Help for Foreclosure Victims Badly Needed

March 4th, 2009 | Tags: Foreclosure Victims

Help for foreclosure victims is not only badly but also quickly needed. Immediate money should pour in to solve the problem of vacant foreclosure homes that have become eyesores.

Baltimore is one of the worst affected regions. Maryland continues to struggle. Obama has come forward with a new plan involving $75 billion that will help about 9 million families from the jaws of foreclosure. These are deserving families and not irresponsible borrowers. For speculators and investors help is not on the way.

Under the plan of Obama and his team, the lenders will be provided with incentives to refinance loans. Government subsidies will allow for reduction of monthly payments of those who are about to fall into foreclosure.

Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac will start refinancing without insisting that the house has at least 20% equity. The plunging market has created a condition of negative equity wherein the value of the house has become less than the loan amount.

Obama is assuring the mortgage payers that those who have been irresponsible will not be given assistance. He also spoke about reform in bankruptcy laws that will empower judges to alter loan terms for specific mortgages that have been unjustly forced down borrowers.

The beginning of the new plan is loaded with promise but it will not produce another housing boom. Urban centres will continue to reel under the curse of vacant foreclosed houses. Obama has also given this issue serious thought and is ready to pump in money into cities to purchase, renovate and resell these cursed units.

In Baltimore, the Patterson Park Community Development Corporation (non-profit) has won laurels for helping many to own houses. Recently it has been active tackling the blight of empty foreclosed houses in southeast Baltimore. Many filed for bankruptcy protection. The amount involved in due mortgage payments was $900,000. The organization has been endeavoring to dispose of 125 units but has been unable to do so because of these being ensnared by debts.

ACORN has been more direct in its methods. It broke open the lock of a foreclosed house claiming that the owner was wrongly foreclosed upon and was the target of a fraud.

Neighborhood Conservation Initiative has been another such organization in the forefront to given assistance. A programme launched by the federal government is trying to attract the proper kind of buyers to the regions suffering from massive number of foreclosed houses.