By David Rose

     NTIC’s mission is to support community-based organizing while winning on issues that most affect America’s neighborhoods. While many academic institutions and organizations do research,  NTIC’s research is tailored to the needs and perspective of neighborhoods.  NTIC’s choice of research projects and its approach are informed by its close relationship with its community-based partners. 

 “If community groups aren’t going to use the research as part of a local or national campaign, we see little reason for NTIC being the one to do the research,” said David Rose, NTIC’s Research Director.  “We always try to couple our research efforts to policy questions that arise from neighborhood issues like abandoned buildings or predatory lending.”

NTIC studies and reports have been an integral part of public policy work.  The  passage of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) is still the most significant victory of community organizing.  But before its passage, groups needed to document “redlining” to show the need for CRA.

 The campaign to pass CRA began with an effort to win the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), which required lending institutions to disclose their lending activities.  However, the campaign to win the HMDA began with groups winning local and state disclosure ordinances.  The studies that resulted from these local disclosures were use to justified HMDA.  And the analysis of HMDA data was used to justify a national CRA.

Research still plays a critical role.  Based on FHA default data obtained from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the study Devil’s in the Details resulted in sweeping reforms of the FHA program in the late 1990’s and a similar study in 2002, Families HUD Abandoned, helped to secure a strengthened Credit Watch Termination program for lenders and the development of Appraiser and Realtor Watches to crack down on fraud and abuse by all participants in the FHA lending market.

NTIC was one of the first organizations to analyze foreclosure filings on conventional loans.  The resulting study, Preying on Neighborhoods, and other analyses, justified the Chicago anti-predatory lending ordinance and state anti-predatory lending regulations.

In addition to studies and reports that are often released with local groups, NTIC does custom research for local groups on housing and banking issues.  NTIC also provides technical assistance and consulting to groups on how to collect local data and how to present analytical results.

David Rose is Director of Research and Technology and has worked at NTIC since 1987.  David  oversees NTIC’s research activities and conducts analysis on Department of Housing and Urban Development FHA default data and data on foreclosures in Chicago.   Rose obtained an M.A. in Economics from the University of Southern California following the completion of a B.A. in English and Economics from Drake University in Des Moines, IA.  Accomplishments at NTIC include involvement in numerous publications, consultation and research to community groups on CRA, FHA and predatory lending research.

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