WASHINGTON - A housing advocacy group that waged a highly visible campaign against Fleet Financial Group is now turning its sights on mortgage giant Fannie Mae.
Boston-based Union Neighborhood Assistance Corp. says it is planning a national campaign of demonstrations aimed at fighting state and local income-tax exemptions and other privileges conferred on Fannie Mae by Congress.
The group, which has pressed banks for several years to do more for low- income borrowers, says it has come to believe that the key to such lending is more flexible standards at Fannie Mae, formally the Federal National Mortgage Association.
"The real player behind the scenes that is the real decision maker on mortgage-lending practices is Fannie Mae," says Bruce Marks, who heads the group. Without the tax breaks, Mr. Marks contends, Fannie Mae would not have the market power to set the standards that the group believes are restrictive.
A Fannie Mae spokesman, David Jeffers, said only that the agency is "very proud of our focus on housing and our record of accomplishment."
The Boston activist group, which is known for bare-knuckle tactics, rose to prominence in the early 1990s for protesting Fleet's purchases of high- interest home-improvement loans made in low-income black neighborhoods.
During that effort, the group picketed press conferences, showed up at analysts meetings, and disrupted other gatherings. Mr. Marks has been quoted as calling the group "urban terrorists."
The aggressive campaign against Fleet contributed to the passage of a law last year that requires lenders to make a number of disclosures to borrowers getting high-cost mortgages. Fleet also provided the group with $140 million of funding for low-income lending.
Mr. Marks said he now plans to open offices in eight cities around the country whose top priority would be to embarrass Fannie Mae.
Warren Lasko, executive vice president of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, dismissed the plans as "political posturing." Mr. Lasko said the group's assertions about Fannie Mae have not been documented.
But Allen Fishbein, general counsel for the Center for Community Change, said the campaign could have some impact.
"Bruce Marks is effective, and has a track record . . . to show that he could become a force for mobilizing public opinion," he said.
Mr. Fishbein added, however, that Mr. Marks would find it more difficult to organize against Fannie Mae than against a single lender, and would need to form alliances with other community groups.
The tax issue has heated up this year with some local politicians in cash-strapped Washington, D.C., campaigning for Fannie Mae to pay local income taxes. Fannie Mae has replied that its franchise is to benefit housing nationally, not generate revenue for the city. Key people in Congress have said they do not want to lift the agency's tax exemption.
Freddie Mac is apparently not being targeted by the group because it is not involved in the Washington tax issue and is smaller.
