Minnesota ACORN is all a defensive about how they don’t receive any funding that Gov. Pawlenty has ordered to be stopped. And while direct budgetary funding may (MAY!!!) by sketchy or non-existent, that doesn’t mean that the State of Minnesota doesn’t funnel people to the group. You see, sending someone a check is not nearly as important as allowing them to affect and influence policy. 

A simple search on the Googely for Lori Swanson and ACRON comes up with some “official” docs referencing the embattled group under scrutiny for despicable acts. 

Unfortunately, studies show that traditional lending practices have sometimes resulted in unfair treatment of low-income borrowers. For example, they may be turned down for loans because credit scrutiny is more strict for them than for middle- or high-income borrowers. Sometimes the scrutiny has less to do with any real credit problems than with where people shop. Stores catering to low-income individuals typically report customers’ late payments to credit bureaus more quickly and regularly than stores that cater to middle- and high-income individuals.

The good news is that help for low-income home buyers is on the upswing. The following resources are now available:

Minnesota Housing Finance Agency

Offers below-market loans for buyers with low or moderate incomes and for first-time buyers. MHFA has statewide reach. Call 651-296-8215 or 1-800-710-8871. TTY: 651-297-2361.

Farmers Home Administration

Offers home loans for low-income rural residents. For information write to: FmHA, U.S. Department of Agricul-ture, Washington, DC 20250.

Home Ownership Center

Refers low-income residents to trained home ownership counselors in nonprofit agencies in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Contact the center at 651-659-9336.

Minneapolis Community Development Agency

Information about housing and low-interest mortgages for people in Minneapolis is available by calling 612-673-5095. TTY: 612-673-3249.

Minneapolis Public Housing Authority

Provides information, referrals and assistance to people seeking low-income and Section 8 housing. Minneapolis residents call 612-342-1400. TTY: 612-342-1415.

St. Paul Citizen Service and Complaints Office

Housing information, low-interest mortgages, education, counseling and advocacy for people in the St. Paul area. Call 651-266-8989. TTY: 651-266-8509.

St. Paul Public Housing Agency

Provides information, referrals and assistance to people seeking low-income and Section 8 housing. St. Paul residents call 651-298-5664.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)

Supplies information on funding assistance and loans. This nonprofit organization can be reached at 651-642-9639.

I think in order to get ACORN out of our state Government, we may need to defund our Attorney General’s office. 

Roll the transcript.

Let me turn here, in the time I have got left, to talk a little bit about some of

the process or the tactics. I hope we can use the lessons with the subprime

mortgage lending crisis to look to the future for all kinds of areas, like corporate

accountability. The deregulation of the

mortgage industry, I think, has been a

scandal. Here are some lessons. I got

elected in November, and I formed right

away a study group that would tackle the

predatory lending problem in our state.

I put together the study group thinking

that all of us together are smarter than

any of us is alone. I put on consumer

advocates, people like ACORN,36

Legal Aid,37 nonprofit counselors in my state who counsel and coach people on

mortgage foreclosure and bailouts.

 

And

I think one of the problems is the Silent

Majority. One of the things I have seen as Attorney General, is when an issue affects

everybody, it does not affect anybody enough for them to show up and lobby for it.

 

The single most important thing we had going for us on the law that we got passed

was we had all the consumer advocates together under one umbrella through the

auspices of my office. Those people worked it really, really hard: the ACORNs and

the Legal Aids and the nonprofits. They really put their money where their mouths

were. Never underestimate the power of the grassroots, either. We tried, through

our office, to take on some pretty powerful interests: energy companies, cell phone

companies, health care companies.

But first let’s not forget that while Swanson was the top Deputy under the previous AG, money was funneled to ACORN. 

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 at 9:47 am and is filed under Know Thy Enemy, Minnesota, Minnesota Attorney General, MN Governor, National, Politics, Redistributor In Chief. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.