About Save the American Dream
Save the American Dream (StAD) is a national campaign to stop the displacement of families, halt gentrification in communities, and to end racial discrimination in the housing and lending industries. The campaign calls for critical solutions to address the current foreclosure crisis, and also calls for the development of sound and sustainable housing and economic practices and policies. The National Training and Information Center (NTIC) is working with more than 40 community organizations to fight corporate greed and the destruction of our communities.
Communities are devastated by the foreclosure crisis, especially those communities already suffering from the economic downturn. Some 1.2 million foreclosures were reported nationwide last year, up 42 percent from 2005, according to Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac.
NTIC and our community partners have been beating the subprime warning drum for nearly a decade. Our late co-founder, Gale Cincotta, began warning Congress in the late 90s that the design of subprime loans set people up to fail. The financial industry and the U.S. government allowed the explosion of risky loan products despite our warnings.
Only recently when foreclosures began to impact Wall Street and middle- and upper-income neighborhoods did the media and policy-makers begin to take notice. There is plenty of blame to go around from lenders, brokers, Wall Street investors, regulators and members of Congress. “Everyone’s fingerprints are on the gun.”
We are calling for:
- IMMEDIATE RELIEF TO KEEP FAMILIES IN THEIR HOMES
- The Mortgage industry must modify loans to be permanently affordable and be willing to lower principal and halt interest rates hikes;
- The Federal Reserve must do everything in their power to exercise their regulatory authority to force lenders to modify loans;
- Loan servicers must use their greatest flexibility to modify these loans.
- STOP ABUSIVE LENDING PRACTICES Congress and the President must:
- Enact comprehensive homeowner protections that do not preempt state and local laws;
- Hold brokers and lenders accountable for knowingly engaging in abusive lending practices;
- Regulate and license mortgage brokers;
- Require all mortgage lending institutions to seriously address foreclosure prevention.
- BUILD SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC POLICY FOR THE FUTURE
- Expand and modernize the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) so that all mortgage originators are regulated;
- Reform many aspects of the mortgage origination process including RESPA changes which could give the final HUD-1 to borrowers 72 hours in advance of closing.
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