Expressing support for the designation of June as "National Homeownership Month", honoring the critical importance of increased homeownership to overall affordable housing goals, and acknowledging the necessity of using comprehensive resources within the legislative and policy toolbox, together with vital public-private partnerships, to allow communities across the United States to provide access to safe and secure housing for all Americans, regardless of income level, while promoting diversity consistent with the ideal of the American Dream during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

IV 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. RES. 1025 Expressing support for the designation of June as ‘‘National Homeownership Month’’, honoring the critical importance of increased homeownership to overall affordable housing goals, and acknowledging the necessity of using comprehensive resources within the legislative and policy toolbox, together with vital public-private partnerships, to allow communities across the United States to provide access to safe and secure housing for all Americans, regardless of income level, while promoting diversity consistent with the ideal of the American Dream during the time of the COVID–19 pandemic. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JUNE 26, 2020 Mr. CLAY submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services RESOLUTION Expressing support for the designation of June as ‘‘National Homeownership Month’’, honoring the critical impor- tance of increased homeownership to overall affordable housing goals, and acknowledging the necessity of using comprehensive resources within the legislative and policy toolbox, together with vital public-private partnerships, to allow communities across the United States to provide access to safe and secure housing for all Americans, regardless of income level, while promoting diversity con- sistent with the ideal of the American Dream during the time of the COVID–19 pandemic. VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:16 Jun 27, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\HR1025.IH HR1025 ctelli on DSK30NT082PROD with BILLS 2 •HRES 1025 IH Whereas for over 80 years it has been the policy of the United States to promote the general welfare of the Na- tion by employing its funds and credit to assist States and localities to remedy unsafe housing conditions and the acute shortage of decent and safe dwellings for low income families under the United States Housing Act of 1937; Whereas the House of Representatives, which has over a pe- riod of many years endeavored to address housing and homeownership, and has had some success in doing so through related appropriations and authorizing legisla- tion, has committed itself to meeting the affordable hous- ing and community development needs of the country; Whereas the disparate impact standard under the Fair Hous- ing Act is a longstanding protection that allows people to challenge policies that might seem neutral on their face but result in discriminatory outcomes; Whereas a government-sponsored corporation, the Home- owners Loan Corporation (HOLC), established in 1933, implemented a system of redlining for years that rated neighborhoods based on a number of factors, including race; Whereas, in 1911, a St. Louis, Missouri, neighborhood en- acted a racially restrictive covenant designed to prevent African Americans and Asian Americans from living in the area and in 1945 the Shelleys, an African-American family, moved into the neighborhood prompting Louis Kraemer to sue to enforce the covenant and prevent them from moving into their house, resulting in a Supreme Court decision that although restrictive covenants did not fall under constitutional protection, State enforcement of VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:16 Jun 27, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR1025.IH HR1025 ctelli on DSK30NT082PROD with BILLS 3 •HRES 1025 IH such covenants violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; Whereas the National Association of Real Estate Boards, which became the National Association of Realtors, had harmful racial discrimination as part of its ethics code; Whereas prior to the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, Federal, State, and local governments actively and explicitly enforced policies that discriminated against ra- cial minorities seeking homeownership opportunities, making it harder for them to purchase homes in certain neighborhoods or to obtain financing on fair terms, and during much of the 20th century, State and local govern- ments promoted segregation in neighborhoods across the Nation by actively enforcing racially restrictive covenants, which were legally enforceable provisions in property deeds that prohibited racial minorities from purchasing homes in White residential neighborhoods; Whereas during the height of the foreclosure crisis, about a quarter of African-American and Latino homeowners had lost their homes to foreclosure or were seriously delin- quent, compared to just under 12 percent for White homeowners and just under 14 percent for Asian-Amer- ican homeowners, and by 2011, 25 percent of Black homeowners and 28 percent of Hispanic homeowners had underwater mortgages, a home purchase loan with a higher outstanding principal obligation than the fair-mar- ket value of the home, compared to just 15 percent of White homeowners; Whereas a National Fair Housing Alliance report in Decem- ber 2019 found an 87-percent rate of racial steering, per- verse redlining, and other harrowing forms of discrimina- VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:16 Jun 27, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR1025.IH HR1025 ctelli on DSK30NT082PROD with BILLS 4 •HRES 1025 IH tion for families seeking to purchase homes in 12 cities across the United States; Whereas 2018 Census Bureau data found the homeownership rate was 73 percent for non-Hispanic White households, 42 percent for African-American households, 47 percent for Hispanic or Latinx households, and 58 percent for Asian or Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander households, and in the past 15 years, Black homeownership has seen the most dramatic drop of any racial or ethnic group and it is now as low as it was when discrimination was legal, contributing to the racial wealth gap; Whereas a 2016 DEMOS study found that eliminating dis- parities in homeownership rates and returns would sub- stantially reduce the racial wealth gap; Whereas the 2016 DEMOS study found that Black and Latino homeowners saw less return in wealth on their in- vestment in homeownership, finding that for every $1 in wealth that accrues to median Black households as a re- sult of homeownership, median White households accrue $1.34, while for every $1 in wealth that accrues to me- dian Latino households as a result of homeownership, median White households accrue $1.54; Whereas the Center for Responsible Lending testified in May 2019 to the Subcommittee on Housing, Community De- velopment and Insurance of the Financial Services Com- mittee of the House of Representatives that data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act continues to dem- onstrate low levels of conventional mortgage loans to Af- rican-American and Latino families and, further, the Center for Investigative Reporting Reveal report analyzed 31 million mortgage records and found that, in 61 metro- politan areas in the United States, African Americans VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:16 Jun 27, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR1025.IH HR1025 ctelli on DSK30NT082PROD with BILLS 5 •HRES 1025 IH and Latinos are more likely to be turned down for a con- ventional mortgage application than similarly situated White borrowers, among other forms of invidious dis- crimination; and Whereas equal access to homeownership opportunities en- hances social and economic diversity, promotes inclusion, and reaffirms equality and is consistent with principles of capitalism: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives supports 1 the designation of ‘‘National Homeownership Month’’ and 2 honors the importance of the sacrosanct and uniquely 3 American idea of homeownership. 4 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:16 Jun 27, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\HR1025.IH HR1025 ctelli on DSK30NT082PROD with BILLS