Housing Crisis
Floor Speech
Housing Crisis
Mr. Speaker, unemployment and foreclosures are on the rise. In my hometown of Toledo, Ohio, unemployment is officially at 11.1 percent, but that is just those who are looking for jobs. The real number is much higher as so many people have dropped out or are working part time and they really want full-time jobs. Many, many more people are discouraged and are no longer trying to find jobs. Kids are moving in with their parents. These are people, many of whom are losing their homes. The housing crisis continues.
Before the financial crisis unfolded, our housing crisis was unfolding. In fact, it triggered the financial crisis. Congress acted, passing the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 at the end of July last year. I didn't vote for it because I knew it would not work. And you know what, it hasn't worked.
The HOPE for Homeowners program has failed so miserably that HUD had to change the program, and Congress since has had to pass fixes to try to get more participation into it. It hasn't worked. As of mid-July this year, the program that the Congressional Budget Office estimated would help up to 400,000 people rework their mortgages has closed 50. Fifty mortgages. That's five-zero, from a program that was supposed to help 400,000 people. Fifty homeowners have been helped?
The administration announced the Making Homes Affordable Program in February, released rules and regulations in March, and they told us that the program would help 3 million to 4 million homeowners. As of September 30, Treasury reported that 758,000 modification offers, listen to the words, my friends, had been extended with 487,000 trial modifications begun. Hmm. I will be interested to hear when the first modification moved from a trial to a real modification that actually kept somebody, a real person or family, in their homes.
There is no peace for the family while they are in this trial period. They still have to have a backup plan in case something falls through. They are still stressed beyond what you and I can imagine.
The servicers get to sit back and wait, keep making their money. Either way, they make plenty, either from the homeowner or from the government. They have got it at both ends. This program probably won't even help a handful of homeowners.
So we have just 487,000 homeowners with these trial modifications out of the millions of people who are losing their homes. Now that's not 4 million people, like the program said it would take care of. And again, it is just trial modifications. Trial, not real. They get 3 months to show they can handle the modification payments. What happens if they lose their job? If they have already lost their job, unemployment income does not count as income for modification. Can you believe that? We can still tax it, but it does not count to banksters and servicers when they are looking to rack up fees, kick people out, sell the homes for a fraction of what they are worth and maybe pull a profit; and if not, they move that property and destroy the stability of the family that once resided in the home.
I still hear that servicers and banks are hard to work with on modifications. Boy, is that an understatement.
I heard that the Making Homes Affordable Program isn't working. Well, it isn't. The solutions are not working because the system does not work. The housing crisis will continue as long as the job situation is so poor. It takes employment to make house payments. It takes workouts to keep people in their homes, even with lease-to-own programs over a 40-year mortgage.
That is why I am joining my colleague, Bobby Rush, in forming the Jobs Now Caucus. Please join us in taking a stand for putting our communities, our families, our Nation back to work and keeping them in their homes. This new caucus will advocate for policy initiatives that stimulate and maintain a strong economy that is based on sustainable development that will lead to one common goal across the political spectrum: Creating jobs again in America.
The American people want to work. Employment brings stability, and the ability to stay in your home or buy a home and build your community makes this Nation truly strong. Please join Congressman Bobby Rush, myself, and Congresswoman Candice Miller in our bipartisan Jobs Now Caucus.
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