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Responding to the foreclosure crisis - a conference summary
On December 9?10, 2009, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago hosted a conference on mortgage foreclosure policy with the help of the Chicago Community Trust, Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Woodstock Institute.
Journal Article
Neighborhood housing dervices of Chicago and the home ownership preservation Initiative – a successful partnership looks to expand its scope and impact
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's Consumer and Community Affairs department has, since the mid- 1990s, worked with various Seventh District organizations and agencies to address foreclosures and their harmful impact in communities. Most notably, the Reserve Bank has supported and partnered with Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) of Chicago to mitigate the destabilizing effect that foreclosures have on vulnerable communities--those with older housing stock, lower income, largely minority (and/or recent immigrant) populations, and little commercial or retail investment. The Homeownership ...
Journal Article
Tools (Lessons and Strategies) Toward Market Restoration: A Conference Summary
Community development post-recession takes place in an environment that is greatly changed in terms of both demand for and capacity to deliver services. While no community was immune, the places that were most deeply affected by the Great Recession ? and continue to feel its effects ? are often those places that had suffered from disinvestment for decades leading up to it. The tools and strategies that have been developed and relied on by investors, practitioners and advocates ? in some cases for decades ? need to be adapted to the changes, while continuing to meet ever growing demand.
Journal Article
An overview of changes to credit card regulations and discussion of potential impacts on card users
Significant regulatory changes affecting credit card terms and conditions were signed into law in May 2009, and took effect in February 2010. A number of these changes will affect lower-income consumers, ostensibly those with few options to "shop" contracts and features in ways that might not impact mainstream consumers. Most Changes will affect the majority of consumers. This brief essay summarizes the overall changes, and provides some comments on the changes that may affect the subprime and/or lower-income subset of credit card user, as well as those impacted by job loss or business ...
Journal Article
The evolving roles of mission-focused financial intermediaries and mainstream financial institutions in community development finance
In 2005, the Federal Reserve System and the Aspen Institute?s Economic Opportunities Program launched a national conference series to explore the state of the community development finance industry. A further goal was to document lessons and practices primarily from the for-profit sector, and introduce organization, productand industry-level innovations to increase the impact of community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and other community development organizations. Prior research by Moy and others formed the basis for the series. This research showed that environmental changes ...
Journal Article
RHOPI perspectives: the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
The Chicago Fed and the Federal Reserve System have a longstanding interest in the causes and ramifications on unstable housing markets and high foreclosure rates, The Federal Reserve System helped to establish what is now known as NeighborWorks America, the umbrella organization for national nonprofit housing enterprise with 250 offices of which Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago (NHS) is an affiliate, one that is nationally recognized for its work in revitalizing neighborhoods, and more recently, stemming foreclosures. A member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, currently ...
Journal Article
The Home ownership preservation initiative: a critical foreclosure intervention initiative seeks expanded role for mainstream mortgage servicers and adoption of new tools
In the current climate, the mission of HOPI takes on a much higher level of urgency. The graph in Exhibit 1 depicts the sharp increase in foreclosure starts1 city-wide in the past two years in particular. Foreclosure starts in Chicago rose approximately 40 percent from 2006 to 2007; and lower-income, underinvested communities, which describes all NHS target areas of Chicago, are impacted most severely, as they have higher concentrations of highcost mortgages, homes tend to remain vacant longer, and lower-income households have a more difficult time recovering from the effects of a foreclosure.
Journal Article
Perspectives on credit scoring and fair lending: a five-part article series
Credit scoring has brought increased efficiency in the mortgage lending industry. It has also raised concerns about fair mortgage lending practices given the increasing use of credit scores in the underwriting process. In order to better understand the potential impact of credit scoring on mortgage applicants, The Federal Reserve System's Mortgage Credit Partnership Credit Scoring Committee is producing a five-part article series. The series is designed to provide the mortgage lending industry, and concerned groups and individuals, the opportunity to present their perspectives on credit ...
Journal Article
A brief on emerging affordable rental housing trends in economically stressed Chicago communities
For decades, nonprofit housing and consumer-focused organizations have worked in low- and moderate-income (LMI) areas to address improvident mortgage lending practices that have led to high rates of vacancy and unstable neighborhoods. Questionable lending is not a new problem in LMI areas, in short, but the pace of this lending in LMI areas increased as the last decade?s housing bubble inflated. Many unsound lending practices (including failure to prevent fraudulent use of primary residence mortgages to finance investment property1) spread to mainstream housing markets in the first half of ...