WASHINGTON, DC – May 21, 2010 – (RealEstateRama) — A major $3 billion mortgage relief provision authored by Rep. Chaka Fattah (D., Pa) is included in the Wall Street and Consumer Protections Act approved Thursday by the Senate.
Fattah’s national Homeowner’s Emergency Mortgage Assistance (HEMA) plan provides a $3 billion pool for home-saving emergency mortgage loans for unemployed and financially distressed homeowners with prime mortgages. It is modeled after the successful Pennsylvania program which Fattah, as a 26-year-old state representative, took the lead in designing and guiding into law in 1983.
“This will be the most successful program to aid unemployed homeowners because it is a proven program that is now being launched nationwide,” Fattah said.
Cities and municipalities hit hard by home foreclosures will benefit greatly from Fattah’s mortgage assistance provision, and Tom Cochran, CEO and Executive Director of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, was vocal in expressing the organization’s support.
“The United States Conference of Mayors is very pleased that the Senate Wall Street Reform Bill contains additional funds for Mortgage Foreclosure Prevention and Neighborhood Stabilization,” Cochran said. “Mayors thank Representative Chaka Fattah, who initiated this additional mortgage prevention assistance in the House bill, for his continued efforts to support the cities of our nation. These additional funds will certainly be welcomed by mayors, who work daily to prevent the mortgage foreclosures that are still ravaging too many families and neighborhoods in our nation.”
Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter agreed. “I want to congratulate my friend Congressman Fattah for his efforts to secure additional funding for mortgage foreclosure support in the financial reform legislation making its way through Congress,” Nutter said. “This funding will help so many Philadelphians and homeowners across the country who risk losing their homes after falling on hard times through no fault of their own. Philadelphia is a national leader on this issue and Congressman Fattah has been a great supporter.”
Fattah’s state program has provided almost 43,000 home-saving loans for jobless, foreclosure-threatened Pennsylvanians over the past quarter century. The national program now has the potential to help some of the estimated 5.5 million homeowners who were in the process of foreclosure in 2009 and 2010.
The passage of the Senate financial overhaul bill means Democratic Congressional leaders and the Obama administration must now work to combine the Senate measure with a version approved by the House in December, a process that is expected to be completed in several weeks.
