America's Wire Releases Commentary By Brent Wilkes On Administration's Need To Do More To Help Working-Class Families On Housing

WASHINGTON, May 9, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- America's Wire today released a commentary by Brent Wilkes, Executive Director of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), that implores the Obama Administration to do more to help working-class families become homeowners.

In the article, Wilkes maintains that the Great Recession pushed millions of willing workers off the labor force, put many others in lower paying or multiple jobs, and communities are still reeling from assets lost.  At a time when we should be discussing how to stimulate our economy and job growth, he writes that many policymakers seem to only want to discuss how to mimic European austerity measures.

"There's no doubt that banks are working hard to settle liabilities to process more foreclosures, and many more homeowners that may yet lose their home as the allure of profits take hold," Wilkes writes.  "What is so frustrating is that there is so much the government could do to provide relief, like utilizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for principal reductions and modifications, but holdovers of the Bush Administration refuse to act."

Wilkes adds: "We need positive solutions, and increasing the inventory of affordable rental housing is absolutely important, but it should complement the policies that allow families to own a home, build roots in their community and depend on those assets for their children's education, starting a business and retirement."

Wilkes cautions that we cannot allow the laws that helped build the post-WWII middle class, in part through homeownership, to disappear.  "It is too easy to forget that many of these laws and institutions that would be upended helped tear down redlining and the obstacles that prevented minorities from owning homes, and promoted community reinvestment and home mortgage disclosures that helped working families with little access to credit." 

This commentary, as well as other articles and commentaries, are available free of charge from America's Wire.  Go to www.Americaswire.org  and click downloads (right column). America's Wire provides mainstream newspapers, community papers, websites, ethnic publications and wire services with stories reporting on structural inequities and the communities impacted. America's Wire is operated by the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.

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SOURCE America's Wire