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Today, @cfpb settled with Harbour Portfolio for $25K, after finding that Harbour misrepresented as a matter of law to homeowners what was required to correct false credit reporting.
Today's settlement provides no relief to the families harmed. None.
https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_harbour-portfolio-advisors-et-al_consent-order_2020-06.pdf
Today's settlement provides no relief to the families harmed. None.
https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_harbour-portfolio-advisors-et-al_consent-order_2020-06.pdf
Someone asked me yesterday for an example of how @cfpb is failing communities of color. I'm adding this to the list.
For 13 years, I represented families buying their homes on land contract sales in East St. Louis. Those contracts strip wealth from individual families & destroy communities. Housing stock deteriorates. Downpayments vaporize. Families end up homeless. @Loisljwedw knows.
Predatory lenders have used land contracts going back at least to the 1960s, relying on a toxic mixture of government-sponsored redlining, private housing discrimination & differential justice to strip mine wealth from African American communities.
@NCLC4consumers & @atlantalegalaid sued Harbour in 2017 for among other things targeting African American families and communities for its wealth stripping scheme--promising wealth creation via homeownership & leaving people impoverished in unsafe housing. https://www.nclc.org/images/pdf/litigation/closed/horne-v-harbour-third-amended-complaint.pdf
They survived a motion to dismiss & settled in December 2018 on terms that converted the chimerical "Agreements for Deed" into affordable, sustainable mortgages for the 12 families still in their homes. Every homeowner represented got money. Real relief for real families.
@cfpb had been investigating Harbour since May 2016. They'd prevailed in 2017 when Harbour tried to quash the investigation. https://www.consumerreports.org/consumerist/court-cfpb-has-authority-to-request-seven-years-worth-of-foreclosure-documents/
Three years of investigation against a company who left people "swimming in a sea of debt" in houses condemned for occupancy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/business/dealbook/market-for-fixer-uppers-traps-low-income-buyers.html
A total of $35K to the CFPB. And nothing for the homeowners or communities harmed by Harbour's practices.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/business/dealbook/market-for-fixer-uppers-traps-low-income-buyers.html
A total of $35K to the CFPB. And nothing for the homeowners or communities harmed by Harbour's practices.
When Congress told @cfpb to create an Office of Fair Lending "to promote . . .effective enforcement of Federal fair lending laws" I don't think this was what it had in mind. DFA 1013(c)
When Congress told @cfpb to monitor consumer financial markets for risks that "may disproportionately affect traditionally underserved consumers" I don't think this is what it had in mind. DFA 1022(c)(2)
When Congress told @cfpb to protect consumers from discrimination, I don't think this is what it had in mind. DFA 1021(b)
@cfpb. Do your job. Protect consumers from discrimination. Provide redress to consumers harmed by unlawful acts. Enforce fair lending law and address the risks that hit communities of color the hardest.
