For Immediate Release

Contact: Steven L. Miller, Senior Editor

Phone: (307) 766-6342

E-mail: slmiller@uwyo.edu

Archived News Site www.uwyo.edu/agadmin/news/news.htm

Date: April 10, 2006

Housing issues focus of consumer conference at UW

           
            A conference on the University of Wyoming campus later this year will arm consumers with information to help them obtain and afford one of life’s basic necessities – shelter.

            Housing issues, lending information, state legislators, and a push for consumer activism are part of Home on the Range, the 2006 Consumer Issues Conference September 28 in the Wyoming Union

            “This conference will talk about housing issues as they affect all types of consumers,” said Dee Pridgen, associate dean and professor of law at the UW College of Law, and lead organizer of the conference. “Everyone needs shelter. This affects everyone. It is open to the public. The conference is geared toward the average person and not the professionals.”

            Keynote speaker will be Allen J. Fishbein, director of housing and credit policy for the Consumer Federation of America (CFA). CFA is a national, non-profit association of 300 pro-consumer organizations, with a combined membership of 50 million, founded in 1968 to advance the consumer interest through education, research and advocacy. (www.consumerfed.org).

            A conference schedule will be available soon and will include various speakers and exhibitors, and it will offer additional resources.

            “What sets us apart is we will have a session with Wyoming and other state legislators in the afternoon,” Pridgen said. “It gives people a chance to express any concerns to a representative.”

            That dovetails with a goal of the conference – urge citizens to become activists and influence government policy.

            “Housing issues occur all over the country,” she said. “But I think it is going to be particularly important in Wyoming and the region as we get more people coming into the state due to the energy boom.”

            Housing shortages lead to increased prices. The working poor may not be able to afford housing, which may force them into temporary housing.

            Wyoming’s landlord-tenant laws are weak compared to laws in other states, said Pridgen. The state also has no mobile home-tenant protection. When someone in an apartment wishes to move, they can relocate to another apartment. When a landlord closes a mobile home park, for example, the tenant may not be able to move the mobile home due to space or cost considerations and lose all their equity.

            Pridgen’s various publications include two treatises aimed at practicing attorneys, Consumer Protection and the Law, and Consumer Credit and the Law.

            Information about mortgage lending practices will be presented, including predatory lending.  Predatory lenders may target the elderly or poor and rush them through the process of obtaining various types of loans, oftentimes putting the consumer at risk of losing their homes.

            “Everybody is a consumer. All have a small stake in issues,” Pridgen said.

            Industry has lobbyists to call upon, but consumers have only themselves. “We have to try harder to get the consumer to lobby for their own interests,” she noted. “Hopefully, legislators will hear their voice, but not everything can be legislated. People need to learn to protect themselves in the marketplace.”

            More information will be released about the conference as it becomes available.

            On the Web: http://www.uwyo.edu/consumerconference/

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