Unfair Housing Acts
Bovard, James
Unfair Housing I, cts J t was the kind of triumphal photo-op that the embattled president needed. On January i8, Martin Luther King Day, President Clinton was "pleased to announce" the...
...RHA, Box 291, Piedra, CA 93649-0291...
...Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, former U.S, Ambassador to the United Nations "Sheehan's book is a much-needed wake-up call – Americans must thoughtfully but unhesitatingly oppose the agendas of global governance if we are to preserve Our system of self-government...
...We filed complaints [with HUD] not because there was evidence of discrimination, but because there were differences in treatment that had been explored and discovered," she said...
...72 percent...
...This appears to be the Clinton administration's idea of a productive government investment...
...The Fort Worth Human Relations Commission has become one of Cuomo's favorite federally funded fair-housing investigators...
...If Secretary Cuomo is using the term penalty, that is an interesting word —we should not penalize anyone who we did not make any findings against or who was not a subject of an investigation...
...The department had paid the Urban Institute $650,000 for an exhaustive analysis of insurance markets in Phoenix and New York...
...The bank had several branches in census tracts that had a combined majority of blacks, Hispanics, and Asians...
...Sen...
...Federal investigators went through thousands of loan files and found no case in which Chevy Chase had clearly discriminated against a black applicant...
...Clinton is asking 847 billion for this holy war in FY2000...
...The prospect of being prosecuted for racism by the federal government and repeatedly denounced by high-ranking officials during a long trial is sufficient to make most companies raise the white flag and open the checkbooks...
...But commission chief Vanessa Ruiz Boling, who conducted the tests, disagrees: "There was no penalty imposed," she said in an interview...
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...Neither would provide his Social Security number or an address, nor did either allow the loan officer to pull his credit reports...
...A doubling of lawsuits was portrayed by the Housing secretary as a doubling of justice...
...Since then the law has mushroomed, and 36 April r999 • The American Spectator after amendments in 1988, far more types of private behavior are verboten...
...We will not tolerate a continued home ownership gap as wide as the Grand Canyon that divides Americans into two societies, separate and unequal," Cuomo has said...
...Attorney General Janet Reno declared, "To shun an entire community because of its racial makeup is just as wrong as to reject an applicant because they [sic] are African American...
...But a 1995 Federal Reserve Board study illustrates that these charges 38 April 1999 - The American Spectator of pervasive lending bias are bogus...
...Clinton gets on national TV and makes us sound like bigots," complains Gallitano...
...It concluded that "white testers were not favored over minority testers in either Phoenix or New York...
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...Company officials were shocked at this scapegoating...
...But as Citizens for a Sound Economy analyst Robert Detlefsen noted last December in National Review, "inner-city homes tend to have substandard heating and wiring components (generally a function of age) and to be located in neighborhoods with much higher than average rates of burglary, vandalism, arson, and building abandonment—all of which are significant risk factors...
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...He added ominously: "This Sioo million verdict tells companies loud and clear that it is now their turn to pay a terrible price if they continue to discriminate...
...The secretary brags that loo pairs of testers sent out by the commission have produced $ro billion in settlements...
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...A HUD official stated that "the dynamic in this case was that we will proceed with a full blown investigation if they do not choose to voluntarily conciliate...
...to: Write-On Productions–PO Box 2145, Seattle WA 98111-2145 endless antics, perennial deceit, and continued bankrolling of public housing projects that have destroyed more neighborhoods than crack and heroin combined, HUD marches on...
...Three pairs went to a Columbia National office...
...Take, for example, the Community Reinvestment Act...
...The first two pairs found no problems, but the third uncovered sufficient discrimination to alert HUD: The white male tester spent an hour with a female loan officer, while the Hispanic male tester spent only 20 minutes with a male loan officer...
...The official settlement from HUD stated the department's grave concern about an alleged difference "in the level of encouragement given to apply for a loan" between the Hispanic and white applicant...
...Thanks to Cuomo's vigilance, any difference in the treatment of testers that does not favor the member of the "protected class" becomes sufficient to accuse companies of violating fair-housing laws...
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...Insofar as people are schooled to believe that government power is inherently just, thus far will people be abused and exploited by the State...
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...Much of their activity amounts to institutionalized entrapment—with a maximum incentive for the testers to vary their conduct sufficiently to generate different responses from lenders...
...testers in Hispanic neighborhoods, 97 percent...
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...Cuomo were not trying his darndest to position himself for vice presidency, he might not be quite as rabid," the corporate official muses...
...Cuomo is championing the idea that racism is the reason why far fewer black families own homes than do white families (45 vs...
