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ยป VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 87 program promised in 2015; such policy fixes were to have permitted widows and widowers to live out their remaining years at home. Informa- tion obtained by CRC from a FOIA request to HUD shows that an alarming number of seniors have had their homes foreclosed upon after the death of the spouse, even though few nonborrower spouses know to apply for such assistance, while others are denied for question- able reasons. Industry and consumer groups must work together to improve the HECM program so that seniors do not lose their homes. Recent comments by the FHA Commissioner are encouraging. During a recent media event, FHA Commissioner Brian Montgomery said that reforming the reverse mortgage program was one of his initial priorities he is focusing on. Eschewing FHA lending, banks are increas- ingly relying on jumbo loans (which are targeted towards higher-wealth customers). Government- sponsored enterprise (GSE) loans are also skew- ing towards higher-credit-score borrowers, and the high fees associated with these loans means less access to credit for working families. e GSEs report an increasing share of loans meeting their affordable housing goals are made to upper-income borrowers who are moving into lower-income neighborhoods. is hastens displacement of working families and families of color who should be benefitting from public policy efforts to make real the American dream of homeownership. Affordable housing goals are a critical com- ponent of our housing finance system, and they must be strengthened and targeted to ensure that working families can build wealth and communities can stabilize. DRIVING INEQUITY REO-to-rental has enabled Wall Street and other investors to profit off the misfortune of working families. Millions lost their homes due to problematic lending and servicing practices during the foreclosure crisis. Wall Street, insti- tutional, and all-cash REO-to-rental investors then swept in, outmaneuvering first-time home- buyers and mission-driven nonprofits. ese new landlords displaced former homeowners and other tenants and ripped apart the fabric of communities. e GSEs and banks should not finance or securitize REO-to-rental deals and should instead focus on first-time homebuyers and other owner occupants who live in their homes and communities. In Oakland, First Republic Bank originated several hundred loans to an REO investor who filed hundreds of tenant-eviction petitions with the local rent board. e bank's lending records showed that it was making single-family loans in neighborhoods of color. Was this helping the community? Other banks may offer few mortgages at all, lend only as an accommoda- tion to existing high-wealth customers, or lend to limited liability companies. Is this what the Community Reinvestment Act and the Fair Housing Act are really all about? Data show lending disparities exist widely, enabled by problematic policies and practices. In 2016, CRC found that OneWest Bank failed to serve communities of color in Southern California with mortgages and branches; this institution was nine times as likely to foreclose on a home in communities of color in California as to originate a home purchase or refinance loan in these communities. Sixty-eight percent of California foreclosures by this financial institu- tion occurred in such neighborhoods. While working families are kept out of the mortgage market, Mark Zuckerberg reportedly received a 1.05 percent rate on his mortgage. How many working families could qualify for a mortgage if they were offered below-market rates? At the CRC, we have grown concerned about the financing of displacement and its impact on communities. In Redwood City, California, 20 tenant households in two apart- ment buildings were greeted in November of 2017 with a letter informing them that a new owner had purchased their building and that rents would be raised by over $800 in the next two months. When the tenants formed an as- sociation, obtained legal counsel, and engaged the owner about the rent increase, they were told that the owner had to raise the rents due to the loan agreement with First Republic Bank. An Eschewing FHA lending, banks are increasingly relying on jumbo loans (which are targeted towards higher- wealth customers). Government- sponsored enterprise (GSE) mortgage loans are also skewing towards higher- credit-score borrowers, and the high fees associated with these loans means less access to credit for working families.