By Moe Bedard
Yesterday’s Hartford Courant ran a story about HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan’s efforts to ascertain for himself the state of the housing crisis around the country and what he’s doing to change the status quo. Apparently, Secretary Donovan thinks there ought to be yet another solution to the housing crisis that would magically preserve the credit of a family in foreclosure and help them move on to new housing arrangements. These options would “allow them to move on more quickly, either to rent a home or buy a home somewhere else.”
The Home Affordable program and the federally subsidized loan modification program haven’t even taken root in mainstream business practice yet. I wonder if Secretary Donovan’s comments will translate to effective public policy that will afford credit protection for families.
While this idea sounds great on the surface, powerful policy geared towards saving homes through the bankruptcy process seems to be dying a slow death in the senate. I wonder if the Secretary’s comments are just smoke and mirrors designed to keep the American citizen in a state of perpetual glee such that we don’t recognize our houses burning all around us.
Even while touting new federal programs to keep troubled borrowers in their homes, the new secretary of Housing and Urban Development talked about the other side of the story today: that not all distressed homeowners should be able to stay in their houses.
“We also have to recognize that there are people who aren’t going to be able to afford to stay in their homes,” HUD secretary Shaun Donovan said, after participating in a forum in Hartford on a wide range of housing issues. “There have to be other options.”
Donovan said those options would help preserve a family’s credit history, deeply damaged by a foreclosure or bankruptcy, and at the same time, “allow them to move on more quickly, either to rent a home or buy a home somewhere else.”
“And that will help to make sure that homes will be resold more quickly rather than having to go through the lengthy foreclosure process,” Donovan said at a forum in Hartford today.
Some activist groups – notably ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, have called for moratoriums on foreclosure until Congress decides whether bankruptcy judges should be given broader powers to modify mortgages in foreclosure.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 0 comments… add one now }