NAC Blog: A call to NAC-tion – Support our Latino community

Celebrating NAHREP familia, cultura, politics, and grassroots action

Que onda mi gente?!

It’s time to show the world what we’re made of. When we created the National Advocacy Committee (NAC), we knew that if we organized our 40,000 members to be the voice of Latino homeownership, we absolutely could make a difference. If we each reached out to our own elected officials with a common message, the weight of our numbers and our power would be unstoppable.

You’ve heard it all before: Latinos are young, Latinos are the fastest growing population, Latinos are the future of this country. But if we don’t actually step up, and speak up, then the numbers don’t mean anything.

As we collectively face this new inflection point in our history brought on by COVID-19, we have an opportunity to help shape how the government responds to our needs, because we know we are critical to the economic revitalization of this country after this pandemic is over.

On Friday, May 8, NAHREP sent a letter to Congress and the Administration urging critical policy actions needed in order to protect Latino families and small businesses as Congress moves to pass the phase 4 of the COVID-19 stimulus package. Below are our top priorities as an organization, and we hope you will join us in this fight.

NAHREP’s policy priorities to protect Latino families and small businesses:

Ensure Survival of Small Businesses

• Continue funding the Paycheck Protection Program and prioritize main street businesses, including independent contractors. Independent contractors and businesses that employ 1099 workers have had a difficult time accessing the PPP program. Eligibility for the PPP should not be dependent on costly business accounts or payroll systems for businesses that don’t need them.
• Prioritize lending to minority-owned businesses. Require lenders to ensure that $50 billion of loans (or 20% of the lending under any expanded PPP, whichever is higher) are made to minority-owned businesses.
• Provide liquidity for mortgage servicers because it’s leading to a contraction of credit. NAHREP urges either the Federal Reserve or Department of Treasury to develop one or more liquidity facilities through which mortgage servicers covering payments for consumers in forbearance can obtain funding.
• Pass the Securing and Enabling Commerce Using Remote and Electronic Notarization Act (SECURE Notarization Act). We need a national standard to provide real estate transactions a safe alternative to in-person closings, particularly as shelter-in-place mandates could continue (or be reinstated).

• Protect consumer credit scores during the pandemic. Negative credit reporting during an economic crisis hurts the economic mobility of otherwise credit worthy families. Credit scores should be protected between January of 2020 and December of 2021.
• Protect small “mom and pop” landlords. NAHREP urges Congress to provide assistance to small “mom and pop” landlords through the Paycheck Protection Program and treat these investors as small businesses. Owners should receive support through a long term, interest-free loan for the shortfall in rent payments from tenants.
• Expand forbearance options and provide affordable, standard and transparent post-forbearance loss mitigation options for consumers. Broaden the foreclosure and forbearance relief in the CARES Act to include all homeowners, landlords and multifamily property owners, even those that have mortgages that are not federally-backed. Ensure access to reasonable post-forbearance options for property owners.

• Stimulus checks should be extended to mixed immigration status families. Mixed-status families and tax-paying immigrants should have access to the emergency economic support being made available to all Americans so that they can continue to support themselves and stimulate the nation’s economy.

To read the full letter, click here.

To email your representative today, click here.

If this pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that how Congress and the Administration react to this pandemic will determine the state of the market, the state of your business, and the ability Latinos will have to rebound from this economy. We cannot afford NOT to speak up. It must be part of our business plan, along with working hard.

With that said… let’s spur a little competition. What chapter will have the highest level of participation? Who’s going to ensure that their chapter gets Advocacy Chapter of the Year? Contact your representative today.

El que se duerme, se lo lleva la corriente…….

Un abrazo a todos.