration policy that streamlines the way student loan payments are accounted for for mortgage applicants. According to the HUD, more than 80% of FHA-insured mortgages go to first-time home buyers. Of these, more than 45% have student loan debt, with much of that debt being held by people of color.
The secretary said she wanted to work with the Department of Education to further help those plagued by their student debts.
“So over time, our new policy can make a huge difference for people in cities and towns and rural communities across our country,” she said.
In a crowd of reporters following her speech, she declined to give any kind of endorsement to the 13 candidates running for her seat, avoiding the kind of remarks that would lead her to a warning from the Office of Special Counsel for violating introduced the Hatch Act. Candidate Shontel Brown was present at the event.
Even so, Fudge made it clear that she was happy to visit Cleveland after being away for more than a month.
“When I say there is no place like home, I mean it,” said Fudge during her speech. “It’s so good to be home.”
Continue reading:
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Marcia Fudge has warned the Hatch Act against political statements in the White House
Senate confirms MP Marcia Fudge as Secretary for Housing and Urban Development to President Biden
Banks are still not lending enough to potential homebuyers in Black, Cleveland’s poor area, proponents say
source https://collegeeducationnewsllc.com/on-eve-of-juneteenth-hud-secretary-marcia-fudge-talks-black-homeownership-push-at-cleveland-event/
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