Government Relations Associate :: Michael Sebring
H.R.839 - HAMP Termination Act – Rep. McHenry (R-NC)
H.R.380 - FHA Refinance Program Termination Act – Rep. Dold (R-IL)
H.R.861 - NSP Termination Act – Rep. Miller (R-CA)
H.R.836 - Emergency Mortgage Relief Program Termination Act – Rep. Hensarling (R-TX)
“One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.”
Milton Friedman’s quote is particularly apt as the House Finance Committee held a hearing on Wednesday with a Thursday mark-up and vote concerning four bills aimed at terminating failed mortgage aid programs instituted in haste during the mortgage crisis of the past few years. These failed programs ($29B Home Affordable Modification Program [HAMP]; $7B Neighborhood Stabilization Program; $8.12B FHA Refinance Program; and $1B Emergency Mortgage Relief Program) will cost the taxpayers $45 billion while doing very little to aid Americans struck by the foreclosure epidemic.
photo credit: kevinspencer
In fact, in many cases, people end up worse off through these programs, which can increase their debt and penalize those who have yet to miss a payment. The Neighborhood Stabilization Program grants organizations millions of dollars (Chicanos Por la Casa received $120+ million) to purchase and rehab foreclosed homes, with zero oversight. These organizations then sell these houses to American families, pocketing the balance without any obligation to return your dollars to the federal government. The FHA Refinance Program has totaled a paltry 240 applicants since its full implementation over four months ago. The Home Affordable Modification Program has or is in the process of performing seven to eight hundred thousand modifications; the Treasury Department expected upwards of three to four million. Representative McHenry, who sponsors the HAMP Termination Act, has in fact charged this program with doing “active harm” to people’s mortgage problems with their own tax dollars.
There are countless private refinancing options throughout the United States that do not commit tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to failing programs, options that actually go towards helping Americans with their problems rather than tying them up in red tape and extra fees. With this in mind, it is imperative to support the termination of these ineffective programs. The American Conservative Union will continue to watch these throughout the legislative process in an effort to encourage lawmakers to preserve quality programs by eliminating those lacking in efficacy and affordability.
www.conservative.org
Wow, you have no idea what you are talking about. Allow me to explain:
HAMP funds are only allocated when a modification under the program occurs. There have been about 600,000 successful modifications, far less than the 4 million projected. While advocates would like to see the program strengthened and expanded, the cost to taxpayers has been only a tiny fraction of the $29 billion allocated.
The Emergency Mortgage Relief Program will provide loans of up to $50K to homeowners who have lost work so that they can continue to make mortgage payments. These loans cost 0% and the principal on them is reduced by 20% each year over five years. In short, if you take the loan, you won’t pay any interest and if you manage to stay in your home and keep current, the debt will be forgiven. This will help hundreds of thousands of homeowners who, through no fault of their own, will lost their homes because jobs are scarce.
Neighborhood Stabilization provides funds for organizations to either purchase or demolish foreclosed homes that would otherwise become blighted and damage the property values and quality of life for their neighbors. Anyone who lives next door to a foreclosure knows what I’m talking about: the stripping of copper and other materials, the squatters, the increased vermin, the unkempt yard. Banks are supposed to take care of foreclosed properties, but they sure don’t do a good job of it. NSP funds put these fallow homes back into productive use. I work with an organization that does this, and we actually lose money on every deal. Why? Because we invest more subsidy so that these foreclosed homes are affordable to working class folks who are trying to enter the housing market and buy a home at a time when getting a mortgage is really hard to do. No one is walking away with cash in their pocket on these transactions.
You should really take the time to learn the facts.
[...] Democrats, perhaps stinging from the fact that they no longer control the power within the committee, responded with indignation that they should now be relegated to defending their programs from termination. The programs under discussion, Republicans asserted, are completely ineffective in reversing the mortgage crisis, especially the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), which deals solely with already foreclosed homes (detailed further here). [...]
We’re a group of volunteers and opening a new scheme in our community. Your site provided us with valuable information to work on. You have done an impressive job and our entire community will be grateful to you.
Hello,
I was hoping I could write a guest blog on your website http://www.conservative.org, with an article related to your site, I believe this will be of interest to your readers.
The article will be 100% original, written just for your blog and will not be posted elsewhere. Of course this will be completely free for you, however I would appreciate a live link back to our site. If you’re interested in this idea, please get back to me. I would like to add one more thing, I will promote the content on social networking sites which will help the post to get traffic and serp ranking.. If you are looking for link swap from a high page rank site, let me know I can go for that deal too which will be free..
Thank you so much for your time and consideration.
Thanks & regards,
kristeen
Just have to tell you, I certainly had great fun at this site. i find it to be refreshing and extremely enlightening. wish there were more sites like it. Anyway, I felt it was about time I left a comment, I will put your website on my favourites list. Thanks once more for sharing this online. I certainly loved every part of it.
[...] And on the other side of the equation, Sen. Isakson may be a third generation REALTOR, and he may be absolutely convinced that homeownership is the cornerstone of the country. But… major influencers like the American Conservative Union — not to mention the increasingly powerful Tea Party movement — are not necessarily in favor of every point on NAR’s program. [...]