Comparative digest: Pending legislation (S. 2938, H. R. 7839), President's Advisory Committee report, and Mortgage Bankers Association policy-Continued TITLE II. HOME MORTGAGE INTEREST RATES AND TERMB 201. Authorizes the President to establish (1) maximum interest rates on FHA and VA nonfarm 301. Rewrites title III of National Housing Act as follows: 302. Recharters FNMA as a constituent agency of HHFA, and authorizes it to purchase 303. Capital and surplus of existing FNMA (estimated at $70 million) would be used to 304. Establishes the general terms of the facility's operations with respect to activity under 307. Separate accountability would be maintained for the (a) secondary market operations, 310. Provides for investment of the Association's moneys. 311. Association's obligations to be legal investments and may be accepted as security for 312. Short title of title III: Federal National Mortgage Association Charter Act. 304. Authorizes Federal home loan banks and Federal savings and loan associations to invest in FNMA obligations. 305. Repeals FNMA's authority to grant preferences to FHA mortgages in the Territories and to make direct FHA loans in Alaska. 306. Terminates FNMA's authority to make advance commitments on FHA cooperative housing. authorized to purchase and sell FHA gages and to make advance commitments. Minimum stock requirement to be set at 2 percent. Corporation to have clear power to set standards of eligibility for members. Report of President's Advisory Policy of Mortgage Bankers Association Comparative digest: Pending legislation (S. 2938, H. R. 7839), President's Advisory Committee report, and Mortgage Bankers Association policy-Continued 411. All the amendments are designed primarily to broaden and redirect the present slum clearance Substantially same recommendation. The 1% to 3% formula for Federal local grants now in the law would not be changed. However, 413. Repeal of appropriation act provisos-technical amendment to remove existing requirements 414. Authorizes a special fund of $5 million for grants to localities to assist them in testing, developing, and reporting slum prevention and elimination techniques. TITLE V. LOW RENT PUBLIC HOUSING 501. Extends preference in public housing, now limited to those displaced from public housing or slum clearance projects, to include also those displaced by other public actions, such as code enforcement and closing of structures, highway construction, etc. 502. Makes payment of 10 percent of shelter rents (unless State law prescribes, or local government agrees to, a lesser amount) in lieu of taxes mandatory for public housing projects, except where this would reduce local contribution to less than 20 percent of the Federal contribution. Permits localities to elect to charge full taxes, provided they make up in cash the difference between full taxes and 10 percent of shelter rents but not less than 20 percent of the Federal contribution. Requires that the governing body and the public be informed of total local contribution, including the difference between payments in lieu of taxes and amount that full taxes would require. No recommendation. do.. Same recommendation. Would approve continuance of public- 503. Provides that after projects are fully amortized, that net revenues go proportionately to Federal and local governments on the basis of their contributions, in order that in time such contributions may eventually be recovered as far as possible, and the projects be made selfliquidating. 504. Repeals labor-reporting provisions by contractors.. 505. Repeals requirement for PHA determination of salaries paid to architects and technical employees. TITLE VI. HOME LOAN BANK BOARD 601. Provides method whereby Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation may be served with notice of suit anywhere, and not just in the District of Columbia. Also bars enforcement of claim against the Corporation after 3 years from date of default, or, if the Corporation denies validity of the claim, after 2 years from the date of denial. 602-3. Increases maximum loan that a Federal savings and loan association may make (beyond exception already allowed) to $35,000, instead of the present $20,000. Makes comparable changes as to collateral acceptable by Federal home loan bank for advances. Also provides procedures for enforcement of regulations governing Federal savings and loan associations and for appointment of conservators and receivers. TITLE VII. URBAN PLANNING AND RESERVE OF PLANNED PUBLIC WORKS 701. Provides $5 million to Housing and Home Finance Administrator for planning grants up to 50 percent of estimated cost to State, metropolitan, and regional area agencies for metropolitan or regional planning, and to State planning bodies to assist municipalities under 25,000 in urban planning. 