Faith Groups Press Geithner On Foreclosures

By Jena Lowe
Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS) A national network of faith-based organizations, homeowners and community organizers met with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Wednesday (Nov. 3), urging him to tackle problems with fraudulent foreclosures.

Organizers from the group People Improving Communities through Organizing (PICO) and other activists said a program designed to modify mortgages, enacted soon after President Obama took office, is leaving too many cash-strapped families behind.

The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) allows homeowners to modify or refinance mortgages; officials say it could provide relief for as many as 3 million families on the verge of foreclosure.

"Only one half of the families have been given relief," said the Rev. Tommy Pierce, a board member of Illinois People's Action.

Pierce said there are 76,000 families that have been making consistent payments under temporary loan modifications. But after the six-month temporary period ends, many families are forced back into foreclosure. PICO wants permanent loan modifications for these families.

The organizations also want banks that do not comply with the terms of the program to be fined, as well as aggressive enforcement against lenders recently caught up in hundreds of thousands of faulty foreclosures.

"Our goal is to keep families in their homes," said Ken Kelly, a community organizer at PICO. "We think there is authority under HAMP."

Jennifer Murphy, director of lender service relations for the Center of New York City Neighborhoods, said Geithner heard the message, but she was skeptical the meeting would result in many changes.

"They expressed that there is nothing more that they can do to compel the banks," said Murphy. "I would hope they would look harder to see if there is some way. The American people saved the banks. Now it's time for the banks to save the American people."

In a statement, the department said officials will continue to work with PICO and other organizations on the issue.

"We truly appreciate the work that the faith-based community and grass roots counselors and advocates do on a day-to-day basis to help struggling homeowners in need," said Treasury spokesman Mark Paustenbach.

The groups also asked for a moratorium on foreclosures, especially for those who are already eligible or already enrolled in HAMP.

"We advocate for a temporary, very targeted, moratorium in foreclosures to send a clear message to the American public that the Treasury does care about due process," Kelly said. "It would also send a clear message to the market that the administration wants to get to the root of the problem which includes faulty documentation."

PICO officials said they hope to meet again with Geithner within 30 days.

Comments

[Maher Soliman]

05:56 AM on 11/07/2010

Lenders continue to foreclose under the an FDIC receivership enforced by the Dept of Treasury.Its called serendipitously foreclosing on a bad investment. These delinquent "loans" are divested under GAAP accounting rules and prohibit a lender who comits an accounting fraud in a recovery. Borrowers can't defend title under the complicated and difficult accounting rules that attorneys no less understand.

A mortgage is HELD as an investment and not SOLD. Loans SOLD for STOCK compounds the problem. STOCKS charged off to ZERO is case shut. Therefore, the arguments favor fee simple interest in realty and demand the right to fight back. Look, the mortgage is an encumbrance on tile rights to the property. It cannot be enforcable under TARP if tendered for stock offered securing the investment in a "certificate versus a loan on real property.

A lenders mortgage is an "ECONOMIC" interst where the lenders claims fail if consumers can see the wrongful foreclosure under GAAP and FAS 140. First they must overcome the stigma of a moral obligation for repayment under the terms of the note and deed. The terms and conditions are no longer in effect as the lender fights to win back your home. In foreclosure, lenders are highest bidder aginst consumers rights for claiming back the deed. The mortgage is lost to the same TARP program used to enforce a foreclosure.

Remember a year of so from now when eating dinner and "60 Minutes" announces "How America's home were stolen!"

Analyst"
expert.wit­ness@live.­com

[billiej]

08:44 PM on 11/06/2010

Geithner has done his duty by moving taxpayer money to cover his friends bad debts.

It is past time for Geithner to go.

The American people got the bums' rush and Geithner was a key player.

But Obama is in the same mold; so, Geithner is not likely to leave any time soon.

Nor is there likely to be an effective process for protecting those who were taken advantage of by the financial industry - whether it's folks with 'underwater' or 'balloons' or 'adjustable rate' mortgages or just us plain old taxpayers.

We've been taken to the cleaners to cover Geithner's friends' bad debts, and Geithner is going to be kept by Obama, because they're cut from the same cloth.

[PeteLeS]

08:08 AM on 11/06/2010

If PICO is an organization of religious groups than their problems should be seen as a test from their Gawd. Does one not think. They have no reason to interfere with Gawd's plan. NO?

