In this document from 2000, Fannie Mae notes how wonderfully effective Acorn is (and similar groups) in the effort to force lenders to make bad loans:
There is no question that statutory,regulatory,and public pressure (“sticks”of different types) all compelled the lenders to become more proactive.These sticks include the requirements of the CRA, the Fair Housing Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and other statutes;an invigoration of the regulators’ enforcement of those statutes;release of loan-level HMDA data;growth of community activist organizations,which have become quite proficient in analyzing and presenting the HMDA information;and an industrywide trend toward mergers, accompanied by a very public look at fulfillment of CRA obligations.
The case studies illustrate those pressures. Atlanta lenders became more receptive to increasing lending to minority and LMI populations when the Atlanta Community Reinvestment Alliance brought HMDA-based loan information on minority lending disparities to the fore.A group of lenders formed the Atlanta Mortgage Consortium two weeks after those disparities became front-page news in the Atlanta Journal–Constitution’s much-publicized “Color of Money”series. Merger-related CRA scrutiny also prompted the case study institutions to increase affordable lending. PNC Bank became a much more active DVMP participant at the time of its merger with the Bank of Delaware and attendant protests by the activist group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now);NationsBank’s partnership with the NAACP coincided with its national expansion;and BofA expanded its Native American and Hispanic mortgage outreach efforts with its acquisition of First Interstate of Arizona.
It reads to me like they are boasting of the effectiveness of leveraging regulations and protest groups to force banks to make high risk loans. Can you say government sponsored shakedown?
It is your taxpayer dollars that are given to HUD (US Department of Housing and Urban Development), which in turn give money to NACA – Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America. HUD gives money to ACORN and other agencies that do this and much worse. They (HUD-financed ageny) are not regulated either. You need to write your elected officials and request that they REDUCE HUD funding, and cite this as a reason. It is not just if you are a lender, mortgage broker, or realtor, to be concerned. All citizens should understand what is happening here.
January 09
http://www.urbanitebaltimore.com/sub.cfm?issueID=68§ionID=4&articleID=1127
“Legalized extortion is what I call it,” says Thomas DiLorenzo, professor of economics at Loyola College in Maryland. Under the CRA……”
“The mechanism government decided to use was lower lending standards,” says Stan Liebowitz, professor of economics at the University of Texas at Dallas and adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. “Government tried to convince banks it was safe to lend with lower down payments and higher obligation ratios. They put pressure on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to make these loans. That whole ball got rolling because of it.”
For more on the HUD-sponsored ACORN SCAM:
http://theeprovocateur.blogspot.com/2009/01/inside-story-of-acorn.html
The link above to a 2000 document does not work. i am interested in seeing this link. Any chance of having the document posted in an alternative format?
Sorry about that Scott. Fannie must have taken down the original link. Fear not, I have a copy on my server. The link is fixed.
[...] in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? The predatory banks forced loans on unsuspecting victims? Do the bank shakedowns of the federally-funded ACORN organization exist only in some hard-hearted people’s [...]
Much appreciated administrators. Thank you.