Housing Matters! Update
Friday, July 23, 2010

Action Alert: Sign Responsible Budget Coalition Call to Action

The Responsible Budget Coalition is continuing o raise public awareness about the need for a responsible budget in Illinois. This work requires an engaged group of diverse leaders to commit and spread these messages widely and give voice to what an irresponsible budget does to the people of Illinois.

Over the past year we have worked diligently to raise awareness about the need for a responsible budget in Illinois. We have been successful in changing the discussion around new revenue, engaging a diverse array of stakeholders in collective advocacy, and educating elected officials on the impact budget cuts are having on individuals and families across the state. These are important successes and we must continue the momentum in the coming months. As we all know, Illinois is still far from having a responsible budget. Your active participation is essential.

Please sign-on your organization to the new RBC Call to Action. Please do this even if you organization has endorsed a previous version of this document.

You can download a PDF of the Call to Action by clicking here.

In other advocacy activities, Illinois Partners for Human Services just released a list obtained from the Illinois Comptroller's Office detailing a total of more than $490 million currently owed to tax-exempt, non-profit organizations. The list is available here. If you or anyone you know doubts whether Illinois needs a responsible budget, please refer them to this list!

Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act Becomes Law

On July 21, President Barack Obama signed the historic Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act into law. The parts of the bill creating a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a Financial Stability Oversight Council have received much of the media attention. However, there are many additional provisions, including those setting new standards for the mortgage industry and addressing the foreclosure crisis.

The key mortgage reform provisions are as follows:

* Require Lenders Ensure a Borrower's Ability to Repay: Establishes a simple federal standard for all home loans: institutions must ensure that borrowers can repay the loans they are sold.

* Prohibit Unfair Lending Practices: Prohibits the financial incentives for subprime loans that encourage lenders to steer borrowers into more costly loans, including the bonuses known as "yield spread premiums" that lenders pay to brokers to inflate the cost of loans. Prohibits pre-payment penalties that trapped so many borrowers into unaffordable loans.

* Establishes Penalties for Irresponsible Lending: Lenders and mortgage brokers who don't comply with new standards will be held accountable by consumers for as high as three-years of interest payments and damages plus attorney's fees (if any). Protects borrowers against foreclosure for violations of these standards.

* Expands Consumer Protections for High-Cost Mortgages: Expands the protections available under federal rules on high-cost loans -- lowering the interest rate and the points and fee triggers that define high cost loans.

* Requires Additional Disclosures for Consumers on Mortgages: Lenders must disclose the maximum a consumer could pay on a variable rate mortgage, with a warning that payments will vary based on interest rate changes.

* Housing Counseling: Establishes an Office of Housing Counseling within HUD to boost homeownership and rental housing counseling.

The new resources to address foreclosures are:

* Neighborhood Stabilization Program: Provides a third round of $1 billion in funding for to states and localities for rehabilitating, redeveloping, and reusing abandoned and foreclosed properties.

* Emergency Mortgage Relief: Building on a successful Pennsylvania program, provides $1 billion for bridge loans to qualified unemployed homeowners with reasonable prospects for reemployment to help cover mortgage payments until they are reemployed.

* Foreclosure Legal Assistance: Authorizes a HUD administered program for making grants to provide foreclosure legal assistance to low- and moderate-income homeowners and tenants related to home ownership preservation, home foreclosure prevention, and tenancy associated with home foreclosure.

The bill also extends the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act (PTFA) through the end of 2014.

A complete summary of the Dodd-Frank bill is available by clicking here.

National Housing Trust Fund and Tax Credit Extension Still in the Works

After a long delay, on Tuesday, July 20 the Senate voted to extend unemployment insurance, but did not act on the other provisions of the previously-passed House version of "the extenders bill", including two housing provisions that we have long been advocating for:

* Providing $1 billion for an initial capitalization for the National Housing Trust Fund and $65 million in project-based assistance for trust fund units.

* Extending the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (Housing Credit) 9 percent exchange program.

Senate leadership has stated their commitment to passing the remaining portion of the extenders bill, hopefully before the August recess. Stay tuned for future updates.

More information is available here.

House and Senate Committees Recommend Increases to McKinney Programs

On July 21, the House Appropriations Committee released the details of its version of the FY 2011 spending bill for Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (T-HUD). That bill included $2.2 billion for HUD's McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants program. This is very positive sign of support for McKinney programs, as the full committee rarely increases the amount proposed by the T-HUD subcommittee ($2.055 billion), The $2.2 billion funding level represents an 18 percent increase over FY 2010.

On the same day the Senate T-HUD Subcommittee marked up its FY 2011 bill, and recommended providing $2.055 billion in FY 2011, the same amount included in President Obama's budget and a 10 percent increase over FY 2010.

