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91_SJ0021
LRB9106201DJcd
1 SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION
2 WHEREAS, The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) was
3 created to help people realize the American dream of
4 homeownership and serves a need for those who would otherwise
5 be excluded from the conventional home loan market; and
6 WHEREAS, The Chicago Area Fair Housing Alliance (CAFHA)
7 has conducted studies which indicate that when FHA lending is
8 concentrated, it has adverse affects; and
9 WHEREAS, FHA foreclosures have a unique impact on the
10 community due to a regulation by the United States Department
11 of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that requires that the
12 properties be delivered to HUD vacant in order to make an
13 insurance claim; and
14 WHEREAS, HUD's inability to move foreclosed properties
15 back into the owner-occupied market contributes to blight and
16 neighborhood decay, and vacant buildings fall prey to
17 scavengers and are many times not adequately secured and
18 often become breeding grounds for crime; and
19 WHEREAS, FHA procedures for establishing the selling
20 prices and discounts for acquired properties often result in
21 prices on foreclosed properties that are too high to allow
22 for purchase and rehabilitation by homeowners or that
23 discourage rapid sales in slow market areas; and
24 WHEREAS, There are communities with a disproportionate
25 number of vacant HUD buildings that are not properly
26 maintained by HUD, sometimes over a period of years; and
27 WHEREAS, FHA does not require pre-purchase home
28 inspections, therefore allowing some unscrupulous realtors to
29 sell defective homes to unsuspecting buyers; therefore, be it
30 RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-FIRST GENERAL
-2- LRB9106201DJcd
1 ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE HOUSE OF
2 REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING HEREIN, that we urge the United
3 States Department of Housing and Urban Development to use its
4 fair housing enforcement authority to create a balance of
5 conventional and FHA lending in all communities, monitor home
6 purchases and lending practices to ensure that FHA lending
7 does not have an adverse impact on any community, improve the
8 targeting and operations of FHA programs, and consider
9 offering an optional, pre-purchase home inspection program as
10 part of the FHA lending process; and be it further
11 RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
12 forwarded to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development,
13 the Director of the Federal Housing Administration, and each
14 member of the Illinois Congressional delegation.
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