Money | 10/30/2008 10:20 am

At Risk of Foreclosure? Help May Be on the Way

By The Staff at wowOwow.com

Up to three million homeowners in danger of losing their houses may soon get some help from the government.

The Treasury and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. are close to an agreement on a plan to have the government guarantee the mortgages of millions of distressed homeowners, The Washington Post reports.

The plan, which sources said could cost $40 billion to $50 billion, would go well beyond previous government and private-sector initiatives that critics say have attracted too few lenders or didn’t give enough help to homeowners to stem the foreclosure crisis.

The Wall Street Journal says funding for the plan could come out of the $700 billion bank bailout package passed by Congress earlier this month.

Treasury spokeswoman Jennifer Zuccarelli said, "The administration is looking at ways to reduce foreclosures."

Federal officials could also announce a new program to cover as much as $600 billion in mortgage loans in the coming days, the Post said. Several sources said the mortgage program still faces resistance from the White House.

FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Blair said Wednesday that lawmakers need to take more action to help people stay in their homes and to prevent the continued downward spiral of the housing market.

"Everyone in Washington now agrees that more needs to be done to help homeowners," she said.

In other financial news today, new Commerce Department numbers released show that — surprise — the U.S. economy shrank at a 0.3 percent annual rate in the third quarter, its sharpest contraction in seven years as consumers cut spending and businesses reduced investments out of recession fear.

The Commerce Department said the third-quarter contraction in gross domestic product was the steepest since the same quarter in 2001 though it was slightly less than expected.

Reuters notes that the GDP report also showed that disposable personal income dropped at an 8.7% rate in the third quarter — the steepest since quarterly records on this component were started in 1947 — after rising 11.9% in the second quarter.

"Given the scope of job losses seen thus far and still to come, sagging wage gains, restrictive credit conditions and the ongoing housing market correction, consumer spending is on course for an even larger decline," Richard Moody, chief economist at Mission Residential, told USA Today, adding that he doesn’t think the economy will recover until the second half of 2009.

4 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

This should have been done much, much earlier. However, it requires a separate agency with a mandate and rigorous oversight. This should not be left to the Treasury Department.

By Corinne M. on 10/30/2008 2:50 pm

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I am in a situation where my house is in foreclosure and facing pending homelessness due to domestic violence, with my five children; Roland 2, Preston 4, Sarah 5, Zachary 9 & Brianna 11. I also subdivided my house early in the year to a woman who was homeless with her children ages: Noah 2 months, Connor 1, James 2 , Brielle 3, Chance 8, & Charlez 9. Social services refuses to help pay my mortgage, but will place 13 people in a motel and displace 11 children from their homes…only to become homeless. Where are we “the poor” suppose to go? I apply for jobs daily, only never to get the job. Take away my house, and there goes my car, insurance and phone too. Two women with no house, no car, and no job leaves a very depressing situation. How are we suppose to go to the store and doctor without a car? Could you imagine 11 children running around in these types of motels as a place to live? We would be kicked out before we could even blink an eye. Forget the noise, 11 children come with their own sirens! rednails4me@yahoo.com

By Helise Flickstein on 10/31/2008 4:32 pm

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Hi, I don’t know if any of the suggestions I am going to make would work but here goes anyway…. 1.Go to the media. Tell your story. Maybe someone will hear of your plight and be able to help you. 2. Tell the bank that if they foreclose on you, the house may lay empty, get vandalized and will bring in no income for them. Instead perhaps they could let you stay on while you pay whatever you can afford, towards the mortgage or maybe call it ‘rent’. 3. You have already amalgamated with one other family, perhaps you can find other women in the same situation who can come together to make the plight of single moms known and perhaps by pooling your resources you can make a community somewhere else. 4. See if there are any careers you could do online. There are websites such as www.elance.com (and others) where you can apply to do freelance work and get paid for it. Maybe try www.craigslist.com in your area. 5. Start a small business. See what talents everyone has and then work out whether you can shape a small business from this. E.g. if you know how to use the computer, you could start a temp agency doing word processing or data base work for companies which only need temps. 6. Contact established temp job agencies in your area and see if they will take your resume. 7. Start a child care center! I don’t know if you need a license etc but you already have small kids at home, so maybe this would bring you an income. 8. Look at traveling to other States or other regions which might have more work. Look online to see if this information is available. I started my own career finding answers for problems which people had. I offer the answers to anyone who needs them and this includes small countries, communities in strife and individuals and families. To the best of my knowledge this had never been done before but it gives me great pleasure to help others. I do hope some of the ideas I’ve written here are useful and practical for you. I also have other ideas which are useful for gathering people together in their communities so they can unite to overcome problems. These are concepts such as using a ‘local’ monetary system (see www.ithacahours.com); barter systems; job sharing; making community food gardens…. and more… By uniting in a positive way everyone has more power and more say in their lives. I hope this inspires you to carry on - but think outside the box. Regards, Karen Fiala. Co-Founder www.alterquest.org (AlterQuest is THE Alternative Quest for Answers!) P.S. If there is anyone reading this who can help me to promote these ideas so that others can hear about them and use them for the betterment of mankind, I would greatly appreciate it.