[HazMat5]

02:15 AM on 11/06/2010

Now here's some action by religious groups that I can support.
However, the prez and his men at treasury and DoJ are clearly uninterested in this line of reasoning, else we wouldn't be having this conversation to begin with.
Bill Black has been making the case - quite ably - posting on HuffPo no less. Black has the background and credibility for the detailed legal argument, not just the moral one, and so far the administration acts as though he doesn't exist.

[awenuts]

08:03 PM on 11/05/2010

If they put out a nice buffet for you after the meeting after the official 'appreciation' and the overall 'air' of the meeting was 'fat chance' then you know what it feels like to be a Veterans Organization requesting treatment in accordance with the law of the land...... Oh that's right! there's no law of the land for them to blow off in this case....... the law of the land is that we bail out the banks because unlike the American Family...they're too big to fail! Bet you didn't even get the buffet. Sorry its just really difficult not to be sarcastic.

[brooklyncitizen]

05:52 PM on 11/05/2010

Great that they make their voices heard, but it's not like it's anything Geitner hasn't heard before; he's just nonplussed about the whole thing.

[rf dude]

05:13 PM on 11/05/2010

Have a little faith - and believe in miracles...

[MnM Show]

04:20 PM on 11/05/2010

I think it’s a great idea for these guys to skip the president and instead go straight to someone who wields real power, but at this point Geithner has pretty well established that he doesn’t care about anyone who isn’t a bank.

[selene26]

03:27 PM on 11/05/2010

the most useful thing the faith-based have done in recent memory...

[vulpecula762mm]

02:13 PM on 11/05/2010

Geithner doesn't work for the people... he works for the banks.

This is why Obama is failing.

[Anne Mccormick]

02:09 PM on 11/05/2010

i hope these people all get help to save their homes. but i also hope they learn the lesson that my generation somehow did not learn. don't borrow money unless you can afford to pay it back.

[MyOpine]

07:54 PM on 11/05/2010

Many people could afford those homes when they had jobs. Those who bought what they never could afford stopped hurting a long time ago (ie. 2007-2008 when all this foreclosure mess started) - the current foreclosure pain is from people who bought what their incomes afforded them and then they lost jobs and haven't found new jobs in what is now years for many of them.

[Klarsonent]

10:29 AM on 11/07/2010

I agree.

[sabeenah]

10:34 AM on 11/07/2010

Not only that, people have lost homes with no mortgage attached (paid off ages ago by the family) because they could not pay property taxes. More evidence that REAL unemployment at 25% and holding is a situation created specifically to fund a "cheap" decade of wars - it's one big Ponzi scheme - what "contract" did anyone sign for THIS? And what is the point? What kind of people WANT a country with 40 million USA born and bred citizens as homeless refugees from an economic heist created by war lords (ie "contractors") !? This is complete insanity.

[Andrew C Orr]

08:00 PM on 11/06/2010

Many people didn't realize that the home valuation and appraisal was fraudulent. Thus, they would not have taken out debt on those inflated amounts. Had they known that Wall Street flooded the market with loanable cash by selling bookoos of worthless mortgage-backed securities to an unsuspecting investor class, and it was this illegal activity and resulting oversupply of capital that drove home prices upward...not organic appreciation, they would never had taken the loan. Now that their home values are 50% of what they owe, they are reasonably pissed off. Plus, they must pay federal income taxes for a century or more to pay off the bank bailouts of TARP I and TARP II. So you expect them to pay this fraudulently-conceived debt on the mortgage PLUS the additional federal taxes they cannot get out of??

Add to this a layoff or disability and that simply added to the reality that the best strategy is to not pay the mortgage at all and either leave the keys on the kitchen counter or fight the foreclosure with a good attorney.

[No One You Know]

11:02 AM on 11/05/2010

If "religious leaders" have any pull at all with their "god", now is the time.

[sunshine14]

08:31 AM on 11/05/2010

How much have you loved ME? after profits, said Lord Lord
When I had no place to lay my Head, did you take ME in? noop, profits first.
When I was hungry, did you feed ME? noop, vote no unemploymen, profits first
When I was sick did you care for ME? noop, vote yes, repeal health care, profits first
When I was lonely, did you comfort ME? noop, profits first.
When I was in prison did you come to visit ME? noop, privatized prison, profits first, built more.
When I was naked, did you, cloth ME? Noop, profit first-moved jobs over seas profits first.