'Hope for Homeowners,' Still Long in Coming

Washington Post, September 28, 2008
By Elizabeth Razzi

We interrupt this financial crisis with a word from its sponsor: the families who are losing homes to foreclosure.

They're still circling the drain, to pick up on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke's colorful metaphor describing credit markets as the economy's plumbing. Right now, the plumbing is clogged with bad securities backed by bad home mortgages. The federal bailout is designed to free up the system.

A separate bailout for troubled homeowners is supposed to launch this week. The new "Hope for Homeowners" program, passed in late July, is scheduled to go into effect Wednesday. (That's lightning speed by government standards.) It's designed to allow refinancing for people who cannot pay their mortgage and who can't refinance into something better because their home value is now too low to pay off the unaffordable old loan.

Under the program, those borrowers may qualify for a new, 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage insured by the Federal Housing Administration if (and it's a huge if) their current lender agrees to forgive enough of their debt so that they would have at least 10 percent equity, right now.

These FHA loans are not available to people who could afford to keep paying their current loans but who don't want to because the home has lost value. Nor are they available to investors, flippers or to anyone who owns a second home.

Lender participation is voluntary, and writing off principal is the last technique most will employ when trying to save borrowers from foreclosure. At a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee on Sept. 17, Molly Sheehan, senior vice president of Chase Home Lending, said, "The investor community still disfavors principal reduction."

In other words, the investors who own the bonds backed by these bad mortgages don't like to write off part of the debt owed so the homeowner can avoid foreclosure. They would rather try something else first, such as reducing the interest rate or stretching out the repayment period, which causes smaller losses to them. Or they might even prefer that the home goes into foreclosure.

Bank of America, which earlier this year bought big mortgage lender Countrywide, seems more accommodating than some other lenders. Michael Gross, managing director for loss mitigation, said BofA postponed all 1,650 foreclosures that were scheduled from Sept. 8 to Sep. 22 until at least Oct. 15 and is evaluating whether those borrowers might benefit from the new Hope refinance. "We will use this program where it is needed," he said. An estimated 30,000 to 40,000 of the bank's customers may qualify.

Relief will probably not arrive on the Wednesday start date. The final details of the program hadn't been published as of last week. And the folks on the front lines of the housing crisis -- housing and debt counselors -- certainly don't have the details.

Those counselors are overwhelmed right now. In Prince George's County, for example, it can take weeks to schedule an appointment with a counselor certified by the Housing and Urban Development Department. It's even tough to get a live person to answer the phone at many agencies.

Mary Dade, the housing counseling program manager for United Communities Against Poverty, a nonprofit community-action agency in Capitol Heights, said many of the people coming in for help simply have too much debt -- of all types -- to enable them to keep their homes. "We do have a problem with the economy right now," she said. "Just the amount of debt you see is overwhelming."

She has heard about the new Hope refinance program but isn't prepared to field questions from borrowers. "I don't think the housing-counseling agencies have been given a detailed briefing on that," she said. She added that she doesn't tend to get too excited about new programs because in the past they have helped relatively few borrowers.

Dade said she was trying to back away from focusing so much on foreclosures so that her program can still meet its other missions, such as providing pre-purchase counseling, assisting troubled renters and educating consumers about how to manage debt. "We can't spend 80 percent of our time on foreclosures," she said, noting that each foreclosure-prevention client requires about 20 hours of work.

She stressed that she's "not a mean person." It's just that many of the people who come through the door simply don't have the income to handle the debts, even with help. "This is my heart here," she said. "I want these people to come back into homeownership another time when they know what they are doing. . . . Homeownership is not for beginners."

Dade added that there's as big a problem with struggling renters in Prince George's County as with foreclosures. The number of evictions this year is on pace to match last year's 4,600, she said. Dade estimates that her organization is able to help about 56 percent of its cases. About 30 percent have other social issues or mental-health problems that they can't address. And the rest never follow up beyond the initial contact.

Sometimes the best help her office can provide is toward getting together the two or three months' worth of rent a person with bad credit needs for a security deposit on a rental.

William Johnson, executive director of Roots of Mankind, a nonprofit agency in Temple Hills, also said there are some owners they cannot help. "Most of them, we can," he said.

He said some lenders are already writing off some of the debt to make mortgages more affordable. But too many are still offering workouts that try to make up for missed payments by raising the amount owed each month. "If you can't pay $1,000, how are you going to pay $1,800? They're ridiculous," he said.

Johnson said it's all up to the lenders whether they offer "a decent workout." Chase and GMAC, he noted, have been excellent about creating workouts that actually work.

If you're in danger of losing your home, and you think you might qualify for one of the new Hope refinances -- or for other assistance, for that matter -- take the initiative. Call your loan servicer and ask about the Hope for Homeowners program. And, by all means, if your lender tries to reach you by mail, e-mail or phone, respond to the outreach. They may have good news about your eligibility for a refinanced loan you can afford.