In response to the current billion dollar mortgage and foreclosure crisis throughout the United States, the Hip Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) and real estate and mortgage leaders announced the "Get Your House Right!" financial empowerment and home ownership readiness national tour initiative, targeting Black and Latino youth between the ages 19 to 35, at a press conference this week in New York City.
According to the Center for Responsible Lending, foreclosures soared 75 percent nationally in 2007, and the trend continues today. As a result of foreclosure, African Americans have lost about $92 billion with another $122 billion projected. Latinos will lose $98 billion. Overall, people of color and others will lose more than $200 billion if effective solutions are not implemented.
The Hip Hop Summit Action Network believes that homeownership is the greatest route to wealth building in this country, and the greatest defense against the tide of impending foreclosures is knowledge and empowerment – starting from the earliest ages.
The “Get Your House Right!” campaign will operate as an aggressive expansion program of HSAN’s “Get Your Money Right!” successful financial empowerment summits that have traveled throughout the United States and Canada over the last four years.
The “Get Your House Right!” tour schedule will include consumer workshops, home buyer pavilions, and an advisory panel of industry experts offering home ownership tools, providing “real deal” recommendations, tips and counseling, and demystifying the map for the road to successful homeownership and real estate investment.
"Hip Hop can be utilized as a powerful resource to reach and educate young people about the importance of homeownership in America,” said HSAN Executive Director Valeisha Butterfield, 30, whose statement was echoed at the press conference by among other partners, Lori Gibbs, vice president, Affordable Housing and Industry Affairs, Genworth Financial; Maria Kong, CEO of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB), the oldest and largest African American real estate trade organization; Tim Sandos, CEO of National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP), and Lynn Richardson, chair of the HSAN Home Ownership Advisory Council.
"Homeownership provides a legacy of wealth creation that can be passed on from one generation to the next," said Lori Jones Gibbs, vice president of affordable housing and industry affairs at Genworth Mortgage Insurance.
“But today’s mortgage crisis is something that we're all faced with,” said Russell Simmons, CEO, Rush Communications, who co-founded HSAN with Dr. Benjamin Chavis. “With people having to struggle with just understanding their credit, this is something that is necessary. Unfortunately, young people are not taught financial literacy in school and the previous generation hasn't had access or the education either. Many times [in underserved communities], parents don't know and can't pass down the information to their children. We focus on [ages] 18 to 35 as a part of our core, and they come out and listen to Jay-Z speak. Hip Hop can educate the younger generation about financing and investing."
The "Get Your House Right!" homeownership tour kicks off in Atlanta, Georgia, in mid October. In addition to Atlanta, the tour will make stops in Houston; Chicago; Charlotte, N.C.; Cleveland; Baltimore; Richmond, Va.; and St. Louis. Other cities will be announced soon.
Each event will feature “Get Your House Right" Workshops, Panel discussions and testimonials and HSAN’s partner companies will offer free information, reports and advice, access to financial tools and ownership readiness information to participants who are ready to get on the road toward home ownership.
HSAN is the largest, worldwide non-profit coalition of Hip-Hop artists and entertainment industry executives united in the belief that hip hop is an agent for positive social change.
