FORECLOSURE MEETING...February 24, 2009
Over 700 community members came together for Faith In Action Kern County's Foreclosure Crisis Action Meeting.As a result, Faith In Action won commitments from local, regional, and federal officials to strengthen the foreclosure prevention efforts in Kern County and save our neighborhoods from blight and degradation due to foreclosures.
Meeting Outcomes:
As a result of our action meeting, Faith In Action gained support from various local, regional and federal agencies. The following commitments were made:
* HUD Regional Director Rollie Smith committed to finding new resources to fund more HUD-certified foreclosure counselors for Kern County.
* HUD Regional Director Rollie Smith stated he would call the Secretary of HUD Wednesday morning to report that 550 Kern County residents were organized to stop preventable foreclosures.
* All Agencies in attendance agreed to form a Kern chapter of the No Homeowners Left Behind Program.
* Congressman Jim Costa's Representative Nicole Villaruz agreed to coordinate a meeting between the Congressman and Faith In Action leaders when they visit Washington, DC in March.
* Federal Reserve Regional Director Darryl Rutherford committed to bringing more lenders to Kern County for borrower fairs and other events so borrowers can meet with lenders face-to-face.
* Wells Fargo Community Development Manager Oscar Cabello agreed to set up meetings between Wells Fargo and borrowers within Faith In Action congregations and neighborhoods.
* Wells Fargo's Oscar Cabello also agreed to working with local city, county and non-profit agencies so that they may purchase REO properties at a discount.
County of Kern and City Community and Economic Development Directors- as well as the Housing Authority-agreed to working with Faith In Action to leverage Neighborhood Stabilization Funds and target specific neighborhoods in east and central Bakersfield.
DESPITE COLD WEATHER, OVER 50 PEOPLE GATHER AT LIBERTY FOR CANDLE LIGHT VIGIL
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Despite the cold and wet weather, dozens of Faith In Action leaders and clergy gathered Tuesday night for an hour of prayer, song, and testimonials. The elements could not keep the people of faith away from praying together at the Liberty Bell for our entire community.
The current economic and foreclosure crisis plaguing our community has dramatically hurt many local families and torn apart neighborhoods. On Tuesday night, the faithful gathered to pray for answers and solutions.During the vigil, Pastor Victor Perez of Believers in Jesus Church urged the community to "Pray for families who are struggling."
Mary Lou Martinez, Parishioner of St. Joseph's Catholic Parish, urged people to remember the children. "People aren't seeing the whole picture, the children. We have to remember the children," Martinez said, a seventh-grade language arts teacher, as she recounted the story of a student forced to move yet a fourth time in just a few months.
"We know that God makes a way in times when there seems to be no way," said Pastor Vivian West of United in Christ Ministries, urging that people put their needs and trust in God during times of economic peril.Faith In Action Kern County's candlelight vigil initiated the organization's work on preventing future foreclosures and stabilizing neighborhoods.
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Faith Leaders Say Most Efforts to Stop Foreclosures Are “Too Little, Too Late”Join national religious and lending organizations in releasing policy paper urging Congress & President to adopt strategies to prevent 3 million foreclosures
Faith leaders from Faith In action Kern County have joined with PICO National Network – a nationwide coalition of 1,000 congregations – and the Center for Responsible Lending in releasing a policy paper highlighting the failures of the current voluntary, case-by-case approach to loan modifications.
The paper, entitled “Common-Sense Solutions for Saving Homes & Communities,” calls for a different approach, one that is comprehensive and could prevent as many as three million of the foreclosures expected in the next several years. The need for this approach comes as both Democratic and Republican members of Congress increasingly agree on the need to help struggling homeowners and as the new White House prepares to announce its foreclosure prevention plan next week.
In addition to policy recommendations, the paper also includes stories of families in California, Florida, and Missouri, struggling to save their homes.
Pastor Chris Buma, Interim Pastor of Emmanuel Lutheran Church in east Bakersfield cannot believe the current state of affairs. "It has been appalling to witness the unscrupulous practices of those, who by their unethical pursuit of wealth, ignored the consequences of their behavior which has included the loss of basic needs for others. Both the hebrew and christian scriptures renounce unfair financial gain. it is not money that is the root of all evil, as some misquote 1 timothy 6:10, but rather, it is 'the love of money' that is the root of all evil."
With approximately 40,000 foreclosures every week ravaging communities across the country and continuing to undermine family wealth and the economy, PICO and CRL point out that most current loan modifications have are too small, and come too late in the process, to substantially decrease the number of foreclosures. They oftentimes lead to short-term workouts that fail because they have not substantially cut a borrower’s monthly payments.
The paper calls on the Obama Administration and Congress to embrace the policies necessary to avoid preventable foreclosures quickly enough and in the numbers needed to make a difference to communities and to the economy, including:
• Requiring all banks receiving taxpayer money under the TARP to adopt the FDIC's loan modification model, which has been used successfully at IndyMac Federal Bank;
• Lifting the ban on judicial loan modifications, which would prevent hundreds of thousands of foreclosures with no cost to the taxpayer;
• Changing rules so the government can purchase whole loans out of mortgage-backed securities and change other terms of these contracts that now impede reasonable modifications;
• Ensuring mortgage modifications don't come with income tax burdens that effectively make the loan unaffordable and therefore likely to fall into default again.