Political Quotes

“Homeownership Month should be a time to study and take note of both the successes and the problems our country faces in homeownership. The President is in Atlanta speaking today about homeownership for minority Americans, and I applaud him for doing so. The reason one focuses on minority Americans, people of color, is because of a success story. During the New Deal, one of Roosevelt's aims was for every American to own her own home. Today, we can say that almost every American does own her own home. The average American has obtained homeownership; and if we look at who has not, who has not are, of course, those who have had other disadvantages in society, and particularly people of color. In the 1990s we had an extraordinary housing boom and people of color forged ahead in homebuying as never before. But with the housing boom came economic boom that has very much subsided. Indeed, unemployment continues to go up every month, even given all of the prognostications about the recession being over. Even so, the housing boom brought a housing bust for many families. If you live in the District of Columbia or any suburb of any great city in the United States, finding affordable housing is like looking for a needle in a haystack. It has gone to the top of the list of American problems, receiving, however, almost no attention in our country and certainly no attention from this body.”