The Supreme Court upholds ‘Disparate Impact’ in cases alleging fair-lending discrimination. The court ruled 5-4 that a Fair Housing Act claim may be based on disproportionately adverse impact on minorities even where there is no discriminatory intent.
On Thursday, June 25 at 2:30 EST the Veterans Choice Program Google Hangout will be live streamed on YouTube. Veterans can leave questions on this blog post in advance of the event. For additional information on the Choice Program, click here.
The State of the Nation’s Housing 2015 will be released by live webcast on Wednesday, June 24 at Noon (Eastern). The webcast will feature a panel discussion and viewers will be able to tweet questions using the hashtag #harvardhousingreport.
The USDA Rurall Housing Service published a final rule related to multifamily housing loans. A summary of the rule appears below. For complete details, read the Federal Register.
The Rural Housing Service (RHS or ‘‘Agency’’) is amending its regulation to change the requirements of the reserve account for direct Multifamily Housing (MFH) loans. The intended effect of this action is to address the reserve account requirement of the Agency to countersign with the borrower when a Section 538 guaranteed loan is involved, and to also clarify that reserve account funds cannot be used to pay for fees associated with the Section 538 guaranteed loan program.
The Washington Post’s Emily Badger examines “How Section 8 became a ‘racial slur’” through a brief a history of subsidized housing policies, and how they intersect with race and racial stigma in the United States.
Supreme Court ruling may spell bad news for “underwater” homeowners. In a near unanimous decision, the high court ruled that when a mortgage lien is worth more than the market value of the property the Bankruptcy Code (Chapter 7) does not allow courts to reduce the second lien to the property’s market value.
The Federal Reserve Board recently published a new Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2014. The report provides a snapshot of the financial and economic well-being of U.S. households and the issues they face.
The percentage of rural veterans who are women has more than doubled since the First Gulf War, and rural female veterans tend to be younger than the men, according to the Economic Revenue Service.
Ensuring that veterans have access to safe, secure housing is critical, and President Obama and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have made a significant push to end veteran homelessness by the end of 2015. Data shows declines in the homeless veteran population across the country, including in Rural America. However, in rural areas where accurate homeless counts are more difficult, this data may not tell the whole story. Read HAC’s latest post on the Rooflines blog to learn why.
Photo: Stormi Greener
Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that nonmetro counties lost 330,000 jobs from January 2014 to January 2015, according to The Daily Yonder. Year-to-year changes in rural employment consistently showed improvements in 2014.