Testimony of Julia Gordon, Center for Responsible Lending Before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee

Good afternoon Chairman Gutierrez, Ranking Member Hensarling, and members of the
Subcommittee. Thank you for inviting us to testify about ways to reform mortgage
lending so that we can prevent a repetition in the future of the foreclosure crisis that has
brought today’s economy to its knees.

I serve as Senior Policy Counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), a
nonprofit, non-partisan research and policy organization dedicated to protecting
homeownership and family wealth by working to eliminate abusive financial practices.
CRL is an affiliate of Self-Help, a nonprofit community development financial institution
that consists of a credit union and a non-profit loan fund. For close to thirty years, Self-
Help has focused on creating ownership opportunities for low-wealth families, primarily
through financing home loans to low-income and minority families who otherwise might
not have been able to get affordable home loans. Self-Help’s lending record includes a
secondary market program that encourages other lenders to make sustainable loans to
borrowers with weak credit. In total, Self-Help has provided over $5.6 billion of
financing to 62,000 low-wealth families, small businesses and nonprofit organizations in
North Carolina and across America.