Many advocates from Illinois--including members of the Supportive Housing Providers Association, the Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness and Housing Action Illinois--were on Capitol Hill advocating for McKinney Programs earlier this month as part of the National Alliance to End Homelessness Annual Conference. Thanks to all of them and others who contacted their members of Congress on this issue.

You can get more information at the NAEH's McKinney Vento Campaign here.

HUD also recently announced the homeless assistance projects being awarded though the 2009 Continuum of Care (CoC) competitive grants process. Agencies across Illinois received $79,675,377 in funding. A list of awardees is available here.

National Housing Trust Fund Appropriations Pass the House, Action In Senate Expected After Break

Just before leaving for the Memorial Day recess, the United States House of Representatives passed a scaled-down version of H.R. 4213, the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010, including an extension of unemployment benefits through November and other provisions. This version of the bill maintained the $1.065 billion in requested funding for the National Housing Trust Fund. The vote was 215-204. All Illinois Democrats except for Representative Melissa Bean (D-Barrington) voted for the bill. It's expected that the Senate will take up the bill when they return from the Memorial Day break on June 7. More information is available at http://www.nhtf.org.

The bill also extended the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) exchange program through 2010, which allows states to exchange a portion of their allocation of LIHTCs for cash. Information on how Illinois has used the exchange program to date is available at http://www.ihda.org/ViewPage.aspx?PageID=335.

In addition, the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund (ECF) was extended to September 30, 2011 with $2.5 billion in additional funding. Illinois is using the ECF to fund the Put Illinois to Work Program: http://putillinoistowork.illinois.gov.

House and Senate to Confer on Financial Industry Reform Bill

On May 20, the United States Senate passed a financial reform bill that consumer groups are generally calling a qualified victory in light of all the industry efforts to weaken the bill. Among the positive reforms, mortgage lenders will be prohibited from making loans that borrowers cannot repay and from providing kickbacks ("yield spread premiums") for steering people into high rate loans when they qualify for lower rates. The bill also creates a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau within the Federal Reserve that has the ability to take enforcement action against banks with more than $10 billion in assets.

The Senate bill now needs to be reconciled with the House version of the bill, which in many cases has stronger protections for consumers. For example, the House version creates an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency, with it's own oversight board, that will be better equipped to oversee banks.

Senators serving on the conference committee have already been named. Senators Durbin and Burris were not included. House members have not been named, but initial reports suggest that Representative Judy Biggert (R-Hindsdale) will be a member.

More information is available from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition at http://www.ncrc.org.

General Assembly Passed An Irresponsible Budget

The Illinois General Assembly left Springfield before Memorial Day after passing a budget that fails to address the ongoing state fiscal crisis in a responsible manner and is still unbalanced.

The operating budgets of state agencies were cut 5% and lawmakers gave Governor Quinn sweeping powers to cut additional funding. Moreover, nothing was done to reduce the nearly $6 billion backlog of bills owed to schools, human service agencies and others.

The only new revenue involves non-recurring sources of funding, including issuing bonds to be financed with part of the proceeds from Illinois' tobacco-lawsuit settlement ($1.2 billion), a tax amnesty program ($250 million), and borrowing money from special state funds ($1 billion).

The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability estimates that FY11 recurring revenue is more than $10 billion short of FY11 estimated spending. After all revenue sources, recurring and non-recurring are included, Illinois's FY11 budget deficit is $7 billion, or 26.7% of General Revenue Fund spending. More information is available at http://www.ctbaonline.org.

The Responsible Budget Coalition (http://www.abetterillinois.com) will continue working to get the State of Illinois to adopt a budget including significant new revenue in order to avoid more harmful cuts to vital programs, pay past due bills and fix the structural deficit to prevent a similar crisis in the future.

Several Positive Affordable Housing Bills Sent to Governor

Here's a summary of key affordable housing legislation that passed the General Assembly this year. Unless otherwise noted, these bills still need to by signed into law by Governor Quinn. Additional information is available at http://www.ilga.gov.

HB 3762: This bill, which has been signed into law, requires courts to stay foreclosure proceedings for a period of 90 days upon application by the homeowner if the homeowner is a person who was deployed to a combat or combat support posting while on active military duty and serving overseas within the previous 12 months.

House Sponsors: Rep. Mark L. Walker - Michael K. Smith - Linda Chapa LaVia - Elizabeth Hernandez - Cynthia Soto, Thomas Holbrook, Greg Harris, William B. Black, Jack D. Franks, Keith Farnham, Patrick J. Verschoore and Eddie Washington

Senate Sponsors: Sen. Dan Kotowski - Linda Holmes - Jacqueline Y. Collins, Antonio Muñoz, Martin A. Sandoval, Michael Bond, Toi W. Hutchinson and Mattie Hunter

HB 5523: This bill will protect victims of domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, and sexual assault from unlawful evictions by providing them with an affirmative defense to an eviction if it is solely based upon the victim's status or solely due to actual or threatened incidents of violence. Advocated for by the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law and Housing Action Illinois.