By Karen Fiala on 10/31/2008 8:28 pm

e-mail alert

Hello Karen I tried going to the media, at first they were going to run the story, but then everyone else was going in foreclosure and they thought it wouldn’t be fair to those other people who were going through the same thing. The bank is still willing to work with me as long as I get a job even though we are a year behind on the payments. Another woman in here will not work unless I get a mobil home or homes started on my 43 acres. This of course involves money. One to purchase the mobile homes, septic systems. electric and plumbing. I tried getting the domestic violence program involved and having other victims live here. However, they did not want to do it because they would have to own the property. I founded two businesses as well, figuring that this would take off, but it did not. One was cleaning offices, and the other was baby proofing. Apparently neither is needed too much in this area of upstate NY. I have applied to the temporary agencies in the area, and I am waiting for employment. Child care is not for me, I go crazy everyday with my own five…and sometimes I watch my tenants kids too. We share babysitting services with one another as needed. Janice and I also tried contacting every church in the area by letter and phone call asking for prayer requests as well as monitary donations, but we had gotten nothing back. I wish I had the money to travel and move to another state. I do have my house on the market for a year now, but there has been no luck. I want to move to California. I have my BA in Speech and Dramatic Arts and I minored in Creative Writing. It is essentially a Communications degree. I worked at two internships. One was WLIG TV-55 where I was an intern learning at first about all the techinical aspects and then they moved me over to the news room and I wrote and reported the news there full time, but for no pay. I had also worked the following year at Sally Jessy Raphael in Production. My college had no contacts in the industry and I had gotten these positions on my own. I loved working at Sally. However, my true love is in writing. I write scripts. I had written 15 situation comedies. I had also written three original screenplays and I am currently working on my fourth. I want to get my Oscar for best original screenplay, this is my ultimate goal. Here are the scripts that I have written, and I even went beyond the written word on two of them, please read on. “THE REVOLUTIONISTS” (Drama) is about the true stories of Susan B. Anthony & Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s unrequited loves, whilst fighting the unjust laws against women, and creating equality for us all. (Five years of research, visiting the towns that they lived in, giving speeches about these two women, and getting the Childhood Home of Susan B. Anthony on the National and NY State Historic Register. I had also convinced the bank to donate the foreclosed property to the NY State Parks Department.) © & WGAw registered “UNCIRCUMCISED LOVE” (Romantic Comedy) is about a married couple who is trying to keep their wedding vows when both of their ex’s come back into their lives at the same time. © “COUNTER ATTACK” (Political Action Adventure) is about a female college professor who is trying to shut down the Plum Island Animal Disease Center (Orient, NY) and her son contracts an unknown disease because this facility is bringing live diseased animals through the community. (Three years of research, federal clearance to go to the facility, and an interview with the Director, Dr. Col. David Huxsoll, a former United Nations Biological Inspector for Iraq.) © I do have The Revolutionists at Anjelica Huston’s agent currently, and I am waiting to hear a positive response back. She had been in another suffragist film, “Iron Jawed Angels” about Alice Paul the famed woman who had gotten us the 19th admendment, Susan and Elizabeth’s battle for women’s right to vote. She did it for Susan B. Anthony! If the script sold, it would provide the mortgage paid in full for the house thus saving it! Please GOD! I also ran a sanitation company for ten years up until last year. I started this from scratch. After my former half and I split our driver decided to take the customer base while I was in the middle of selling the list to the competition and I received nothing after ten years of hard work. He knew we had five kids and a mortgage and he did not care! I will however try craigs list and try ithacahours Thank you for time. Sincerely yours, Helise Flickstein

By Helise Flickstein on 11/01/2008 5:24 am