By PATRICK LAVERY A new book providing insider insight into how millions of Americans were provided mortgage and rental assistance in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been released. “Shelter from the Storm: How a COVID Mortgage Meltdown Was Averted” is by Cato Institute Senior Advisor Mark Calabria who was, at the outset of the pandemic, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, overseeing Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Federal Home Loan Banks. Calabria’s new policy memoir, promoted as “a story about how you can directly help Main Street without bailing out Wall Street,” not only takes a look at the issues that surfaced in 2020 and beyond but also how the mistakes of the 2008 financial crisis –…

By KIMBERLEY HAAS Officials from the U.S. Department of Justice have announced a settlement in a lawsuit against a Connecticut town that refused to allow the operation of a group home for people with mental health disabilities. The DOJ lawsuit alleges officials in Wolcott, Conn. violated the Fair Housing Act when they denied a special use permit to L&R Realty and SELF, Inc. to open a residence for 13 geriatric adults with mental health disabilities. Lawyers at the Justice Department filed suit last December. “Local governments do not have the right to use zoning laws and restrictions as a vehicle to discriminate against people with disabilities,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in…

Frannie Mae

Policy Memoir About Averting 2020 Mortgage Meltdown Published

CT Town Will Pay $350,000 To Settle Discrimination Lawsuit as Biden Admin Promotes Housing for Disabled