I received word from several people that the link to this original post
broke when they tried to open it. For those of you interested in the
article, here it is as inline text. The original post is included below for
clarification. The general website for the US Conference of Mayors is
www.usmayors.org.
Ann Freeman
Communications Director
Minneapolis Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton
(612) 673-2156
Sayles Belton and Mortgage Bankers Confer on Escalating Housing Crisis
New Study Shows More Working Families Unable to Find Affordable Homes
by Dave Gatton
February 12, 2001
Minneapolis Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton, trustee of the United States
Conference of Mayors, called on the nation's bankers, developers, and
homebuilders last week to work with mayors to launch a new federal housing
initiative that would dramatically increase the availability of affordable
housing for the nation's working families.
Addressing the Mortgage Bankers Association Convention on Commercial and
Multifamily Housing Development in San Diego on February 7, Belton said that
the it was getting more and more difficult for families to afford housing.
Citing the City of Minneapolis' one percent vacancy rate, she told an
audience of 300 bankers, "The crisis is here and it will only get worse
unless we develop a national program to increase housing production. We've
got to work with the federal government, Congress and the private sector to
find creative and viable solutions to America's housing crisis," she said.
Belton's comments on behalf of the mayors came as the Mortgage Bankers
Association of America (MBA) and the National Housing Conference (NHC)
released a new study showing that working families are increasingly unable
to find affordable homes in communities where they work.
The study showed that the number of middle income families with critical
housing needs increased by 38 percent between 1997 and 1999. Middle income
families are those earning between 50 and 120 percent of median income.
But in a surprising finding, the upper end of that group, those between 80
and 120 percent of median income, had a harder time finding affordable
housing-increasing by 74 percent between 1997 and 1999.
"These numbers should be a wake up call for policy makers in Washington.
Teachers, firefighters, police officers and other moderate-income workers
are finding it harder and harder to find or pay for housing," said Andrew D.
Woodward, MBA President and Chairman of Bank of America Mortgage.
Robert J. Reid, executive director of the NHC, said, "We must broaden the
parameters of the housing debate in this country to include the housing of
needs of working families, and we must produce new affordable housing to
meet the needs of these families."
Sayles Belton announced at the meeting a national summit that the
Conference's Council for Investment in the New American City will hold in
Washington, D.C. on April 4-5, 2001. One of the purposes of the summit will
be to unveil the outlines of a national housing production proposal
supported by the Council's members.
Sayles Belton told the bankers that Minneapolis faces a shortage of 15,000
affordable housing units and that the city has increased funding for
affordable housing programs by 44 percent. But she added that local
resources could not come close to adequately addressing the problem. To
demonstrate the need, she said that 45 percent of the city's homeless
shelter residents were working individuals and families.
"We can no longer engage in promoting the concentration of poverty," the
mayor told the audience. "We must develop mixed income communities that
fortify our neighborhoods and that means we can not be afraid to expand the
national housing conversation to include the needs of moderate income
families," she said. The bankers agreed. Woodward announced that MBA would
join the mayors in pushing for a new multifamily housing production proposal
in the 107th Congress that would also address the needs of moderate income
families. His colleague, Shakir Narasimhan, managing director of the
Prudential Mortgage Capital Company and a leading spokesman for the
industry, called for substantial new appropriation of federal funds in
housing that would drive new production under a simplified delivery system.
A representative from the San Diego Chamber of Commerce indicated that for
every four new jobs created in the city of San Diego, one housing unit was
being built.
"There is an emerging political consensus that something must be done,"
Sayles Belton said. "We must speak with one voice. If you work hard all day,
raise your kids, help them with their school, you should be able to afford a
home. This is a fundamental part of our social contract with working
Americans," she concluded.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Freeman, Ann E
> Sent: Friday, February 23, 2001 9:06 AM
> To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
> Subject: [Mpls] Mayor Sayles Belton and Mortgage Bankers Confer on
> Escalating Hou sing Crisis
>
> As a Board of Trustee with the US Conference of Mayors (USCM), Mayor
> Sayles
> Belton is taking leadership on a new partnership between the Conference
> and
> the Mortgage Bankers Association of America to put housing at the top of
> our
> national agenda. Below is a link to a story in US Mayor, the official
> publication of the USCM, detailing Mayor Sayles Belton's recent trip to
> San
> Diego to address the Mortgage Bankers Association Convention on Commercial
> and Multifamily Housing where she called on the private sector to work
> with
> mayors across the country to launch this federal housing initiative to
> increase affordable housing nationwide.
>
>
> http://www.usmayors.org/uscm/us_mayor_newspaper/documents/02_12_01/mortgag
> e_
> bankers.asp
>
> Ann Freeman
> Communications Director
> Minneapolis Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton
> (612) 673-2156
>
> _______________________________________________
> Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy
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> http://e-democracy.org/mpls
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