Religious Groups and Distributing Foreclosure Aid
Photo by Lumaxart
State officials were asked by religious groups last August to be more generous about distributing foreclosure aid received from the federal government to those that need it. The amount was $1 billion.
An event was organized by the Open Door Missionary Baptist Church and St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church. It was attended by nearly seventy people. The aim of the meeting was to ask the Florida Housing Finance Corporation about the Hardest Hit Funds that were being distrubted among the needy and also about why this program could not be stretched to include more people threatened with foreclosure.
A resident of Altamonte Springs, Vickie Johnson-who is a fulltime employee, mother, and college student, mentioned that, “If the Hardest Hit Fund was revisited, I could keep my house”. Bank of America did allow her a trial modification. However, after she was given a loan modification, although she continued with her payments, the bank foreclosed upon her house.
David Westcott of Florida Housing Finance (Hardest Hit Program’s director) said that his department was compelled to refuse many of the applicants because they were not eligible.
One of the conditions was that the applicant would have to be either unemployed or under-employed. His suggestion to denied homeowners was that they should try their luck with other housing agencies, like HANDS in Central Florida, where they could find assistance programs that would be suitable for them.
Westcott added that his organization was thinking of changing the conditions required for foreclosure help. The sole aim of these programs was of course to see that people could stay on in their homes and not for delaying foreclosures that were inevitable. One of the plans Florida State was toying with was a program involving mortgage-buyback. It has been tried out in Illinois with the use of one of the Hardest Hit funds the state received.
In 2010, the Hardest Hit Fund was started by the federal government in order to help nineteen of the worst hit states. The first recipients were Florida, California, Arizona, Nevada and Michigan. Following advice from the federal government, each of the states developed their own rules for foreclosure aid.
At the meeting, some of those from the public spoke out about what they think about the disbursement rules prevailing in Florida. The general opinion was that the rules here were stricter than those in other states.
State senator Darren Soto ( a Democrat from Orlando) said at a gathering that he had submitted a bill that would speed up foreclosures and forgive the debt of those homeowners who would have to forfeit their homes. He also supported a program that would be of better help to those who were employed and experiencing foreclosure troubles.
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