IV 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 1025 

Expressing support for the designation of June as ‘‘National Homeownership 

Month’’, honoring the critical importance of increased homeownership 

to overall affordable housing goals, and acknowledging the necessity 

of using comprehensive resources within the legislative and policy toolbox, 

together with vital public-private partnerships, to allow communities 

across the United States to provide access to safe and secure housing 

for all Americans, regardless of income level, while promoting diversity 

consistent with the ideal of the American Dream during the time of 

the COVID–19 pandemic. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 26, 2020 

Mr. CLAY submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 

Committee on Financial Services 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing support for the designation of June as ‘‘National 

Homeownership Month’’, honoring the critical importance of increased homeownership to overall affordable 

housing goals, and acknowledging the necessity of using 

comprehensive resources within the legislative and policy 

toolbox, together with vital public-private partnerships, 

to allow communities across the United States to provide 

access to safe and secure housing for all Americans, 

regardless of income level, while promoting diversity consistent with the ideal of the American Dream during 

the time of the COVID–19 pandemic. 


ctelli on DSK30NT082PROD with BILLS
2 

•HRES 1025 IH 

Whereas for over 80 years it has been the policy of the 

United States to promote the general welfare of the Nation by employing its funds and credit to assist States 

and localities to remedy unsafe housing conditions and 

the acute shortage of decent and safe dwellings for low 

income families under the United States Housing Act of 

1937; 

Whereas the House of Representatives, which has over a period of many years endeavored to address housing and 

homeownership, and has had some success in doing so 

through related appropriations and authorizing legislation, has committed itself to meeting the affordable housing and community development needs of the country; 

Whereas the disparate impact standard under the Fair Housing Act is a longstanding protection that allows people to 

challenge policies that might seem neutral on their face 

but result in discriminatory outcomes; 

Whereas a government-sponsored corporation, the Homeowners Loan Corporation (HOLC), established in 1933, 

implemented a system of redlining for years that rated 

neighborhoods based on a number of factors, including 

race; 

Whereas, in 1911, a St. Louis, Missouri, neighborhood enacted a racially restrictive covenant designed to prevent 

African Americans and Asian Americans from living in 

the area and in 1945 the Shelleys, an African-American 

family, moved into the neighborhood prompting Louis 

Kraemer to sue to enforce the covenant and prevent them 

from moving into their house, resulting in a Supreme 

Court decision that although restrictive covenants did not 

fall under constitutional protection, State enforcement of 


ctelli on DSK30NT082PROD with BILLS
3 

•HRES 1025 IH 

such covenants violates the Equal Protection Clause of 

the Fourteenth Amendment; 

Whereas the National Association of Real Estate Boards, 

which became the National Association of Realtors, had 

harmful racial discrimination as part of its ethics code; 

Whereas prior to the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 

1968, Federal, State, and local governments actively and 

explicitly enforced policies that discriminated against racial minorities seeking homeownership opportunities, 

making it harder for them to purchase homes in certain 

neighborhoods or to obtain financing on fair terms, and 

during much of the 20th century, State and local governments promoted segregation in neighborhoods across the 

Nation by actively enforcing racially restrictive covenants, 

which were legally enforceable provisions in property 

deeds that prohibited racial minorities from purchasing 

homes in White residential neighborhoods; 

Whereas during the height of the foreclosure crisis, about a 

quarter of African-American and Latino homeowners had 

lost their homes to foreclosure or were seriously delinquent, compared to just under 12 percent for White 

homeowners and just under 14 percent for Asian-American homeowners, and by 2011, 25 percent of Black 

homeowners and 28 percent of Hispanic homeowners had 

underwater mortgages, a home purchase loan with a 

higher outstanding principal obligation than the fair-market value of the home, compared to just 15 percent of 

White homeowners; 

Whereas a National Fair Housing Alliance report in December 2019 found an 87-percent rate of racial steering, perverse redlining, and other harrowing forms of discriminaVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:16 Jun 27, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR1025.IH HR1025

ctelli on DSK30NT082PROD with BILLS
4 

•HRES 1025 IH 

tion for families seeking to purchase homes in 12 cities 

across the United States; 

Whereas 2018 Census Bureau data found the homeownership 

rate was 73 percent for non-Hispanic White households, 

42 percent for African-American households, 47 percent 

for Hispanic or Latinx households, and 58 percent for 

Asian or Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander households, 

and in the past 15 years, Black homeownership has seen 

the most dramatic drop of any racial or ethnic group and 

it is now as low as it was when discrimination was legal, 

contributing to the racial wealth gap; 

Whereas a 2016 DEMOS study found that eliminating disparities in homeownership rates and returns would substantially reduce the racial wealth gap; 

Whereas the 2016 DEMOS study found that Black and 

Latino homeowners saw less return in wealth on their investment in homeownership, finding that for every $1 in 

wealth that accrues to median Black households as a result of homeownership, median White households accrue 

$1.34, while for every $1 in wealth that accrues to median Latino households as a result of homeownership, 

median White households accrue $1.54; 

Whereas the Center for Responsible Lending testified in May 

2019 to the Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development and Insurance of the Financial Services Committee of the House of Representatives that data from 

the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act continues to demonstrate low levels of conventional mortgage loans to African-American and Latino families and, further, the 

Center for Investigative Reporting Reveal report analyzed 

31 million mortgage records and found that, in 61 metropolitan areas in the United States, African Americans 


ctelli on DSK30NT082PROD with BILLS
5 

•HRES 1025 IH 

and Latinos are more likely to be turned down for a conventional mortgage application than similarly situated 

White borrowers, among other forms of invidious discrimination; and 

Whereas equal access to homeownership opportunities enhances social and economic diversity, promotes inclusion, 

and reaffirms equality and is consistent with principles of 

capitalism: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives supports 

2 the designation of ‘‘National Homeownership Month’’ and 

3 honors the importance of the sacrosanct and uniquely 

4 American idea of homeownership. 

Æ 


ctelli on DSK30NT082PROD with BILLS