Opening doors to homeownership: Fannie Mae foundation relies on education, outreach to help minority, low-income families become homeowners - Stacey Davis Stewart - Interview - Cover Story

Black Issues in Higher Education, Dec 19, 2002

When you think about the issues around welfare reform, the numbers of families, women in particular, who are coming off welfare and trying to get into the work force for the first time, starting off in lower paid wage jobs, you can see how a lot of families are really feeling the squeeze.

BI: Some analysts predict the federal government is going to make a renewed commitment to the cause of affordable housing. What policies do you think could have the greatest impact?

SDS: I think it would be inaccurate, or overly optimistic, to assume the affordable housing crisis can or will be taken up by the federal government. I think the trend over the past several decades has been for the federal government to pull back from housing. And frankly given the current situation that we're finding ourselves in with respect to issues around terrorism, homeland security and defense, I don't see housing and a number of other issues really being at the top of the priorities for the country at least for some time.

Nor do I believe that the federal government should take up the entire responsibility for providing affordable housing to people in this country. I think there's a huge role for the private sector to play in it. There will continue to be a role for the nonprofit sector and the philanthropic sector. I don't think it's fair for any one sector to take the burden on all by themselves.

When it comes to policy and other kinds of policy tools that may have the greatest impact on the expansion of affordable housing, I would go back to one of the most successful programs that I think this country has ever really had, producing thousands of units of multi-family housing, which is the low-income housing tax credit. I think that is an incredibly successful example of how a government policy can actually provide incentives to the private sector to invest in affordable housing that has been primarily done on the multi-family side.

But there is a proposal that the Bush administration supports that was also a part of the Millennial Housing Commission report that suggests putting in place a homeownership tax credit. This would operate in sort of the same way giving incentive to private developers to actually create more housing for people to own. I think that could be a really effective policy that could produce many thousands of new units of housing for many low-income families.

It's very difficult to find a silver bullet to this issue. But the (homeownership tax credit) is something that can be done at the federal level. State and local governments can take on their own efforts. There is a whole menu of different things from zoning changes to regulatory (measures). Other types of programs, such as downpayment assistance, can really produce more housing opportunities as well. But certainly, the federal level as well as state and local levels all have to be coordinated and have to be focused on this at the same time.

Stacey Davis Stewart

TITLE: Chief Executive Officer and President Fannie Mae Foundation