House Sponsors: Rep. Karen A. Yarbrough-Naomi D. Jakobsson-William Davis, Michael J. Zalewski, Harry Osterman, Lisa M. Dugan, Cynthia Soto, Deborah L. Graham, Constance A. Howard and LaShawn K. Ford

Senate Sponsors: Sen. Kwame Raoul, Antonio Muñoz, Martin A. Sandoval and Mattie Hunter

HB 5735: Upon motion of the homeowner, allows foreclosure judges to reject the foreclosure sale if it finds that the lender has not complied with loss mitigation requirements that are part of the federal Making Home Affordable Program. Advocated for by the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law and Housing Action Illinois.

House Sponsors: Rep. Al Riley-William D. Burns-Elizabeth Hernandez-Marlow H. Colvin-Karen A. Yarbrough, Edward J. Acevedo, William Davis, Julie Hamos, Elaine Nekritz, Cynthia Soto and LaShawn K. Ford

Senate Sponsors: Sen. Jacqueline Y. Collins - M. Maggie Crotty - Kwame Raoul - Linda Holmes, Martin A. Sandoval, Michael Bond, Mattie Hunter and Toi W. Hutchinson

HB 6038: Extends the Illinois Affordable Housing Tax Credit, also known as the State Donations Tax Credit, through December 31, 2016. Advocated for by the Metropolitan Planning Council and the Chicago Rehab Network.

House Sponsors: Rep. Arthur L. Turner-Barbara Flynn Currie-William Davis, Angelo Saviano, Esther Golar, Darlene J. Senger, LaShawn K. Ford and Franco Coladipietro

Senate Sponsors: Sen. James F. Clayborne, Jr.-Iris Y. Martinez, Pamela J. Althoff, Heather Steans-Jacqueline Y. Collins and Mattie Hunter

HB 6241: Creates the Manufactured Home Installation Act. Provides that a manufactured home installed on private property that is not located in a mobile home park be assessed and taxed as real property. This bill was negotiated with, and agreed to, by the Mobile Homeowners Association of Illinois.

House Sponsors: Rep. William B. Black-Betsy Hannig-Dan Reitz-Roger L. Eddy, Linda Chapa LaVia, Arthur L. Turner and Mike Bost

Senate Sponsors: Sen. James F. Clayborne, Jr.-John O. Jones

HB6439: Requires the Structural Pest Control Advisory Council to convene a subcommittee to develop a report to the General Assembly by December 31, 2011 with recommendations on the prevention, management, and control of bed bug infestations.

House Sponsors: Rep. Kenneth Dunkin

Senate Sponsors: Sen. Heather Steans

SB0374: Creates the H+T Affordability Index Act. Provides that the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the Department of Transportation, and the Illinois Housing Development Authority shall use the Housing and Transportation Affordability Index as a development tool and a consideration in funding allocation, distribution of incentives, and facility siting in Metropolitan Planning Organization areas. Provides that the Act does not reduce or divert funding away from areas not located in a Metropolitan Planning Organization Area. Advocated for by the Center for Neighborhood Technology. More information on the Index is available at http://htaindex.cnt.org.

Senate Sponsors: Sen. Kwame Raoul

House Sponsors: Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie-Karen May-Dave Winters-William B. Black-Michael W. Tryon, Deborah Mell, William D. Burns and Suzanne Bassi

SB 3180: Creates the Common Interest Community Association Act to regulate housing, other than condominiums or cooperatives, in which homeowners are obligated to pay for common areas administered by an association. Includes provision that allows 501(c)(3) organizations that currently rent out affordable units in Common Interest Community Associations to continue to rent those units, even if townhome association rules change to prohibit rentals. Advocated for by Housing Action Illinois and the DuPage Housing Action Coalition.

Senate Sponsors: Sen. A. J. Wilhelmi-Kwame Raoul-Iris Y. Martinez

House Sponsors: Rep. Tom Cross-Sandra M. Pihos-Emily McAsey-Timothy L. Schmitz

SB 3782: Requires that court files shall be sealed on eviction actions against a tenant who would have lawful possession of the premises if not for a foreclosure on the property. This will help keep tenants from being negatively impacted by having an eviction on their court record.

