Opening Doors to Homeownership
Fannie Mae Foundation relies on education, outreach to help minority, low-income families become homeowners
Since the fall of 1999, Stacey Davis Stewart has presided as president and chief executive officer over the Fannie Mae Foundation based in Washington, D.C. As head of the nation’s largest foundation devoted to affordable housing and community development, Stewart oversees foundation spending that is expected to total $115 million in 2002. In addition to projects that create affordable homeownership opportunities and establishes community development initiatives, the foundation funds research at colleges, universities, and think tanks that explores the economic and social dimensions of housing and community development. A former investment banker and former executive with the Fannie Mae Corp., Stewart is credited with leading the creation of a Web-based resource for community development known as KnowledgePlex. The Knowledgeplex Web site was launched in October 2001.
Last month, Black Issues In Higher Education talked to Stewart in her Washington office about housing research, affordable housing and minority homeownership.
BI: Why is the sponsorship of housing research an important part of the Fannie Mae Foundation mission?
SDS: One of the things that the Fannie Mae Foundation does is provide leadership in the field of affordable housing. And one of the most important ways we do that is through financial support to a lot of nonprofit housing groups through grants and loans we make. But to be a real leader in the field also means providing education and hopefully helping shape opinion about the way people should think about the issue of housing. And in order to be credible in that effort, it’s very important for us to have research that is rigorous, and that can demonstrate our knowledge of the field and communicate the facts about the housing situation in America so that people will understand how to make sound and reasonable decisions based on those facts.
