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Senate Lawmakers Seek to Gut Fair Housing
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SPECIAL ISSUE:
FAIR HOUSING
April 18
to
y •
Opinion
n just a few weeks, civil
rights and housing advo-
cates will commemorate
the 50th anniversary of
the Fair Housing Act. Just six
days after the assassination of
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Congress passed the law on
April 10, 1968.
On the following day, Presi-
dent Lyndon Baines Johnson’s
signature made it unlawful to
discriminate in housing sales,
rentals and finance. Although
race, color, religion and na-
tional origin were the origi-
nal protected classes, in later
years, the Fair Housing Act
was amended to include gen-
der, people with disabilities
and families with children.
With each revision, business-
es such as banks, and other
lenders, realtors, landlords,
insurance companies — even
governments that previously
used zoning and restrictive
covenants to deny housing
access — were all obliged to
adhere to new standards of
inclusion.
Fast-forward 50 years, and
much of Black America and
other communities of color
still find that the promise of
fair lending remains just that.
Our collective experiences as
a people provide painful re-
minders of how full and equal
access to credit — particular-
ly in mortgage lending — re-
mains an unfulfilled promise.
Charlene
Crowell
NNPA
Columnist
These long-standing con-
cerns have somehow failed
to be included in a new draft
legislative proposal on Capi-
tol Hill. In the name of hous-
ing finance reform, a working
proposed bill by Senators
Bob Corker of Tennessee and
Mark Warner of Virginia
“
be eliminated and fair lending
requirements could be weak-
ened. We’re talking trillions
of dollars being affected by
such a so-called reform with-
out any assurance that fair
housing promises made half
a century ago will remain. At
the end of 2016, the GSEs—
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac,
along with Ginnie Mae, the
Government National Mort-
gage Association (GNMA),
together held $16.7 trillion in
mortgages on the nation’s sec-
ondary market.
It’s the kind of policy de-
velopment that usually fails
It’s the kind of policy development
that usually fails to attract major
headlines but affects literally mil-
lions of unsuspecting potential
homeowners
would eliminate the current
requirement of a “duty-to-
serve” all markets, particu-
larly those like communities
of color and rural areas. In-
stead, the promise of inclu-
sion would be replaced with
the vague business judgment
of a so-called “guarantors’ de-
cision.”
If the Corker-Warner hous-
ing reform plan is signed into
law, government-sponsored
enterprises (GSEs), Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac, would
to attract major headlines
but affects literally millions
of unsuspecting potential
homeowners across the coun-
try. Once mortgage appli-
cants are approved for loans,
the bulk of them are sold to
the secondary market, most
often to Fannie Mae or Fred-
die Mac. Their sale enables
the original lender to free up
capital to make more loans to
consumers.
Fortunately, the National
Urban League and the Cen-
ter for Responsible Lending
joined forces to oppose this
proposal before it can pick up
more lawmaker support.
A report co-authored by the
Center for Responsible Lend-
ing (CRL) and National Urban
League critiques this Senate
proposal and criticizes re-
cently published papers sup-
porting it. The report titled
“Senate GSE Reform Propos-
al: A Blow to Affordable Hous-
ing and Harmful to the Over-
all Housing Market,” calls
for a system that supports
opportunity for current and
future generations to achieve
homeownership. It also crit-
icizes the current legislative
proposal as reserving home-
ownership only for those who
are financially well off.
“Although much of the hous-
ing market has recovered in
recent years, many Ameri-
cans have either not benefit-
ed or have even lost ground,”
said National Urban League
President Marc Morial. “Mil-
lennials and people of color
deserve the opportunity to
pursue their own American
Dreams. And existing home-
owners, especially older
Americans need buyers when
they are ready to downsize or
retire. The financial glue con-
necting these generations is
affordable mortgage credit.”
Read the rest of this commentary at
TheSkanner.com
Black Women Need Better Access to Reproductive Healthcare
I
’ve been a practicing OB/
GYN for nearly 15 years,
long enough to see pa-
tient after patient struggle
through the web of systemic
barriers that make access-
ing healthcare needlessly
difficult. At my practice in
Baltimore, in a state that is a
national trailblazer in pro-
viding comprehensive and af-
fordable reproductive health-
care, I still hear every day
from women who struggle
to get the care they need. My
patients have told me stories
about having to take three
buses to get to an appoint-
ment, only to be turned away,
if they are late. Some patients
don’t have the right type of in-
surance coverage or have no
insurance, pushing needed
health services or medication
financially out of reach. Oth-
ers can’t take time off work
or afford transportation or
childcare in order to go to
their doctor.
Reproductive
healthcare
is not a luxury, and for Black
women specifically, being
in full control of our repro-
ductive decisions can quite
literally be a matter of life
and death. Data from the
CDC show Black women are
three to four times more like-
ly to die during childbirth
than White women. These
statistics remain consistent
even when adjusting for
Dr. Raegan
McDonald-
Mosley
Planned
Parenthood
of Maryland
factors like age, education,
and economic status. There
is a growing consensus that
the stress of prejudice and
racism endured by Black
women increases the likeli-
“
of implicit and explicit racism
when interacting with the
medical system, lack of quali-
ty information about effective
family planning methods, and
inability to access or afford
reproductive healthcare.
What I see in these statistics
— and what I hear from my
patients — is that the current
systems for providing birth
control are not meeting Black
women’s needs. We need to
think bigger about how to
overcome these barriers and
What I hear from my patients is
that the current systems for pro-
viding birth control are not meet-
ing Black women’s needs
hood of preterm birth and
other health consequences.
Racial and ethnic dispari-
ties in unintended pregnan-
cy also persist. Black women
are significantly more likely
to have an unintended preg-
nancy when compared to all
women of reproductive age,
and the percentage of people
who decide to end an unin-
tended pregnancy, instead of
give birth, is highest among
Black women. Black women at
risk of unintended pregnancy
are also less likely to use any
method of contraception, par-
ticularly young Black women.
Researchers propose these
disparities are a consequence
provide convenient contra-
ceptive options directly in
people’s communities. From
birth control delivery apps,
to pharmacist prescribing
programs, healthcare inno-
vators are bringing us clos-
er to a world where the tools
to prevent pregnancy are at
your fingertips. In my view,
an over-the-counter birth
control pill is the obvious
next step and would be a game
changer for giving people the
option of getting safe birth
control when and where they
want it.
Women’s health providers
are working in tandem with
researchers to hone best
practices for providing birth
control pills—for example,
no longer are blood pressure
checks or pap smears re-
quired prior to prescribing
the pill for healthy patients.
People are already empow-
ered to provide self-care with
over-the-counter
medica-
tions, and there is no reason
a birth control pill should be
different. Studies show that
individuals themselves can
determine whether birth con-
trol pills are right for them
and if there are any health
conditions that might make
taking birth control pills less
safe or less effective.
While having a yearly
genecology exam is import-
ant for other health reasons, it
is not necessary to start birth
control pills. Yet, I’m not con-
cerned about my patients dis-
appearing. In a recent survey,
the vast majority of women
interested in taking an over-
the-counter birth control pill
reported they would continue
to visit their healthcare pro-
vider to obtain gynecological
screenings, like pap smears.
We don’t have to hold patients
hostage to their prescriptions
for birth control pills in order
to get them into the office for
other services. We need to
work to make all reproduc-
tive healthcare more acces-
sible for people where and
when they need it.
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