On May 13, 2015, HOPE, Inc. and 19 other organizations filed a HUD complaint against Fannie Mae, alleging that the government-sponsored enterprise marketed and maintained its foreclosures in neighborhoods of color in a significantly inferior manner compared to those it owned in predominantly White neighborhoods throughout the United States. The National Fair Housing Alliance, HOPE, and 18 other fair housing agencies investigated 2,106 properties owned by Fannie Mae around the United States, examining 39 types of marketing and maintenance deficiencies affecting curb appeal, safety, security, home value and marketability.

HOPE conducted investigations of sixty-four properties in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties from 2012 to 2014 that provided evidence for the complaint. Fannie Mae’s role in the home loan landscape is unlike that of a typical bank, credit union or mortgage company. Instead of providing home mortgage loans directly to individual borrowers, this publicly-owned entity buys the home mortgages of individuals from lenders and sells groups of these loans to investors.

Nonetheless, when home loans held by Fannie Mae go into foreclosure, they ends up in the same situation as those owned by traditional lenders: Fannie Mae owns the homes and is responsible for maintaining and marketing them until they are sold. HOPE’s investigation revealed the following facts about the foreclosed properties owned by Fannie Mae and scrutinized by HOPE:

-26.7% of the properties in White communities had less than 5 documented maintenance or marketing deficiencies, compared to only 4.1% of the properties in communities of color.

-59.2% of the properties in communities of color had 10 or more documented maintenance or marketing deficiencies, compared to only 26.7% of the properties in White communities.

-12.2% of the properties in communities of color had 15 or more documented maintenance or marketing deficiencies, but none of the properties in White communities had as many such deficiencies.

-59.2% of the properties in communities of color had documentation of trash or debris, compared to only 33.3% of the properties in White communities.

-49.0% of the properties in communities of color had documentation of overgrown or dead shrubbery, compared to only 33.3% of the properties in White communities.

-55.1% of the properties in communities of color had documentation of 50% or more of the property being covered in dead grass, compared to only 33.3% of the properties in White communities.

-30.6% of the properties in communities of color had documentation of between 10% and 50% of the property being covered in invasive plants, compared to only 20.0% of the properties in White communities.

-28.6% of the properties in communities of color had documentation of unsecured, broken, or boarded doors, compared to only 20.0% of the properties in White communities.

Please stay tuned for updates about this complaint.