2010 MN State Legislative Wrap-up
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Twin Cities Habitat legislative agenda for 2010 was focused on Helping Neighborhoods & Families Recover from Foreclosure. We pursued a combination of funding and policy items that would remove barriers and increase support for communities hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis.
We had success with the following:
Funding: While state funding to MN Housing was cut, the program used by 20 out of 33 Habitat affiliates in the state was not. Known as the Challenge Fund, the resources are used to build new energy efficient homes and rehab foreclosed houses.
Policy: State Legislators allowed Habitat affiliates, government agencies and foreclosure prevention counselors to be exempt from new regulations around originating and negotiating mortgages, if HUD allows states to create this exemption. In doing so, State Legislators created an opportunity for nonprofits to avoid a huge barrier to our work to recover from the foreclosure crisis.
Unsuccessful, but had a good showing:
Funding: The bill to capture the growth in the deed and mortgage tax revenue as a resource for affordable housing successfully passed two key committees. However, the bill stalled once the Supreme Court ruled that Governor Pawlenty’s 2009 unallotments were an overreach of Executive Powers.
Policy: Our efforts to streamline the pre-foreclosure notification process also stalled in committee. We attempted to make the transfer of information between a homeowner, a lender or servicer, and a foreclosure prevention counselor more efficient. However, work needs to be done with additional stakeholders over the summer to work out the details. We hope to be back next session with a resolution that works for all parties.
Kristin Beckmann, Government and Community Relations Director
Senator Franken becomes Co-Sponsor of the Nonprofit Mortgage Licensing Clarification Act of 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
More good news for Habitat for Humanity affiliates and our partners. Senator Franken will cosponsor S.3106, the Nonprofit Mortgage Licensing Clarification Act of 2010. This directs HUD to allow states to exempt nonprofit housing organizations from the regulations of the S.A.F.E. Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008. We are very grateful for Senator Franken's support of our work.
The bill clarifies that the SAFE Act is only meant to apply to individuals working with mortgages, “for compensation or gain.” Habitat has a unique mission and does not seek to gain from its partner family homeowners. It does not make sense to require Habitat to satisfy requirements that are focused on profit-making enterprises. Directing HUD to allow Minnesota to exempt Habitat affiliates enables us to avoid costly and burdensome regulations.
What Habitat affiliates do:
• Habitat affiliates make no-profit mortgages, and carefully screen and provide education to all partner families.
• Habitat affiliates do not include any fees that accrue to the affiliate in its no-profit mortgages, except for those fees necessary to service the mortgages.
• Even through the current housing crisis, Habitat’s focus on true affordability and homeowner education has allowed our ministry to maintain an extremely low foreclosure rate (around 2 percent).
We are hopeful that the legislation encourages HUD to make clear that Habitat affiliates do not need to comply with the SAFE Act regulations before July 31st so Habitat affiliates can avoid meeting expensive compliance standards this summer.
Senator Franken joins Senator Klobuchar who became a cosponsor in April. Congressmen Walz, Kline, Paulsen and Ellison and Congresswoman McCollum are cosponsoring the House version of the bill H.R.4400. We are grateful to the MN Congressional delegation for recognizing the good work we do and helping remove barriers to our efforts to recover from the foreclosure crisis.
Trista Matascastillo, Community Relations Sr. Associate
matt haugen
