THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, all. Thanks, for coming. Well, thanks
for the warm welcome. Thank you for being here today. I appreciate
your attendance to this very important conference. You see, we want
everybody in America to own their own home. That's what we want. This
is -- an ownership society is a compassionate society.
More and more people own their homes in America today. Two-thirds
of all Americans own their homes, yet we have a problem here in America
because few than half of the Hispanics and half the African Americans
own the home. That's a homeownership gap. It's a -- it's a gap that
we've got to work together to close for the good of our country, for
the sake of a more hopeful future. We've got to work to knock down the
barriers that have created a homeownership gap.
I set an ambitious goal. It's one that I believe we can achieve.
It's a clear goal, that by the end of this decade we'll increase the
number of minority homeowners by at least 5.5 million families.
(Applause.)
Some may think that's a stretch. I don't think it is. I think it
is realistic. I know we're going to have to work together to achieve
it. But when we do our communities will be stronger and so will our
economy. Achieving the goal is going to require some good policies out
of Washington. And it's going to require a strong commitment from
those of you involved in the housing industry.
Just by showing up at the conference, you show your commitment.
And together, together we will work over the next decade to enable
millions of our fellow Americans to own a piece of their own property,
and that's their home.
I appreciate so very much the home owners who are with us today,
the Arias family, newly arrived from Peru. They live in Baltimore.
Thanks to the Association of Real Estate Brokers, the help of some good
folks in Baltimore, they figured out how to purchase their own home.
Imagine to be coming to our country without a home, with a simple
dream. And now they're on stage here at this conference being one of
the new home owners in the greatest land on the face of the Earth. I
appreciate the Arias family coming. (Applause.)
We've got the Horton family from Little Rock, Arkansas, here
today. Actually, it's not Little Rock; it's North Little Rock,
Arkansas. I was corrected. (Laughter.) I appreciate so very much
these good folks coming all the way up from the South. They were
helped by HUD, they were helped by Freddie Mac. Obviously, they've got
a young family. And when we start talking about owning a home, a smile
spread right across the face of the dad that could have lit up the
entire town of Washington, D.C. (Applause.) I appreciate you all
coming. Thanks for coming. He had to make sure I knew that he was
educated in Texas. (Laughter.)
Finally, Kim Berry from New York is here. She's a single mom.
You're not going to believe this, but her son is 18 years old.
(Laughter.) She barely looked like she was 18 to me. And being a
single mom is the hardest job in America. And the idea of this fine
American working hard to provide for her child, at the same time
working hard to realize her dream, which is owning a home on Long
Island, is really a special tribute to the character of this particular
person and to the character of a lot of Americans. So we're honored to
have you here, Kim, and thanks for being such a good mom and a fine
American. (Applause.)
I told Mel Martinez I was serious about this initiative. We
started talking about it and I said, well, you know, I'm the kind of
fellow, I don't like to lay out a goal and don't mean it. I think it's
not -- I don't think it's fair for the American people to be -- to have
a President or anybody else, for that matter, lay out a goal and just
kind of say it, but don't mean it. I mean it. And the good news is,
Mel Martinez believes it and means it, as well. He's doing a fine job
of running HUD, and I'm glad he has joined my Cabinet. (Applause.)
And I picked a pretty spunky deputy, as well, Alphonso Jackson --
my fellow Texan. (Applause.) I call him A.J.
I appreciate the Secretary of Agriculture being here. She's got a
lot of money having to do with rural housing. I appreciate Ann's
commitment to rural America. And I'm really proud of the job she's
doing, as well, for the American people, serving in my Cabinet. Thanks
for coming, Ann. (Applause.)
I've got some others in my administration, as I look around. I see
Rosario Marin, who's the Treasurer of the United States. Rosario used
to be a mayor. Thank you for coming, Madam Mayor. (Applause.) She
understands how important housing is. I see other mayors around here,
and I want to thank the mayors for coming. After all, it's in your
interest that this project succeed.
I know we've got some folks from the faith-based community here.
Luis Cortes, from Philadelphia is here; and my friend, Kirbyjon
Caldwell, from Houston, Texas. Kirbyjon, I had breakfast with him this
morning. He told me he was going to have to leave before my speech.
He's a wise man, that Kirbyjon Caldwell. (Laughter.) But he has gone
back home to Texas. I appreciate Margaret Spellings and her staff.
Margaret is the Domestic Policy Advisor to the President, and I want to
thank you for putting on this conference, Margaret.
All of us here in America should believe, and I think we do, that
we should be, as I mentioned, a nation of owners. Owning something is
freedom, as far as I'm concerned. It's part of a free society. And
ownership of a home helps bring stability to neighborhoods. You own
your home in a neighborhood, you have more interest in how your
neighborhood feels, looks, whether it's safe or not. It brings pride
to people, it's a part of an asset-based to society. It helps people
build up their own individual portfolio, provides an opportunity, if
need be, for a mom or a dad to leave something to their child. It's a
part of -- it's of being a -- it's a part of -- an important part of
America.