Senate Sponsors: Sen. Michael W. Frerichs

House Sponsors: Rep. William B. Black-Al Riley and John A. Fritchey

Weakened Foreclosure Legislation Passes General Assembly

SB3739: For almost a year, advocacy and community organizations from around the state, including Business and Professional People for the Public Interest and Action Now, worked on state legislation that would have helped homeowners struggling to save their homes and communities struggling with boarded-up properties. However, the foreclosure legislation that recently passed the Illinois legislature mostly fails to accomplish what the advocates sought.

Here's a summary of the bill that passed with a description of where it falls short of the original proposal.

Foreclosure Prevention

SB3739 will generate about $7 million a year for housing counseling and community outreach. Half will be spent in Chicago and half outside Chcago. The advocates' proposal would have generated around $40 million for a wider range of activities.

SB 3739 also places lots of restrictions on how the money can be spent. For example, unlike the advocates' proposal, it can't pay for legal assistance, so folks in places where legal services attorneys are the only ones helping people to try to save their homes will not get additional resources to provide the services they need.

On top of all this, banks mostly won't pay for the foreclosure prevention program. Funding will come from a fee on foreclosure filings, which are initially paid for by the bank but usually passed on to homeowners. The advocates' proposal would have imposed a fee mostly paid for by banks from the proceeds of a foreclosure sale.

Help for Municipalities

The advocates' proposal would have authorized municipalities to make banks responsible for maintaining and securing vacant properties. That would have created leverage to get banks to clean up vacant properties and write down loans. But SB3739 doesn't include such authorization. It will put no pressure on banks to maintain properties or write down loans.

Instead, SB3739 will impose a small fee on some judicial sales, proceeds from which would go to municipalities to clean up vacant properties. In most sales, the fee will generate no more than $50 even though municipalities often spend thousands of taxpayer dollars to maintain and secure a single vacant property. Making the positive impact even more minimal, banks won't pay the fee. If a mortgagee (like a bank) is taking back a property through foreclosure, the bill says they are exempt. That means that the fee won't be collected in more than 95% of all foreclosure cases.

Advocates and community groups are now strategizing about how to keep pushing these issues and how to get homeowners and communities the help they need. For more information, or to see how you can help, contact Adam Gross at agross@bpichicago.org.

Four advocacy groups working to create affordable housing and end homelessness released a report today demonstrating that unless the State of Illinois passes comprehensive tax reform even more people will lose their housing and become homeless. The entire report is available at www.housingactionil.org.

The report was based on a survey of state-funded providers of homelessness prevention funds, emergency shelter, homeless youth programs, transitional housing and permanent supportive housing.

Among the survey’s key findings were:

1. Agencies are already turning people in need of housing away due to state budget cuts. Sixty-one agencies turned away 1,292 people in January 2010 because of prior year state budget cuts, representing 9% of the 13,720 people they were able to serve. This does not include additional people who were turned away for issues not related to state budget cuts, such as lack of bed space.

2. Agencies are already owed a significant amount of money by the state and are taking on additional debt to manage the crisis. In total, 54 agencies are owed $10.2 million from the state in delayed payments, or about $189,000 per agency. The average delay in state payments is slightly less than 3 months, with delays as high as 9 months.

3. State-funded programs create jobs and leverage federal funding. State funding for 61 agencies supports more than 1,600 jobs across Illinois. Forty-nine agencies are leveraging $47.7 million in federal funds every year that depend on a state match.

4. More budget cuts will result in fewer people receiving services and the loss of state-funded jobs. Based on the responses of 66 agencies, if programs are cut substantially in the FY11 budget, 79% of agencies would have to reduce services and 74% of agencies would have to lay off staff. Forty-one percent of agencies would have to eliminate programs.

The agencies surveyed are funded by line items that receive a combined $36.5 million in state funding. While that total represents only a small portion of state funding—less than 1% of the $4 billion in total General Revenue Funding for the Illinois Department of Human Services—the harm caused by cuts to these programs are troubling examples of the larger impact of cuts to human services overall.

“While Governor Quinn deserves credit for acknowledging the need for revenue increases, his proposal falls far short of what is needed,” said Bob Palmer, Policy Director for Housing Action Illinois. Illinois Governor Pat Quinn released his fiscal year 2011 budget proposal on March 10. He proposed over $2 billion in cuts. Although not included in his formal proposal, Governor Quinn is advocating for a 1% increase in the income tax.

The report was prepared by the Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness, the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, Housing Action Illinois and the Supportive Housing Providers Association. All four groups are members of the Responsible Budget Coalition.

“The 200-plus organizations of the Responsible Budget Coalition believe the best and fairest way to adequately fund all our essential priorities—education, health care, human services, public safety and more--is through comprehensive tax reform like House Bill 174, that passed in the Illinois Senate in 2009,” said Lore Baker, Assistant Director for the Supportive Housing Providers Association.