Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/335339
JULY 2014 10 THE JOURNAL No. 8 on Get It Quick Page Consumer finance amendments developed and advanced by the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) took a significant step forward on May 15, 2014, with a vote by the Senate Banking Com- mittee to approve and recommend to the full Senate, S. 1217, the Housing Finance Reform and Taxpayer Protection Act of 2014, a bi-par- tisan bill to reform the federal housing finance system, which incorporates those amendments. The MHARR amendments, as originally in- cluded in the March 16, 2014 version of S. 1217 sponsored by Banking Committee Chair- man Tim Johnson (D-SD) and Ranking Mem- ber Mike Crapo (R-ID), were retained in the final Committee-approved bill following a mark-up hearing that began on April 29, 2014 and was continued until May 15, 2014 to allow time for further consultations among Commit- tee members. The MHARR consumer finance amendments are designed to end longstanding discrimination against manufactured homebuyers and manu- factured homeowners in the consumer financing market by ensuring the inclusion of all types of manufactured home consumer loans (i.e., chattel, real estate and hybrid) in the struc- tures, facilities and programs that would be es- tablished by S. 1217 to replace the current Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) and define the housing finance market of the future. The MHARR amendments also provide for the inclusion of all types of manufactured home loans (i.e., chattel, real estate and hybrid) as a critical market segment to be served by a spe- cial "Market Access Fund" to promote and ex- pand the availability of affordable home ownership. The inclusion of these provisions in the bi- partisan Senate bill, moreover, is in addition to ongoing efforts by MHARR to seek the full im- plementation of the Duty to Serve Underserved Markets established by the Housing and Eco- nomic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) – in- cluding manufactured home chattel loans – by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which is and will remain the federal conserva- tor and regulator of the GSEs pending a change in the law. At present, the future of GSE reform legisla- tion in the current session of Congress is uncer- tain, given the large and numerous constituencies that it would impact. Notwith- standing this uncertainty, however, and the challenge of advancing such extremely complex legislation, the inclusion of MHARR's con- sumer financing amendments in bi-partisan GSE reform legislation – first in the original March 16, 2014 Johnson-Crapo bill and now in the final Committee-approved bill -- breaks the ice and sets a political benchmark for future GSE reform efforts to fully include, recognize and protect all types of manufactured housing MHARR Consumer Finance Amendments Clear Major Hurdle In Senate