[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 59 (Thursday, April 10, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E579]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 NATIONAL FAIR HOUSING ALLIANCE COMPLAINT AGAINST SAFEGUARD PROPERTIES

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                           HON. MARCY KAPTUR

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 10, 2014

  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the National Fair Housing 
Alliance and the Toledo Fair Housing Center filed a Federal housing 
discrimination complaint with the Department of Housing and Urban 
Development against Safeguard Properties headquartered in Ohio. 
Safeguard is the Nation's largest privately held mortgage field 
services property preservations company. Their business model involves 
maintaining and marketing bank owned, foreclosed homes (REO 
properties). The National Fair Housing Alliance and its member 
organizations have recently gathered evidence that shows that companies 
like Safeguard are neglecting and failing to maintain foreclosed homes 
in minority and low income neighborhoods.
  In Toledo, Dayton, Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Memphis, Safeguard 
has failed to prevent blight from entering into the neighborhoods that 
are most venerable in our country. In an Office of the Inspector 
General report they were named as one of the preservation companies 
that would provide inaccurate information and would manipulate photos 
of foreclosed properties that it managed in their reports to Fannie 
Mae. We cannot allow these big corporations to continue taking 
advantage of the American people. I would encourage more States and 
representatives to investigate situations like this and send a message 
to these companies that we will not sit back and allow them to profit 
off of the suffering of the American people any more.

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