...The report concluded that there were no "extenuating circumstances" to justify the interruption, and the subsequent $6.5 billion "settlement" could make this the most expensive bathroom break in history...
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...As usual, most victims of these policies are afraid to complain...
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...While HUD trumpets the agreement as a "settlement" of serious charges, the only payout consisted of a pledge by the company to send $5,000 to the commission to "further fair housing initiatives through education, outreach, and testing...
...It was a no-fault agreement...
...Since Clinton took office, federal handouts to such organizations have almost tripled—reaching $40 million in 1999...
...the resulting disparities supposedly proved racial bias...
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...It wasn't the first time-and it likely won't be the last-but Columbia National's ordeal illustrates this administration's idea of fairness when it comes to faceless, private corporations: wild accusations and record settlements, all to convince voters that the federal government is the sole force preventing America from slipping into moral barbarism...
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...HUD is also using testers to intimidate insurance companies...
...Though largely completed by 1995, HUD suppressed the report...
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...The same type of deceptive, high-handed methods used in the Columbia National case also characterized HUD's settlement with AccuBanc, a Texas-based mortgage lender last year...
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...And the federal government has taken a more aggressive stance on fair housing...
...The firm admitted to no crime, and the Human Relations Commission waived the right to take any further legal, administrative, or investigative action...
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...The Clinton administration is using other methods to forcibly redistribute private capital...
...The entire settlement was a sham...
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...But HUD judged that the difference in the time the loan officers spent with the two applicants was conclusive proof of wrongdoing...
...It's unfortunate that any other light was cast on these agreements...
...Many of these groups are explicit about their goal in maximizing bank payouts...
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...As former Assistant Treasury Secretary Paul Craig Roberts observed, "The Justice Depaihnent is simply trying to establish by consent decree a system of racial quotas in lending regardless of credit risks...
...15.95 each...
...violated the Fair Housing Act by quoting different insurance rates to homeowners in black and white neighborhoods...
...One pair consisted of a white couple with good credit history and a black couple with severe credit problems...
...Columbia National CEO Dave Gallitano noted that such conduct "is very unusual...
...The natural result is that banks routinely make loans or grants to organizations with a left-wing agenda...
...The department bankrolled a case by Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME), a local activist group in Richmond, Virginia, to prove that Nationwide Insurance Co...
...S.A.S.E...
...Does this mean that a realtor or landlord's failure to mention that a nearby deli makes excellent hot pastramis could be a federal civilrights violation...
...At the same time, HUD's Office of Fair Housing prosecutes apartment owners who are guilty of limiting occupancy, claiming that this amounts to discrimination against families with children...
...Cuomo echoed this in November: "Housing discrimination is much more insidious today than it was two to three decades ago...
...The same press release announced a HUD lawsuit against four men accused of burning a cross in Missouri to intimidate a Portuguese immigrant...
...Boling is not the only government employee disenchanted with the political posturing...
...It is important reading...
...They claimed that they just needed to finalize the paperwork," the AccuBank official said...
...The same day, at King's old church in Atlanta, Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo also touted the -JAMES BOVARD HUD is shaking down lenders for billions of dollars in settlements on specious grounds of racial discrimination, all to jus tify government as the last line of defense against moral barbarism...
...and according to federal banking law, regulators are supposed to look at all officially certified minority groups in judging whether a pattern of discrimination exists...
...Never mind that the white male tester waited five minutes to see his loan officer...
...Under mafia control...
...HUD barely polices how fair-housing advocacy groups use their federal grants...
...In an interview a month later, Cuomo mischaracterized the agreement: "Just a few weeks ago, we settled the largest federal suit ever, with a penalty of S2.2 billion" against AccuBanc...
...One wonders if HUD investigators had previously ignored half the violators they detected—or if the standard for criminal conduct was going to be lowered to fulfill the new prosecution quotas...
...Regardless, Cuomo hailed the verdict: "I congratulate HOME for its outstanding work on this case, and I am proud of HUD's involvement as HOME's partner in the fight for housing equality...
...The Justice Depailment warned on May 23, 1996, that merely by filing his suit, the landlord violated a federal law making it "unlawful to coerce, intimidate, or threaten any person" exercising fair-housing rights...
...In the same way that easy credit policies by the Farmers Home Administration (under severe pressure from congressmen to throw money at as many farmers as possible) caused the bankruptcy of thousands of farmers, HUD's obsession with maximizing lending to minorities will eventually blight many people's credit history...
...Columbia National did "commit annually" to make certain levels of loans to minorities during the following five years, but the agreement contains no penalty clause if the company does not meet the lending goals...
