By NAREB
Photos: NAREB\YouTube Screenshots
NEW ORLEANS – Delivering the keynote speech at the National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB) Annual Convention, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Acting Secretary Adrianne Todman applauded NAREB for policies and practices advancing Black wealth. She also cited HUD’s many accomplishments during the Biden-Harris administration, such as “helping hundreds of thousands of families keep their home when times were tough during the pandemic.”
Acting Secretary Todman praised her predecessor, HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge, saying, “People kind of forget what it was like when we entered our jobs in 2021. But it wasn’t pretty, was it? No. So we stood up programs” that supported families.
Further, she cited improvements in the housing counseling services. “We did common sense changes in our hard homeownership process. Things like when interest rates went up, it was our Vice President (Kamala Harris) who announced cuts in HUD’s mortgage fees…cuts that today has netted over $800 million in savings for homeowners. Just in the past year, we changed the way that we looked at our underwriting. We got smart about how we looked at student loan debt and making if someone who is becoming a homeowner for the first time, the only thing they have to show is how they’ve paid their rent.”
Acting Secretary Todman congratulated NAREB for working to help families build generational wealth. “I applaud you, and given the partnership that you have with not just HUD but the Biden-Harris administration, I bring you greetings from our president, Joe Biden, and I bring you warm greetings from the fierce and fearless Vice President Kamala Harris.”
Calling NAREB President Dr. Courtney Johnson Rose an “extraordinary leader,” she said, “I met her for the first time last year, and she is rocking and rolling, hasn’t she? Yes, absolutely. So proud of her work. And I also want to thank Renee Wilson for the great job that she has been doing to lead this organization. Thank you, Renee. For decades you have helped generations of Black people restore their faith in the American Dream. You’ve helped them build and rebuild wealth through home ownership and retain hope that our children and grandchildren can have the bright and successful future that they deserve. Your commitment to pursuing Democracy in Housing has endured despite the obstacles, redlining and discrimination, predatory lending.”
Also appearing at the opening session on August 1 were New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, who welcomed NAREB members to New Orleans; Percy Miller (Master P), Business Tycoon and Music Mogul; Ewunike Brady, Head of Home Lending, African American Segment, for Wells Fargo; and Ashley Thomas, NABJ’s 1st Vice President.
“The city of New Orleans is thankful to you for hosting your 76th conference in a city that matters,” said Mayor Cantrell. “I can’t think, think of anyone else that I would wat to be in the trenches with moving this country, moving our communities along, then being with you.”
Over four days, NAREB hosted a series of comprehensive panels, sessions, and workshops providing its members, known as Realtists, with data, counsel, and information that will better prepare them to assist consumers, particularly Black families, and individuals, with selling and buying homes, and building Black wealth, for instance.
NAREB is committed to increasing Black homeownership, the leading driver of Black wealth. The Black-White wealth gap is so expansive in the United States that the 400 wealthiest Americans control the same wealth as all 48 million Blacks living in the country. The wealth imbalances perpetuate the racial disparities in housing, education, employment, income, and health that create inequitable environments nationwide.
Last fall, NAREB launched a Building Black Wealth Tour that has hosted events in more than 100 cities around the country, where NAREB and its partners host classes, workshops, and one-on-one counseling on homebuying, investing, credit, and careers in real estate. There are two million African Americans who are mortgage-ready but are not homeowners.
“Our convention arms our Realtists with the knowledge and tools they need to work with Black consumers to increase Black homeownership,” said Dr. Rose. “Increasing homeownership and closing the racial wealth gap is essential for achieving true racial equality in America.”
ABOUT THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REAL ESTATE BROKERS
NAREB was formed in 1947 to secure equal housing opportunities regardless of race, creed, or color. NAREB has advocated for legislation and supported or instigated legal challenges that ensure fair housing, sustainable homeownership, and access to credit for Black Americans. Simultaneously, NAREB advocates for and promotes access to business opportunities for Black real estate professionals in each real estate discipline. From the past to the present, NAREB remains an association that is proud of its history, dedicated to its chosen struggle, and unrelenting in its pursuit of the REALTIST®’s mission/vision embedded goal, “Democracy in Housing.”
