
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, November 13, 1993                   TAG: 9311130192
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: MIAMI BEACH, FLA.                                LENGTH: Medium

HOUSING INITIATIVE IS UNVEILED GOVERNMENT HOPES TO REMOVE BARRIERS TO HOME

The Clinton administration's top housing officer Friday announced plans to reverse a decade-long trend of declining home ownership, perhaps by allowing low- and middle-income families to buy into the American dream with zero-interest loans and federal vouchers that could be used to make mortgage payments.

In outlining what he called "a major new federal government initiative," Secretary Henry Cisneros of the Department of Housing and Urban Development also declared war on discriminatory lending practices that have kept home ownership among women, blacks and Latinos at rates of 50 percent or less than those of white males.

Cisneros unveiled what he called the administration's "national home-ownership policy" before a convention of the National Association of Realtors. The cornerstone of the policy is the removal of financial and discriminatory barriers that the secretary said had contributed to a drop in American home ownership from 66 percent to 64 percent since 1980, reversing 40 years of steady increase.

Central to the administration's new policy is a revival of the Federal Housing Administration, which Cisneros said "is finally back after years of inaction." FHA loans for single-family homes are up 42 percent this year over last under the leadership of Commissioner Nicolas Retsinas, the secretary said, and 400,000 people were able to buy a first home.

In an effort to revitalize inner-city neighborhoods, Cisneros told his audience, a chief goal of the Clinton administration is to allow residents of public housing projects to buy the homes in which they live. He recalled a recent visit to a Baltimore neighborhood called Sandtown-Winchester, which he described as a model of such a transformation.

"Several hundred residents of Sandtown recently have become homeowners of either newly built townhouses or renovated row houses, and I am deeply moved by the passionate commitment of these new homeowners, their sense of pride and mission to maintain their property and upgrade their community," he said.

by CNB