As a new senior housing adviser to the Obama administration, USC's Richard Green said one of his top priorities is to make home ownership more possible for groups who've historically had trouble getting loans, such as immigrants.
His work in the Southern California region, as the Director of USC's Lusk Center for Real Estate, is informing his role at the Department of Housing and Urban Development where he will advise on housing financing.
"I’m convinced there are people who are safe credit risks who are not getting mortgage credit right now," Green said.
This includes newer immigrants "who may have paid their bills their whole lives before they came to the United States."
"There’s no record of that history yet they could be very good people to lend money to," he said.
Green would also like to see lenders extend home loans to applicants who live in multi-generational households.
"Latino households, Asian households — there’s a greater tendency for these households to be multi-generational," Green said. "And what that means is, there are several sources of income coming in the door."
Lenders became tighter-gripped after the recession, and Green said it's become too hard for some people to get mortgages.