Homeownership is also an important part of our economic vitality.
If -- when we meet this project, this goal, according to our Secretary
of Housing and Urban Development, we will have added an additional $256
billion to the economy by encouraging 5.5 million new home owners in
America; the activity -- the economic activity stimulated with the
additional purchasers, the additional buyers, the additional demand
will be upwards of $256 billion. And that's important because it will
help people find work.
Low interest rates, low inflation are very important foundations
for economic growth. The idea of encouraging new homeownership and the
money that will be circulated as a result of people purchasing homes
will mean people are more likely to find a job in America. This
project not only is good for the soul of the country, it's good for the
pocketbook of the country, as well.
To open up the doors of homeownership there are some barriers, and
I want to talk about four that need to be overcome. First, down
payments. A lot of folks can't make a down payment. They may be
qualified. They may desire to buy a home, but they don't have the
money to make a down payment. I think if you were to talk to a lot of
families that are desirous to have a home, they would tell you that the
down payment is the hurdle that they can't cross. And one way to
address that is to have the federal government participate.
And so we've called upon Congress to set up what's called the
American Dream Down Payment Fund, which will provide financial grants
to local governments to help first-time home buyers who qualify to make
the down payment on their home. If a down payment is a problem,
there's a way we can address that. And when Congress funds the
program, this should help 200,000 new families over the next five years
become first-time home buyers.
Secondly, affordable housing is a problem in many neighborhoods,
particularly inner-city neighborhoods. You may -- we may have
qualified home buyers, but if there's no home to buy, this initiative
isn't going anywhere. And so one of the things that we're going to --
that I'm doing is proposing a single-family affordable housing credit
to encourage the construction of single-family homes in neighborhoods
where affordable housing is scarce. (Applause.)
Over the next five years the initiative will provide home builders
and therefore home buyers with -- home builders with $2 billion in tax
credits to bring affordable homes and therefore provide an additional
supply for home buyers. It's really important for us to understand
that we can provide incentive for people to build homes where there's a
lack of affordable housing.
And we've got to set priorities. And one of the key priorities is
going to be inner-city America. Good schools and affordable housing
will help revitalize our inner cities.
Another obstacle to minority homeownership is the lack of
information. You know, getting into your own home can be complicated.
It can be a difficult process. I had that very same problem.
(Laughter and applause.)
Every home buyer has responsibilities and rights that need to be
understood clearly. And yet, when you look at some of the contracts,
there's a lot of small print. And you can imagine somebody newly
arrived from Peru looking at all that print, and saying, I'm not sure I
can possibly understand that. Why do I want to buy a home? There's an
educational process that needs to go on, not only to explain the
contract, explain obligation, but also to explain financing options, to
help people understand the complexities of a homeownership market, and
also at the same time to protect people from unscrupulous lenders,
people who would take advantage of a good-hearted soul who is trying to
realize their dream.
Homeownership education is critical. And so today, I'm pleased to
announce that through Mel's office, we're going to distribute $35
million in 2003 to more than 100 national, state and local
organizations that promote homeownership through buyer education.
(Applause.)
And, of course, one of the larger obstacles to minority
homeownership is financing, is the ability to have their dream
financed. Right now, we have a program that all of you are familiar
with, maybe our fellow Americans are, and that's what they call a
Section 8 housing program, that provides billions of dollars in
vouchers to help low-income Americans with their rent. It encourages
leasing. We think it's important that we use those vouchers, that
federal money to help low-income Americans go from being somebody who
leases to somebody who owns; that we use the Section 8 program to not
only help with down payment, but to help with continuing monthly
mortgage payments after they're into their new home. It is a -- it is
a way to help us meet this dream of 5.5 million additional families
owning their home.
I'm also going to encourage the lending industry to develop a
mortgage market so that this script, these vouchers, can regularly be
used as a source of payment to provide more capital to lenders, who can
then help more families move from rental housing into houses of their
own.
These are some of the barriers that home owners face, potential
home owners face, and this is what we intend to do about it. But like
in a lot of our life, government can't do everything. It's impossible
to provide every aspect of a national strategy, particularly in this
case. And that's why we need the help of private and nonprofit sectors
in our country to help play a vital role in helping to meet the goal.
Many of you here represent the nonprofit, as well as the private
sectors of our economy and our country, and I want to thank you for
your commitment.
Last June, I issued a challenge to everyone involved in the housing
industry to help increase the number of minority families to be home
owners. And what I'm talking about, I'm talking about your bankers and
your brokers and developers, as well as members of faith-based
community and community programs. And the response to the home owners
challenge has been very strong and very gratifying. Twenty-two public
and private partners have signed up to help meet our national goal.
