NCLR Fights to Keep Latinos in Their Homes

Stop wrongful foreclosures. Protect affordable housing. Keep responsible homeownership opportunities available. These three simple demands are at the heart of our Home for Good campaign, which was launched last April. Every day, more Americans join the ranks of those who have had their homes foreclosed upon and who have lost their jobs. In the Latino community, one in six is either at imminent risk of losing their home or has already lost it. This disturbing national crisis must be addressed immediately. 

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has been the focus of Home for Good. We put out a national call to Americans to sign a petition demanding that Sec. Geithner make the foreclosure crisis a top priority. Since making the call, we have gathered signatures through online petitions, postcards, and our mobile action network; NCLR’s supporters and allies worked diligently to spread the word. The work paid off today when the Home for Good campaign team delivered more than 10,000 signatures to Sec. Geithner’s office.

Of course, we’re not finished yet. In many ways, the hard work is just beginning. Now that Sec. Geithner has heard you loud and clear, we must continue to spread the message telling the administration and Congress to stop wrongful foreclosures and restore homeownership opportunities. Soon, NCLR will bring Home for Good to your neighborhood. We will be holding a series of town halls in communities across America to hear more about the struggles that everyday Americans are facing in this terrible economy, and we’ll focus on solutions for putting an end to the foreclosure crisis. Stay tuned, and visit back here often for news about these upcoming town halls.

Finally, be sure to check out Home for Good online, and visit us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest Home for Good news. And, if you haven’t done so, text HOME or HOGAR to 62571 to join our Home for Good mobile action network.

Home for Good Blog Carnival Roundup

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Home for Good Blog Carnival. We asked bloggers to join us in urging folks to send an e-postcard to U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner demanding an end to wrongful foreclosures, insisting on providing affordable homes to rent, and asking him to keep safe home ownership available.

Thanks to everyone who participated! The good news is that if you haven't written your post yet, there's still time! The bad news is that the crisis is far from over—we still need your help.

The posts from the roundup:

Over at the Chicago-based Metropolitan Planning Council, Sylvia Puente, executive director of the Latino Policy Forum, notes that June marks the celebration of National Homeownership Month, but few Latinos are at the party. Puente notes that according to a Latino Policy Forum analysis of data from the Woodstock Institute, there were more than 10,000 foreclosure filings in predominately Latino communities in Chicago and its suburbs in 2010. But surely with all the refinancing options available, folks can get now get some relief, right? Wrong. One in three Latino refinance applications is denied in metropolitan Chicago, compared with just 17% of applications from non-Latinos. “Until Latinos have access to affordable mortgage options and appropriate housing counseling services, foreclosures will continue to ravage neighborhoods across the state,” Puente concludes.

From our friends at Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, an Out of the Spotlight post notes that despite a recent uptick in home construction, millions of Americans remain at risk of losing their homes. We've all heard that one in six Latino homeowners—more than one million people—is at imminent risk of or has already lost his or her home to foreclosure. Did you know that the same is true for one in nine Black homeowners?

The post also notes that, according to a recent report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, not only are many Americans not purchasing homes—many cannot afford rental housing either.

Meanwhile, Tax Credits for Working Families makes a strong case for Property Tax Circuit Breakers in A Fix for the Home Ownership Crisis. Though the funky name may be off-putting, the concept behind this state tax instrument is sound: Just as an electric circuit breaker stops the flow of electricity to prevent a circuit overload, a property tax circuit breaker protects taxpayers from a property tax “overload,” reducing tax liability for individuals and families whose property tax payments are too large a percentage of family income.

The post also points out that rising property taxes are an often unrecognized factor in the homeownership crisis—even affecting renters, as costs are typically passed on to tenants in the form of rent increases.

And to our friends at Hispanicize: Many thanks for the shout-out!