To the AFGE Bargaining Unit:
AFGE Local 476 supported the nomination of Shaun Donovan as the new HUD Secretary soon after then President-Elect Obama selected Mr. Donovan. Prior to the confirmation hearing, we submitted a statement to the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee that reads in part:
“AFGE Local 476 at HUD, the largest (in terms of membership) Federal employee local in the DC area, supports the confirmation of Shaun Donovan. Shaun was a popular manager at HUD and has served New York City well.
We hope for a foreclosure stimulus that has much greater impact. We assume much greater focus on rental housing. We expect better fair housing enforcement, enhanced community development assistance, and accelerated responses to natural disasters.”
I saw our Secretary today. He was rushing over to the White House to attend a meeting on the stimulus package (we are players again). He said that he plans to greet employees in the headquarters’ building on Monday.
AFGE Local 476 has made a few proposals that we think can be implemented immediately. We want all pending reorganizations, including that planned for FHEO, be placed on hold. We will also ask that any proposals to cube units (such as PD+R and FHEO) be reconsidered and that any cube furniture already purchased be installed in those areas which have the oldest and most dysfunctional cubes. We also would like a change in entry procedures for HUD employees; once our id’s are read, we can enter without magnetometer and briefcase scrutiny.
Our local has always been committed to the mission of HUD. We have been stymied for too long. We have been blessed with a President and a Secretary who are ready to unleash us to do the people’s work.
In solidarity,
Eddie Eitches,
President, AFGE Local 476
To the entire AFGE Bargaining Unit
As President of AFGE Local 476, I have always emphasized that we must not only improve the working conditions of HUD employees but further the mission of HUD. I have always emphasized that we must further the mission of HUD.
A few months ago, I called Rainbow Push, Reverend Jesse Jackson’s organization, and recommended that Reverend Jackson come to HUD and talk about the housing crisis. Reverend Jackson had already planned to go to Wall Street; shouldn’t he take his struggle to HUD?
HUD needs to take the lead to address this crisis, not simply be at the table with the Treasury secretary or talk to the Federal Reserve Board Chair. After all, “HUD mission is to increase homeownership, support community development and increase access to affordable housing free from discrimination.”
As to HUD Security’s closing doors, I think this policy is wrong. We should be open to the public. We have as security at HQ that costs the taxpayers $6 million a year, money that I think could be better spent helping, not keeping out, those we serve.
HUD should press for a moratorium on home foreclosures, and comprehensive federal intervention to restructure loans, and not foreclose and repossess homes. We proudly celebrated the 40th anniversary of the passage of the Fair Housing Act yet we know that we need stronger legislation to confront discriminatory, predatory lenders at the federal, state and local levels.
Dr. King called for civil equality – or in today’s language, Equanomics – measurable, quantifiable racial and economic equality to confront institutional discrimination and structural inequality. We demand justice for the victims of this massive financial scam. We must bailout the individuals and homeowners who were exploited, not just the corporate giants who did the exploiting.
In 2005 and 2006, over 50% of all loans made to African-Americans and over 40% to Latinos were subprime compared to only 19% for white borrowers. African-American and Latino borrowers were victims of steering. A Wall Street Journal analysis says that 55% of subprime loans went to borrowers with good credit, and data from a study by First American Loan Performance, a San Francisco research firm, says the proportion rose even higher by the end of 2006, to 61%.
The effects are devastating. Secretary Jackson was proud of the increase in home ownership among African Americans. Well now, the homeownership rate for African-Americans is dropping. Foreclosures will increase by at least 1.4 million in 2008; these homes represent a market value of $316 billion.
What is HUD’s response? The FHASecure plan through which “an estimated 240,000 families can avoid foreclosure by refinancing their mortgages.” Foreclosures will increase by at least 1.4 million in 2008 and HUD is offering assistance to 240,000 homeowners. This is an unacceptable response.
Past presidents have used agencies like the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the Reconstruction Trust Corporation to deal with massive economic issues facing the country. Mortgages were underwritten, infrastructure financed, loans made, farmers aided--we even bailed out the S&L’s. Now it’s time to provide a lifeline to American’s homeowners and working families. Predatory lending stymies families’ attempts at wealth building, ruins people’s lives and, given the disproportionate number of minority homeowners who are targeted by predatory lenders, decimates whole communities.
HUD is in a position to facilitate a plan. HUD must take leadership in putting forward a plan that will allow the restructuring of mortgages for all borrowers who are at risk of foreclosure. Not just some, all. And HUD must also address the plight of those who have already been forced into foreclosure.
In solidarity,
Eddie