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- Latest news item posted on 09/28/2008 at 06:00 AM
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- Please welcome our new partner, the Fair Housing Council of Suburban Philadelphia.
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Foreclosure: 'They were preyed upon'
(HOPKINS, Minn., Sep. 28, 2008)
-- Like a pair of teenage sweethearts, David Parkes and Kathy Sakry live in the moment. As social workers and county caseworkers assigned to help the vulnerable adults gather to talk about the foreclosure of the couple's Hopkins townhouse, Parkes steps from the top of one coffee table to the next, landing cannonball-style on the couch next to Sakry.
She grins, but the talk quickly turns serious and she contorts her face to hold back the tears, her eyeglasses tilting.
Even as stories of people who can no longer afford their homes become depressingly familiar, the experience of Parkes and Sakry illustrates just how far some mortgage brokers and lenders were willing to go to cash in on the good times, and how few safeguards existed to protect consumers.
Parkes, 44, has an IQ of 56 and the math skills of a first-grader. Sakry is 43 and, like Parkes, faces challenges when it comes to planning and maintaining budgets. Despite their limitations, three different lenders persuaded them to keep refinancing their home until they burned up the equity in their house and could no longer afford the payments.
FULL STORY in The Minneapolis Star Tribune
OPINION: Developmentally disabled have rights, just like everyone else
(JACKSON, Tenn., Sep. 28, 2008)
-- OK, I admit it, I had a slight crisis of conscience this past week. At issue was trying to figure out exactly how I felt about proposed group homes that are slated to be built on Navajo Cove in North Jackson and in Three Way.
One of the challenges of this job is that you have to learn to see both sides of an issue. That's because sometimes, I have to write editorials taking positions that I personally disagree with. While it sometimes can be useful to be able to see both sides of an issue, often, it makes it hard to decide how you really feel about things.
That's how I arrived at my crisis of conscience. On one hand, I can identify with homeowners' fears that putting a group home in a residential neighborhood will drive down property values. I also can understand how people might be a little concerned about safety. On the other, my heart totally goes out to the residents of these group homes and their families.
So where do I actually stand? In this case, I'm firmly on the side of the patients and the company that wants to build the homes.
OP-ED in The Jackson Sun
Home for inebriates resurfaces
(ST. CLOUD, Minn., Sep. 28, 2008)
-- NFHAO EDITOR'S NOTE: It is unclear what this story means by "inebriates." "Sober homes" for recovering alcoholics, in which one of the conditions of residency is that the tenants not use alcohol, are very common and are protected by the Fair Housing Act. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines "inebriate" as "one who is drunk." It is not clear that a home that simply provides shelter for drunk people would be protected by the Act. NFHAO hopes the St. Cloud Times will clarify this story.
The company that wants to build a home for chronic inebriates in St. Cloud is asking the city to reconsider its decision to deny the required permit to build the facility.
River Crest of St. Cloud LLP requested a conditional-use permit from the city to build a 40-bed housing complex at 1307 Lincoln Ave. SE, the former site of American Legion Post 76. The Zoning Board of Appeals voted against the request and the City Council upheld the decision.
Timothy Thompson represents River Crest. He said he sent a letter that informs the city that the company will be forced to sue if the city does not reconsider the decision. Thompson said he was told the City Council would discuss the letter during a closed meeting Oct. 6.
FULL STORY in The St. Cloud Times
In Miss., barriers to fair housing remain
(GULFPORT, Miss., Sep. 26, 2008)
-- The final of four hearings on impediments to fair housing in Mississippi was held Friday morning in Gulfport, with a dozen residents in attendance.
Western Economic Services is completing the study for the Mississippi Development Authority as part of the requirement for communities to receive HUD housing dollars.
Preliminary impediments identified are discrimination through terms and conditions, mostly on rentals; failure to provide reasonable accommodation for the disabled; high loan denial rates for blacks; and predatory and subprime lending. Blacks and Hispanics are more likely than whites or Asians to be targeted for predatory loans in Mississippi.
FULL STORY in The Sun-Herald
N.J. company seeks dismissal of RICO suit over Fair Housing Act
(PLAINFIELD, N.J., Sep. 26, 2008)
-- Connolly Properties, the Plainfield-based real estate company that was sued in June by a national immigration reform group for allegedly running a criminal harboring enterprise by renting to illegal aliens and segregating them from other tenants, is asking a judge to throw out the lawsuit.
Connolly was sued by three plaintiffs, a former company employee and two current tenants, who are being represented by the Immigration Reform Law Institute, the legal arm of the Washington, D.C.-based Federation for American Immigration Reform. The institute is "devoted exclusively to protecting the rights and interests of United States citizens in immigration-related matters," according to its Web site, and previously supported high-profile anti-illegal immigration ordinances in Riverside and Hazelton, Penn. Both towns were forced to abandon them, however, as a judge overturned the Hazelton ordinance by ruling it unconstitutional and Riverside rescinded its ordinance when township officials said the town could not afford the legal costs of defending it.
The lawsuit against Connolly is unique in that it ranks among the first ever to cite RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) statutes to attack illegal immigration. The federal government has traditionally used RICO mostly to fight organized crime.
FULL STORY at mycentraljsersey.com
HUD considers hurricane impact in foreclosure plan
(JACKSON, Miss., Sep. 26, 2008)
-- Paula Bell thought about suicide when she realized her Mississippi Gulf Coast home survived Hurricane Katrina but was on the verge of being lost to foreclosure.
Her mortgage payment had increased by $500 and her income was gone because the 2005 killer storm had destroyed her business in the Diamondhead community. Gulf Coast Fair Housing Center came to her rescue and helped her renegotiate her loan with Ameriquest to keep her three-bedroom home.
The center and other nonprofit groups are hoping for a seat at the table when government officials draft proposals to collect a share of $4 billion the U.S. Housing and Urban Development is providing to help communities recover from homes being abandoned because of foreclosure.
FULL STORY in Forbes Magazine
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