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Arlington, VA 22201
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January 11, 2017
CHLA Letter of Support –
Confirmation of Dr. Ben Carson as HUD Secretary
Hon. Michael Crapo
Chairman
U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs
534 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Hon. Sherrod Brown
Ranking Member
U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs
534 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Dear Chairman Crapo and Ranking Member Brown:
The Community Home Lenders Association (CHLA) is writing to support the nomination of Dr. Ben Carson to be the next Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs (HUD).
Dr. Carson has talked publicly about his priority of finding ways to “allow people to ascend the ladder of opportunity.” Historically, homeownership has been one of the greatest vehicles for opportunity – both for building wealth and for enhancing personal and family stability. Since its inception in 1934, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has insured over 34 million mortgages – with an emphasis on home purchase loans to families that demonstrate good payment histories and loan repayment capabilities – but have limited down payment resources.
The statute under which FHA operates has two co-equal Operational Goals for FHA – to meet the needs of borrowers and to minimize the default risk to the Fund. FHA has accomplished its homeownership mission while operating as a self-sufficient program, with an Economic Net Worth in the forward loan program of over 3% – a source of reserves to protect taxpayers in the case of another deep recession.
CHLA members are small and mid-sized community-based non-bank single family mortgage lenders. As such, FHA is our primary area of focus within HUD.
CHLA believes that Dr. Carson has the leadership attributes and the commitment to expanding opportunities that are needed to carry out the important responsibilities of the position of HUD Secretary.
Therefore, we call on the Senate to confirm Dr. Carson to the post of HUD Secretary, so that he may begin this important work.
Sincerely Yours,
COMMUNITY HOME LENDERS ASSOCIATION