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Page 2 The Skanner March 14, 2018 ® Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now Bernie Foster Founder/Publisher Opinion Access to Safe, Decent and Affordable Housing Threatened I Bobbie Dore Foster Executive Editor Jerry Foster Advertising Manager Christen McCurdy News Editor Patricia Irvin Graphic Designer Monica J. Foster Seattle Office Coordinator Susan Fried Photographer 2017 MERIT AWARD WINNER The Skanner Newspaper, es- tablished in October 1975, is a weekly publication, published every Wednesday by IMM Publi- cations Inc. 415 N. Killingsworth St. P.O. Box 5455 Portland, OR 97228 Telephone (503) 285-5555 Fax: (503) 285-2900 info@theskanner.com www.TheSkanner.com The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Association and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. n recent weeks, threats to the nation’s housing finance system have emerged. At the center of the controver- sy are two key issues: the obli- gation of mortgage lenders to ensure broad mortgage credit for all credit-worthy borrow- ers, and secondly, whether the nation will enforce its own laws banning unlawful discrimination. On Feb. 2, a leaked Senate proposal to overhaul the sec- ondary mortgage market’s government-sponsored en- terprises (GSEs), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, would drop important access and afford- ability provisions that now govern the system. For example, the GSEs now are required to always serve all markets, as well as have in place affordable housing goals. The proposal from U.S. Sen- ators Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) was quickly and unanimously rejected by a broad coalition of civil rights and housing advocates that included: the Lawyers’ Committee for Civ- il Rights Under Law, Lead- ership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, NAACP, UnidosUS (formerly the Na- tional Council of La Raza), National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development, National Fair Housing Alliance, National Community Reinvestment Coalition, National Urban League, and the Center for Re- sponsible Lending (CRL). “Ten years after the 2008 housing crisis, it is disheart- ening to turn the secondary Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist mortgage market back over to Wall Street,” wrote the co- alition. “Who can forget the 7.8 million completed home foreclosures and trillions of dollars in lost family wealth?” “Many Americans still face immense housing challeng- es,” the leaders continued. “ This draft isn’t even close to a solution that works for families who hope to buy homes “This ill-conceived approach places the risk on the backs of hardworking families, who al- ready rescued the big banks.” The draft legislation also fell short for Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, a member of the Senate Com- mittee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. “I appreciate the dedication Senators Warner and Corker have shown to address this critical issue, but this draft isn’t even close to a solution that works for families who hope to buy homes, said War- ren. “This bill would end up creating more problems than it solves.” As early as 2008, Congress moved swiftly to enact the Housing and Economic Recov- ery Act. This bipartisan legis- lation provided strong regula- tory oversight of the housing finance system and brought forward important affordable housing goals to ensure that hard-working families would be able to access mortgage loans. But with the housing market’s lengthy path to re- covery, many have renewed calls for legislative reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And just as the GSEs are now pledged to serve the entire market, some want to take away the system’s access and affordability requirements. That kind of change would harm Black families and com- munities, as well as other low- wealth families. “The big ticket items that we are looking for is the national duty-to-serve and affordable housing goals that have a reg- ulator able to enforce those,” said Scott Astrada, CRL’s Di- rector of Federal Advocacy. Days later, on February 5, Mick Mulvaney, the White House hand-picked Acting Director for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced he would move the Bureau’s staff for its Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity (OFLEO) directly under his control. The Dodd-Frank Act man- dates that OFLEO perform “oversight and enforcement of federal laws to ensure the fair, equitable, and nondis- criminatory access to credit.” By moving fair lending ex- perts to the CFPB’s Director’s office, to focus instead on consumer education and co- ordination, there are real con- cerns that the OFLEO will be unable to perform its enforce- ment and oversight mission. “This action could open up the floodgates on lending discrimination, which would damage the ability for people of color to build wealth,” not- ed Debbie Goldstein, CRL’s Ex- ecutive Vice President. “One of the reasons the CFPB was established was because lend- ing discrimination targeted people of color with predato- ry, high-cost loans that led to foreclosures.” Mulvaney’s personnel shift is yet another consistent sign that the nation’s financial cop- on-the-beat is walking a new patrol. Since assuming “unlaw- ful” leadership at CFPB, Mulvaney has also dropped a lawsuit against predatory payday lenders, supported repeal of the Bureau’s auto lending guidance that took direct aim at pervasive and discriminatory practices. He has also made clear his plans to reopen rulemaking under the Home Mortgage Disclo- sure Act (HMDA). HMDA is a federal law that requires most financial insti- tutions to provide mortgage data to the public. It ensures that mortgage lenders are serving the credit needs of communities in which they are located. Read the rest of this commentary at TheSkanner.com ©2018 The Skanner. All rights re served. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission prohibited. What I Miss about Handwritten Letters I Local News Pacific NW News World News Opinions Jobs, Bids Entertainment Community Calendar LOCAL NEWS BRIEFS F ebo m me • nts TheSkannerNews o k • learn • co in y o u r c o m m u n y d ay ! • L i ke u s o n • to ac it Updated daily. have found myself increas- ingly wondering whether social media, particularly Twitter and Facebook, con- stitutes a vehicle for civil dia- logue. The number of attacks that I have either witnessed or experienced has been as- tounding. It has gotten to the point that I rarely respond to comments on either Twitter or Facebook, unless I have concluded that the original writer/author was interested in a response. The situation has gotten way out of control. The in- sults that are thrown around; the demeaning language; the condescension; I could go on and on. About a year ago, I awak- ened to a Twitter storm at- tacking me for my support of the Palestinian people. It was not just one tweet; it was one tweet after another, accusing me of being everything but a child of God. There seemed to be no way to stop it. Just recently, a good friend of mine came under a vicious Bill Fletcher Jr. The Global African Twitter attack by someone whose sanity I have been forced to question. My friend could not figure out a way to stop it, so it continued until the attacker ran out of steam. Social media makes it easy to be obnoxious. Among oth- er things, there are few, if any, penalties. In the old days, if you read something with which you were in disagree- ment in the paper; magazine; or even saw something on television, you would write a letter to the editor. To write such a letter you had to do some thinking prior to com- posing it. You then had to mail the letter. This entire process gave you at least a moment to contemplate your reaction and whether it was worth re- sponding to something and, if so, how to respond. In today’s social media world, filters seemed to be re- served for photos and videos. When it comes to dialogue, people read something on- line and react. You can react immediately by sending an email, tweeting, posting on Facebook, or Instagram, etc. You don’t have to really stop “ Social media makes it easy to be obnoxious, because there are few, if any, penalties and think. You just hit “Send.” And if you are really angry and want to be nasty, there are no penalties. You can, in effect, curse someone out, because what are they going to do? You can literally say whatever you want to anyone and the worst that they can do is “block” you from future exchanges. But that need not stop you, because you can post around them or even cre- ate another account and con- tinue the verbal onslaught. The result is that, rather than a medium for rational exchanges and debates, social media is more about “troll- ing” or making assertions. In a Facebook, exchange I had with someone a few months ago, after I refuted their argu- ment they simply dismissed me by saying: Well, that’s what I believe and I have a right to believe what I believe. Really? So, when it comes to social media, should we really just say to hell with the facts? Each day, when I turn to so- cial media I feel that I must dress in psychological battle armor, preparing for yet one more poison dart to come fly- ing. Bill Fletcher, Jr. is a talk show host, writer and activist. Follow him on Twitter @BillFletcher- Jr, Facebook and at www.billf- letcherjr.com. nt • lo c a l n e w s • eve