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...As Mortgage Banking magazine noted in 1996, after the Chevy Chase settlement, "fair lending laws are to be read as imposing an affirmative obligation to direct marketing efforts to all markets equally, with little or no guidance as to how one is to accomplish that as a practical matter...
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...The Justice Department announced in August 1994 that the Montgomery County, Maryland-based bank was guilty because it did not pursue and bankroll potential black borrowers in neighboring Washington and Prince George's County, Maryland...
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...Ironically, federal agencies had twice denied Chevy Chase permission to expand into black areas, concerned that losses from The American Spectator • April 1999 39 loans to minorities with a higher default rate than whites could result in the bank's financial collapse...
...34 April 1999 - The American Spectator The Columbia National case began in 1996, when the Fort Worth Human Relations Commission received a $1oo,000 grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to send pairs of testers — each pair comprising a white and minority loan "applicant" — to investigate possible fair-housing violations by mortgage companies...
...The Civil Rights Division of the U.S...
...The study found that in Phoenix, "testers in white neighborhoods received quotes 98 percent of the time...
...The Fort Worth Housing Human Relations Commission also sent several pairs of testers to an AccuBanc office...
...The formal agreement made a mockery of Columbia National's supposed wrongdoing...
...www.booklineandthinker.com The American Spectator • April 9 9 9 79...
...Justice condemned Chevy Chase for not opening any branches in census tracts with a majority of black residents...
...Yet according to Columbia National's Gallitano, HUD "equal opportunity conciliator" Gary Lacefield threatened the company, warning that, if the company did not sign the agreement, "the alternative was [for HUD] to come in and audit us to death...
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...Reno accurately called the settlement "unprecedented"—but that was true only because Justice had ignored the law...
...Department of Justice promptly threatened to sue him...
...At a banking meeting last October, Lee warned: "We're the last people you want BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES GOT THE MAVERICK TOUCH...
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...With great fanfare, Cuomo announced the AccuBanc settlement in a press release "commemorating the 3oth anniversary of Dr...
...therefore, there was no formal finding one way or the other...
...If that were true, they said, their study should have found lower default rates—since minorities would presumably be exceptionally qualified given the alleged higher standards...
...HUD's efforts to strong-arm lenders into granting more loans to minorities of questionable creditworthiness guarantees future bumper bankruptcy harvests...
...That's over $150 million per minute...
...And all in the name of correcting "racist" practices that never existed in the first place...
...Yet the $6.5 billion settlement figure left the average listener thinking the government had nabbed some heinous criminal and achieved a great triumph for social justice...
...In California, HUD prosecuted an apartment owner for refusing to rent a two-bedroom apartment to a family of four...
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...A 'Michigan landlord believed himself defamed by a federally funded fair-housing council and threatened to sue...
...Cuomo in one of his television statements...
...HUD bankrolls local governments to detect and punish slumlords deemed to be renting overcrowded housing...
...According to the commission's report, the loan officer who saw the Hispanic male, after shaking his hand, "excused himself to use the restroom...
...Under CRA, in order to get government approval to merge with some other bank or open a new branch—or in some cases, even to set up a new ATM machine —a bank must also get approval from community activist groups...
...Amazingly, HUD still retains some respect with much of the media and American public...
...About two minutes later, he returned from the restroom and the interview began...
...The study examined over 200,000 mortgage loans made in the late 1980's and, according to the Wall Street Journal, found: Blacks defaulted about twice as often as white borrowers....The finding undercuts arguments that lenders often hold minority applicants to higher standards than whites...
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...Harold F. Still, former president of the Pennsylvania Bankers Association, recently wrote: "The threat of action from the so-called community groups...caused all of us to keep our mouths shut...
...Seeking new harvests of violators, HUD plows money into local fair-housing councils and local government agencies that enforce discrimination laws...
...Giving jobs to the top five officials of these communities or shake-down groups is generally high up on the list [of demands...
...The spirit in which the agreements were made was very positive...
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...It is time to recognize that fair housing laws have become largely pretexts to allow politicians to stretch their power and to plunder one industry or target after another...
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...The Columbia National officer did seek to preThe American Spectator April 9 9 9 qualify the Hispanic for a mortgage, providing him with a loan application and his business card...
...Clintonites have also stretched the Fair Housing Act to plunder banks...
...Forms of discrimination include "discouraging the purchase or rental of a dwelling...by exaggerating drawbacks or failing to inform any person of desirable features of a dwelling or of a community, neighborhood, or development...
...The AccuBanc lenders spent an hour with the white couple and zo minutes with the black couple...
...Following a Washington Post series on alleged bias by Washington, D.C.-area banks in 1993, the Clinton administration sicced their hounds on Chevy Chase Bank...
