Mrs. HECKLER. Having done that, I would like to say just for the benefit of the committee, I would like to ask Representative Zeiser to just very briefly tell the committee about a bill that he has proposed in Massachusetts to provide an automated title insurance information system for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts which I think bears consideration for this committee before this committee and perhaps on a national base. Would you just briefly summarize that, please? Mr. ZEISER. This ties into the section of the bill where you are giving HUD the authority to set up on a demonstration basis possible electronic methods in title examination. In Massachusetts, the Congresslady in New Jersey I think it was, talking about the difficulty of title examination in Massachusetts, and I can assure her whatever she has in New Jersey, we have it worse in Massachusetts. We examine titles directly from the public record. We have sometimes little old people with green eyeshades going up there and I think it is quill pen work. In our records we have no tract index systems, you have no way of starting from a geographical map, it is really 19th century, and the reason this bill was followed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is that the conveyance industry would like very much to at least set up a commission, which is what this would do, to see what can be done in modernizing and bringing up to date the methods that we have. I was very interested in this section of this proposal which would bring HUD into the picture. As a matter of fact, Mrs. Heckler, I very definitely hope you leave this section in the bill and I hope that HUD comes into our area as one of the first places where they could try ot help in doing this because I know of no area of the country where we need this more. One last thing on it. People have said, some people have said, and there have been statements in the public press down here that the title attorneys, the title lawyers, the title companies, like the old-fashioned record, like the fact it takes 2 or 3 weeks because they can make more money out of it, that we oppose modernization, they would oppose electronic data retrieval of titles and so forth, and it is quite the contrary. I know of many areas in the country where title companies have made substantial investments in just this, and in our little area of Massachusetts we have some high-powered conveyance attorneys that are behind this bill and we want to do this, we want to improve the record, we want to set up a tract index system, we want to do these things because we are not benefiting any more than the consumer is benefiting from 19th century methods in the title examination and insurance areas, so that is what this bill is about. I sure hope in your bill that HUD gets this power and that we get a chance to talk to them about it when it becomes law. The CHAIRMAN. The time of the gentlewoman has expired. Mr. Mitchell. Mr. MITCHELL. Thank you very much for being here. I will address a question to everyone generally and then I will get more specific. Would you be in agreement that increasingly the poor and the black over this Nation are found in cities, in urban centers as opposed to the suburbs and counties contiguous and adjacent to cities? Would you agree to that? As I understand it, Mr. Waranch, there were 2 million housing units last year, right? Mr. WARANCH. 2.084 million. Mr. MITCHELL. Could you give me an idea as to what percentage of that 2.084 million was in cities, with their concentration of poor and black, as opposed to noncity areas? Mr. WARANCH. I am not prepared to, I do not believe that is available to use at this point. Mr. MITCHELL. I think it is important to know this. Mr. WARANCH. We would be delighted to try to find it for you, Mr. Mr. MITCHELL. I would be delighted to receive it because I have the very distinct impression the bulk of those new units are not in cities. Thus, as a result of the operations or of the reluctance on the part of National Homebuilders Association, National Mortgage Bankers Association, and National League of Insured Savings Associations, poor and black people in cities can be jeopardized and exploited in housing, because of the housing shortage. I would like very much to get that data because it seems to me that all three of these agencies and others are culpable in terms of the kind of housing exploitation that blacks and poor people undergo in cities. (In response to the request of Mr. Mitchell, the following information was submitted for the record by Mr. Waranch:) REPLY RECEIVED FROM MR. WARANCH With respect to the percentage of new housing being built in central cities, NAHB was informed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development that the only statistical information on this matter was developed in 1969. We have been furnished a copy of this report and submit it herewith. It should be pointed out that statistical information developed in 1969 would not yet have an opportunity to reflect actions taken under the 1968 Housing Act which directed greater use of HUD and FHA programs in the central cities. |