Short Takes

July/August 1996

SHORT TAKES

After the 1996 Summer Olympics, Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell announced the city had reaped millions by hosting the games. Campbell did not say whether that money would help the city's poor and homeless, whose rights he was accused of disregarding in order to present a positive image to the world. During a news conference held to "brag about" city services provided for the Olympics, Campbell was shouted down by activists for the poor and homeless, according to the July 18 Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Activists have criticized Campbell for using police to round up thousands of homeless, allowing security guards to harass residents of poor communities near Olympic sites, diverting money for community development to the Olympics, and destroying over 2,000 homes to build a stadium. The Journal-Constitution reported that activist Margie Wiltz berated Campbell for evicting 2,000 families from public housing, and replacing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's dream with ..."a violent, poverty-stricken nightmare." Campbell reportedly replied, "[She gave] a wonderful speech, if only it had a word of truth to it." After activists began chanting, "From Coca-Cola city to the Olympic Dome, where stadiums stand, there used to be homes," the mayor abandoned the conference.
A coalition of community groups in Massachusetts helped pass precedent-setting legislation requiring extensive insurance data reporting, and providing financial incentives for companies offering policies in underserved neighborhoods. The legislation will require insurance companies to report where they write policies, and their losses and profits. Starting in 1997, for the top 25 insurance companies, the State's Commissioner of Insurance will report the number of policies in each zip code and the number of policies cancelled. The measure is also designed to increase insurance options for minorities and the poor through financial incentives for companies that increase underwriting in neglected neighborhoods. Companies will be rewarded with reduced contributions to the state-sponsored FAIR plan, which offers limited coverage and disproportionately serves the poor and minorities. Members of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance (MAHA), and the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations pushed the legislation. "Neighborhood groups have fought hard to win something that most communities take for granted – easy access to affordable property insurance," said Sonia Alleyne of MAHA. For more information, contact Sonia Alleyne, 617-822-9100, or Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations, 617-523-7002.
On July 29, an estimated 300 to 325 public housing residents and supporters gathered at Senate Park near the U.S. Capitol to voice concerns about the pending federal housing bill and offer alternatives for the future of public housing. Among the called-for policies were: mandatory participation of public housing residents in policy decisions and governance; preservation of the Brooke amendment, which caps public housing rent at 30 percent of income; and requiring resident agreement for demolition or disposition of property. Housing staff of Congressmen Barney Frank, Jerrold Nadler, and Tom Foglietta also addressed the rally, and teams of residents held face-to-face meetings with legislators. Representatives of the National Council of La Raza, ACORN, and the Center for Community Change also attended the rally. Residents and advocates pledged to sustain their fight throughout the Conference Committee negotiations this fall, and to fight for a presidential veto if necessary. For more information, contact Bertha Gilkey, National Tenants Union, 314-436-3527, or Othello Poulard, Center for Community Change, 202-342-0519.
A recent Government Accounting Office report on the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) concluded that privatization could reduce the risk to taxpayers, yet increase the cost of operations and cause mortgage rates to rise. With $1.4 trillion in obligations at the end of 1995, Fannie and Freddie have been subject to growing scrutiny over their potential risk to taxpayers and their continued need for government-sponsored status. The GAO studied possible effects of eliminating federal sponsorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and allowing them to operate as fully private corporations. The report assesses the potential affects of privatization on the enterprises themselves; residential mortgage markets in general; housing finance and homeownership; and housing affordability for low and moderate-income residents of underserved areas. The GAO also identifies and discusses other policies Congress may want to consider to limit the enterprises' potential risk to taxpayers or increase their social benefits. A copy of the report, GAO/GGD-96-120, can be obtained from the U.S. GAO, P.O. Box 6015, Gaithersburg, MD 20884-6015; by calling 202-512-6000, faxing to 301-258-4066, or by TDD, 301-413-0006.
HUD Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research Michael Stegman announced in July the availability of a database with information on almost 10,000 housing projects and more than 330,000 units developed through the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC). The database represents almost all available data on LIHTC properties in service from 1990 through 1994, HUD reported. Stegman said the decentralized nature of the tax credit program has made it difficult to obtain comprehensive data on housing developed through this program. Among the figures available from the database are: the average number of tax credit projects (1,300) and the number of units such projects place in service annually (56,000); the average project size each year (45 units in 1994); the percent of units produced by nonprofits through this program each year (27 percent in 1994); and the geographic location of such projects. The database is available on HUD's world wide web page, www.huduser.org/datasets/lihtc.html.

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