702. Provides $10 million to resume noninterest-bearing planning advances to local and State bodies for public works plans, repayable when construction is undertaken, in order that such works can be ready for construction if the economic situation should require it. TITLE VIII. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS 703. Provide for: Exemptions from preference provisions in disposition of unusual types of permanent Lanham Act projects; a consolidated report to Congress on the Agency's activities instead of assorted reports on various programs and activities; consideration to be given to the reduction of vulnerability of congested areas to enemy attack in carrying out housing programs; customary act-controlling and separability provisions. Similar recommendation-no specific Same as committee report. authorization recommended. RECOMMENDATIONS MADE BY THE PRESIDENT'S ADVISORY COMMITTEE TO WHICH THE PROPOSED HOUSING LEGISLATION DOES NOT ADDRESS ITSELF [NOTE.-Numbers refer to numbering in committee report] II. TO ENCOURAGE THE CONSERVATION AND RENEWAL OF DECAYING NEIGHBORHOODS 4. The present basis for geographical allocation of funds should be modified to make one-third of the capital grant funds available to those cities showing the highest level of performance in a positive overall attack on urban decay. 9. A broadly representative private organization on a national scale should be formed outside the Federal Government with congressional and/or Presidential sponsorship to mobilize public opinion in support of vigorous action by the communities in slum prevention, neighborhood conservation, and other urban renewal activities. 10. The committee urges that this private national organization encourage inquiries into the ownership and operation of slum property and the failure of cities to compel compliance with their health and housing codes. These inquiries can be an important first step in activating public opinion in support of effective slum prevention and urban renewal programs. III. TO MAINTAIN AND IMPROVE THE EXISTING HOUSING SUPPLY 6. Appropriate administrative steps should be taken by the Federal Housing Commissioner to permit wider use of the trade-in house program as a means of upgrading the existing inventory of housing. IV. TO ENCOURAGE PRIVATE BUILDING ACTIVITY 11. An objective and independent long-range study of prospective foreclosure and loss experience of the Federal Housing Administration's insurance programs should be made. 12. An objective and independent long-range study of probable losses on Veterans' Administration guaranteed loans should be made. 13. The Federal Housing Administration and the Veterans' Administration should consider providing special assistance to mortgagees in small communities in the preparation of applications for the insurance or guaranty of loans. 14. The Veterans' Administration should seek advice of lending institutions in revising and simplifying its regulations, and committees of lenders should be formed to place applications for Veterans' Administration direct loans with private lenders wherever practicable. 15. Congress and the Appropriations Committees should be urged to return to the principles of Public Law 387, 81st Congress, or to develop another formula designed to achieve the objective of flexibility in the operating expense budget of the Federal Housing Administration. The Federal Housing Administration would be able to operate much more efficiently if the annual amounts it was authorized to spend for administrative expenses were based on a percentage of income rather than a fixed dollar ceiling. 18. The Treasury Department and the appropriate congressional committees should be requested to study whether there are tax inequities which deter private investment in rental housing, and, based on such findings, appropriate action should be taken. The committee is impressed with the need for such an inquiry. However, since the committee had neither the time nor the competence to carry out a study of this kind, it recommends that it be undertaken by the Treasury Department. V. TO FACILITATE THE FREE OPERATION OF THE MORTGAGE MARKET 5. The Housing and Home Finance Administrator should study proposals for the establishment of a cooperative housing mortgage corporation to assist in the production and financing of cooperative housing projects. VI. RECOMMENDATIONS DESIGNED TO PROVIDE HOUSING FOR LOW-INCOME FAMILIES 5. Whenever feasible public housing should be built at lower densities, and the design of public housing projects should conform more closely to local dwelling patterns and construction practices. This recommendation is designed to avoid the institutionalized character of public housing and to facilitate the sale of public housing when no longer needed for low-income families. |