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Oregonians hit hard by the economic meltdown and foreclosure crisis may have been expecting help from the State. This past week, a very small number got that help. On June 25, the Oregon Legislature passed the revised bill HB3004. This bill helps a limited number of foreclosed former homeowners erase additional debt - the problem is that the scope of the bill is so small only a very limited number of people will be helped. To qualify for the benefit, a person would have had to purchase their home with an 80/20 mortgage* with only one lender providing both the 80 and the 20 mortgage. The other limitation is that the lender had never sold either of the mortgages. That is, the same lender who issued the mortgages was foreclosing on the property.
The bill provides no relief to homeowners who had their mortgages sold, and it provides no relief to those who took a home equity loan. You can be sure that every lender who never sold one of the mortgages in their 80/20 portfolio will be selling one of them this week.
Real assistance to distressed Oregon homeowners has languished at the Housing and Community Services Department for months. Late last year, Oregon Housing and Community Services received over $100,000 from the Federal National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program. This $100,000 is set aside specifically to provide free counseling and legal services to homeowners facing foreclosure, delinquency, or short sale.
In February, the HCS Department issued a contract Request for Proposals for attorneys to provide services funded with this grant. The contract was to have been awarded in April. It is almost July and this contract has yet to be awarded. There have been thousands of home foreclosures in Oregon this year and not a single Oregonian has been helped under the program the Federal Government funded. While Oregonians have lost their homes, and while other Oregonians have watched their home values plummet because of the foreclosures in their neighborhoods, Oregon's Housing and Community Services Department has sat and done nothing.
Oregonians deserve better service from their State Government than they have received from the Housing and Community Services Department.
All Oregonians, including those who aren't facing foreclosure, should contact their legislators and ask them why the HCS Director is not doing everything he can to help in the foreclosure crisis.
*HB3004 relief is really for a type of home purchase called "Trust Deed with Promissory Note." |
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