Bennet Receives Frequent Calls From Coloradans Who Are Months Away From Foreclosure But Are Being Turned Away by Lenders When They Seek assistance
Bennet Pushes Fed Agencies to Improve Loan Modification Programs For Colorado Residents At Senate Banking Committee Hearing
Bennet Reiterates: Focus on Main Street and Homeowners-Not Just Wall Street
Washington, DC – Highlighting the story of an Aurora resident at risk of losing his home, Michael Bennet, U.S. Senator for Colorado, today urged the Treasury Department and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to improve loan modification programs for Colorado residents at a Senate Banking Committee Hearing. Bennet reiterated that the focus needs to be on Main Street and homeowners, not just Wall Street.
Bennet said that a local resident, David Croach of Aurora, a former Air Force Security Police Officer, was laid off last year and is struggling to make ends meet with the salary from his part time job. Croach is dangerously close to foreclosure yet he was told by the lender that he made too much money to qualify for a loan modification. Bennet said that Mr. Croach’s struggle illustrates how federal efforts to encourage foreclosure prevention and mitigation are still falling short.
At the hearing, Bennet pushed the Administration to help Croach and those like him, requesting the Administration work with lenders to create a temporary moratorium on foreclosures until it can properly establish its foreclosure prevention programs.
“Our homeowners are suffering tremendously. Whatever you can do to put in big block letters in the front offices of the loan providers that you are talking about, something that says ‘check twice,’ and make sure you are doing everything you can do to keep people in their homes. Because it works to the benefit of everybody – this is one of those cases where no one wins if a foreclosure that could have been avoided isn’t avoided. No one wins – the banks don’t win, the other homeowners in the neighborhood don’t win, and the community doesn’t win,” Bennet said.
Bennet also said he wants to hear back from the Administration on “what the targets are and what are the agreed upon steps going forward so that we have some assurance that things are moving forward and if there are things that we haven’t done, let us know what those are. This housing issue is a fundamental issue for our families. Our economic recovery depends on us getting this right.”