...Phil Gramm (R-Texas), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said in January that CRA was compelling banks to make "kickbacks and bribes" to activist groups—a process which Gramm said "is little more than extortion...
...In cracking down on insurance companies, HUD ignored some of its own data...
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...Therefore, government must become more devious to ferret out violators...
...Top Cuomo adviser William C. Apgar, last year warned: "Fair-housing violations are now very subtle...
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...The Columbia National Mortgage Company will offer-listen to this-$6.5 billion in home mortgages and extra effort to help 78,000 minority and low- and moderate-income families unlock the door to home ownership," the president boasted...
...Bank loans made to fulfill CRA pledges have a default rate six times higher than other bank loans, according to Sen...
...A jury convicted Nationwide and ordered the company to pay Sic° million in damages...
...At a September 3o, 1997 press conference, Cuomo announced, "We will double the number of enforcement actions against [fair-housing violators] in the president's second term...
...Insurance executives believe the study was buried because it did not provide the answer that HUD wanted...
...The trial exposed some of the fraudulent methods of HUD-financed testers, who asked for rate quotes on homes of differing sizes, values, and ages...
...one official commented: "We peons are not in a position to control the mouths of the secretary or the president...
...One high-ranking AccuBanc official observed, "We did not deny credit to the black couple —but there was less we could do for them," considering their bad credit record...
...And $6.5 billion says we're going to enforce the law...
...A HUD official involved in the case, speaking on condition of anonymity, says that "no formal investigation was ever comJAMES BOVARD is the author of the new book Freedom in Chains: The Rise of the State & the Demise of the Citizen, published in February by St...
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...And each settlement sets a precedent for expanded HUD powers...
...There was just one problem...
...Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination and the passage of the Fair Housing Act" on April 3, 1998...
...The Justice Department held a major press conference on August 22, 1994, to announce that Chevy Chase had granted its demands...
...Enacted in 1977, the CRA purportedly prevents banks from taking deposits in one neighborhood and making loans in other neighborhoods...
...We just need to tie up the loose ends by the end of the year,' they said—and we agreed to sign it...
...So, what we really have is a bit of old world Sicily brought into the U.S., but legitimized and given the patina of government support...
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...On January i8, Martin Luther King Day, President Clinton was "pleased to announce" the largest-ever settlement for a home-lending discrimination suit...
...The feds used the same arguments in 1997 to punish Albank Federal Savings Bank for not doing business in minority areas in the Northeast U.S...
...Cornell University professor Jonathan Macey explains how the rules effectively invite this extortion: You see really weird things when you look at the Code of Federal Regulations...like federal regulators are encouraged to leave the room and allowing community groups to negotiate ex parte with bankers in a community reinvestment context...
...The Hispanic, for instance, claimed to have less personal savings than did the white tester...
...The federal fair-housing law was first enacted in 1968 and primarily sought to ban overt prohibitions on blacks' freedom to rent or buy housing...
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...The American Spectator • April 1999 41 HUD/Bovard (Continued from page 4r) the CRA process as "pure blackmail...
...That was all that HUD needed to bring the roof down on the company...
...Yet in this case, Justice chose to count only blacks...
...Nevertheless, White House and HUD press releases on the case implied that the company was being fined $6.5 billion—largely for a 1.o-minute differential in interviews for a single pair of people...
...For more on Cuomo's tactics inside HUD, see page 40...
...Profitably...
...The White House/HUD press release made hay of the fact that Columbia National had made zero loans to blacks or Hispanics in ten states—states where the firm has no offices and does almost no business...
...Rather than exonerate the bank, the Justice Depaitiiient concocted new rules and proclaimed the bank guilty...
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...Some have even sued local papers, magazines, and realtors for not having the correct racial composition in their advertisements...
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...the reconciliation agreement between HUD and the company did not require the company to do anything that it had not already been doing for three years...
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...A federal court in 1996 denounced HUD's action as "reprehensible" and "appalling" since HUD had made "inconsistent and misleading representations to those regulated by the [Fair Housing Act] and, in so doing, had led them down the garden path" to violating HUD's revised interpretation of the law...
...But commenting to the ABA Banking Journal last year, commission chief Boling seemed upset with HUD's grandstanding...
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...It would result in a good sales person spending time with them—being courteous —but they will not spend a huge amount of time because it is not an application yet...
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...This is the kind of statement from a person in his position that could put us out of business...
...The department later admitted that the two testers gave different information...
...Acting civil-rights chief Bill Lann Lee has indicated plans to further expand prosecutions against other lenders...
Vol. 32 • April 1999 • No. 4