Partners in the mortgage finance industry are encouraging homeownership
by purchasing more loans made by banks to African Americans, Hispanics
and other minorities.
Representatives of the real estate and homebuilding industries,
through their nationwide networks or affiliates, are committed to
broadening homeownership. They made the commitment to help meet the
national goal we set.
Freddie Mae -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- I see the heads who
are here; I want to thank you all for coming -- (laughter) -- have
committed to provide more money for lenders. They've committed to help
meet the shortage of capital available for minority home buyers.
Fannie Mae recently announced a $50 million program to develop 600
homes for the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. Franklin, I appreciate
that commitment. They also announced $12.7 million investment in a
condominium project in Harlem. It's the beginnings of a series of
initiatives to help meet the goal of 5.5 million families. Franklin
told me at the meeting where we kicked this office, he said, I promise
you we will help, and he has, like many others in this room have done.
Freddie Mac recently began 25 initiatives around the country to
dismantle barriers and create greater opportunities for homeownership.
One of the programs is designed to help deserving families who have bad
credit histories to qualify for homeownership loans. Freddie Mac is
also working with the Department of Defense to promote construction and
financing for housing for men and women in the military.
There's all kinds of ways that we can work together to meet the
goal. Corporate America has a responsibility to work to make America a
compassionate place. Corporate America has responded. As an example --
only one of many examples -- the good folks at Sears and Roebuck have
responded by making a five-year, $100 million commitment to making
homeownership and home maintenance possible for millions of Americans.
There have been other steps that are being taken to close the
homeownership gap. And you've heard some of the stories here today,
people much more eloquent than me, to talk about what's taking place on
the front line of meeting this national goal.
The non-profit groups are bringing homeownership to some of our
most troubled communities. And as you know, I'm a strong advocate of
what I call the faith-based initiative. And the reason I am is because
I understand the universal call to love a neighbor like you'd like to
be loved yourself, and that includes helping somebody find a home.
One such example is the Enterprise Foundation, a national
non-profit organization that provides assistance to grassroots
homeownership organizations. Because of their work, as one example,
185 affordable homes will be available in the Baltimore neighborhood
that was once so crime-ridden that people had written it off.
Revitalizing neighborhoods is a real possibility if people put their
mind to it. And at the same time, you're helping people own a home in
America.
And the faith-based community is doing some fantastic work when it
comes to encouraging homeownership, whether it be financial counseling,
or job training or other outreach services, to help people understand
what it takes to buy a home.
And then there's my friend Kirbyjon Caldwell. He not only provides
counseling and job training, he actually decided to encourage a
development of homes in the Houston area. People -- low-income people
are going to be able to more afford a home in Texas because of
Kirbyjon's vision and work. He's answered the call of faith to help
people help themselves and to help them realize dreams.
The other thing Kirbyjon told me, which I really appreciate, is you
don't have to have a lousy home for first-time home buyers. If you put
your mind to it, the first-time home buyer, the low-income home buyer
can have just as nice a house as anybody else. And I know Kirbyjon.
He is what I call a social entrepreneur who is using his platform as a
Methodist preacher to improve the neighborhood and the community in
which he lives.
And so is Luis Cortes, who represents Nueva Esperanza in
Philadelphia. I went to see Luis in the inner-city Philadelphia. Luis
is -- at least he was -- he's probably still there -- in what one would
call a tough neighborhood. There's a lot of abandoned buildings. And
I mean, beautiful old structures just empty. Luis had a dream to
revitalize his neighborhood, starting with a good charter school, one
that would work, one that would teach kids how to read and write and
add and subtract.
But he also understood that a homeownership program is incredibly
important to revitalize this neighborhood that a lot of folks had
already quit on. I suspect one day we'll all go back to Luis'
neighborhood and we'll find first-time home owners there, and a good
education system. And this will be the beginning of a -- of a
neighborhood revitalization in that part of Philadelphia, because there
was vision and drive and hope for our fellow citizens.
So I want to thank you all for coming. I want to thank you for
your determination to help close the minority homeownership gap. It's
an incredibly important initiative for this country. See, America is a
good and generous country. It's a great place. Part of it was to make
sure that the dream, the American Dream, the ability to come from
anywhere in our society and say, I own this home, is a reality -- can
be achievable for anybody, regardless of their status, regardless of
their -- of whether or not they -- whether or not they think the dream
is meant for them.
I mean, we can put light where there's darkness, and hope where
there's despondency in this country. And part of it is working
together as a nation to encourage folks to own their own home.
Again, I want to tell you, this is an initiative -- as Mel will
tell you, it's an initiative that we take very seriously. We're going
to stay on it until we're -- until we achieve the goal. And as we all
achieve the goal, we can look back and say, America is a better place
for our hard work, our efforts and our desires for our fellow Americans
to realize the greatness of our country.
Thank you for coming. May God bless your vision. May God bless
America. (Applause.)