| This Is A Member-Only Page This page provides a brief chronology and summary of the federal government's interest in housing. We also have a page on the History of the Federal Government in Low-Income Housing. More detail on government housing programs is available on relevant pages throughout the RHOL site.
Federal Home Loan Bank System. Created 12 regional banks in 1932, supervised by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. Provides short-term credit to savings and loans Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC). Created 1933. Refinanced residential mortgages in areas of economic distress. Gave borrowers more time to pay off loans. Housing Act of 1934. Created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), to insure private mortgage loans on residential property and, by thus protecting lenders against loss, encourages the use of long-term mortgages with high loan-to-value ratios. Housing Act of 1937. Created the United States Housing Authority (renamed the Federal Public Housing Administration in 1942, then Public Housing Administration in 1947). Subsidizes building of low-rent public housing by local authorities. Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA, or "Fannie May"). Created 1938 (became a private organization in 1968). Provides a secondary market for FHA and VA mortgage loans by standing ready to purchase loans from financial institutions. Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (the GI "Bill of Rights"). Established the V A loan program guaranteeing home mortgage loans extended to veterans. Farmers Home Administration. Created 1946. Makes loans and grants for construction and repair of farm homes and assists rural self-help housing groups. Housing Act of 1949. Created the Urban Redevelopment Agency and gave it the authority to subsidize three fourths of the cost of local slum clearance and urban renewal. Under the act, "primarily residential" and "blighted" urban areas could be condemned, cleared of buildings, and sold for private redevelopment. Housing Act of 1954. Modified urban redevelopment and renewal by requiring communities engaged in such activities to adopt code enforcement, relocation, and other measures that would prevent the further spread of urban blight. Established new FHA mortgage insurance programs to help relocate slum residents and to encourage new housing construction in urban renewal areas. Housing Act of 1964. Liberalized FHA procedures to speed the processing of FHA-insured mortgages. Set up a low-interest housing-rehabilitation loan program. Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965. Established the Cabinet-level Department of Housing and Urban Development HUD was formed from the Housing and Home Finance Agency (HHFA) and incorporated the Federal Housing Administration, the Federal National Mortgage Association, the Public Housing Administration, Urban Renewal Administration, and the Community Facilities Administration. Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Development Act of 1966. Created the Model Cities Program authorizing grants to plan the coordination of health, education, welfare, housing, and employment programs for revitalizing selected districts in urban areas. Provided financial incentives for coordinated metro area planning for open spaces, water supply, sewage disposal, and mass transit. Established a loan guarantee program to encourage the development of "new communities." Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968. Created the Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA, or "Ginny May") taking over certain FHA mortgage functions from the FNMA. Established new housing subsidy programs reducing the cost of loans, liberalized FHA loan programs, extended guarantees and grants to developers, and liberalized grants for public housing and for housing rehabilitation. Housing and Urban Development Act of 1970. Authorized greater outlays for housing subsidy programs and rent supplements to moderate-income households. Created a Community Development Corporation to encourage the formation of "new towns" by guaranteeing bonds used to finance land acquisition and development. Emergency Home Finance Act of 1970. Authorized the Home Loan Bank System to reduce interest rates on home mortgages by means of a federal subsidy. Established mechanisms for a secondary market in conventional mortgages. Created a special interest subsidy program for low- and moderate-income housing. Community Reinvestment Act of 1977. The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) is a federal law requiring banks to use affirmative action in lending to "help meet the credit needs of their entire community, including low-and moderate-income neighborhoods." Banks that fail to do so can be denied permission by federal regulators to buy other banks, engage in interstate banking, and open or close branches. CRA does not direct banks to make specific loans. Instead, it gives them a broad, affirmative obligation to serve the needs of the community in which they're located. It's up to the bank to figure out how it can best do this. We further explain the Act, and its impact in our CRA pages. Housing the Older Persons Act of 1995. H.R. 660 The Fair Housing Act Amendments of 1988 made it unlawful to discriminate in any type of real estate transaction against persons based on familial status or handicap. In 1994, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) proposed a rule which would determine whether or not a project occupied by senior citizens would be exempt from the law. The proposal was met with negative responses from many elderly advocacy groups prompting congressional response. This bill modifies the requirements for exemption from the proposed rule and protects real estate agents of such housing from monetary retribution where compliance is attempted in good faith. The Homesteading and Neighborhood Restoration Act of 1995. H.R. 1691 Under the Act HUD would be authorized to provide grants to organizations that help facilitate the development of self-help home ownership opportunities. The Agriculture Department's Section 515 rural rental housing program would be reformed and extended through fiscal year 1996. A new rural housing loan guarantee program would be created.
Equal Credit Opportunity Acts Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA): applies to any person or company that regularly extends, renews or continues credit. Denials for reasons of credit must be sent to the applicant within 30 (now 60) days of denial. The credit reporting agency that provided negative information must be named with an address and phone number for the applicant. This denial, along with other information, is submitted to the government for monitoring possible discrimination. On September 30, 1996, the President signed the Consumer Credit Reform Act (Amendments), amending the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) as part of the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act of Fiscal Year 1997 (P.L. 104-208). FCRA, which is intended to protect the privacy of consumers and requires that credit bureaus and other credit reporting agencies ensure that consumer credit reports (CCRs) are accurate. The Amendments impose new requirements on all users of CCRs, including owners and managers of rental housing. Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA): requires lenders to report data to the government contained in all mortgage applications whether approved or denied. It must provide information regarding the sales price and property location, as well as the race, sex and income of potential purchasers. The Act is used to track discrimination and possible redlining. |