News
PICO affiliates step up pressure on Banks, Treasury to stop more foreclosures
Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Community Organization (CCISCO), PICO National Network, October 13, 2009
Last week, PICO affiliates presented Treasury officials in Washington, DC with hundreds of stories of families trying to avoid foreclosure in a campaign to have the Administration put more pressure on banks to increase the pace of loan modifications under the Making Home Affordable Program.
The Treasury agreed to participate in meetings in ten cities to solicit community feedback on the modification program, and to address six recommendations PICO and our allies made to improve the program. Click here to see the recommendations.
While 500,000 homeowners have been offered trial loan modifications under the Making Home Affordable Program, few of these have been permanent, and 2.5 million eligible families continue to face foreclosure. Banks are scheduling foreclosure sales even after people have applied to modify their loans. And people seeking help report endless wait times, lost paperwork and an inability to get clear information about the status of their applications or why they were turned down.
Some banks -- especially Bank of America and Wells Fargo -- that service the largest number of eligible mortgages have failed to offer trial modifications to more than a small fraction of eligible homeowners. Click here to see a comparison of loan modifications by bank.
The continued pace of foreclosures and slow rate of loan modifications are another reminder of why fundamental regulatory reform, including the creation of a strong Consumer Financial Protection Agency, is so critical to level the playing field between consumers and mega-banks.
On October 20, PICO affiliate Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Community Organization (CCISCO), together with Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, will be holding a town hall meeting to advance a comprehensive set of policies at the local, state, and federal level to hold banks accountable and speed the process of restructuring loans and keeping families in their homes. The Coalition’s founder, Rev. Jesse Jackson, will be the keynote speaker at the event, which will focus on the need for Bank of America and Wells Fargo to step up loan modifications.
And on November 1, PICO affiliates Brockton Interfaith Action (BIC) and the Massachusetts Communities Action Network (MCAN) will be holding a community hearing with Federal Reserve representatives and Chairman Barney Frank of the House Financial Services Committee to urge the federal government to continue holding banks accountable to work with homeowners to lower monthly payments and keep them in their homes, as it pursues a broader agenda of reforming bank regulation to prevent future crisis.
To learn more about PICO’s foreclosure prevention and regulatory reform work, visit www.piconetwork.org/keepfamiliesinhomes
