Justice Calls for Foreclosure Mediation Support

The Justice Department's project on access to justice has issued a report summarizing current research on state foreclosure mediation programs, calling for more funding and support.  The report offers an excellent summary of the best available research on foreclosure mediation programs, including the very successful Philadelphia and Connecticut programs, that have participation rates as high as 60% to 70% of defendants, and whose participants achieve settlements keeping them in their home in as much as half of the cases. 

The industry, led by federal bank regulator OCC and housing finance regulator FHFA, is promoting the idea that all foreclosures are hopeless, homeowners are using state law solely for the purpose of delay, and that massive foreclosures are inevitable, that most judicial foreclosures just result in default judgments, so let's get on with it.  The empirical evidence from states where adequate resources are applied, and mortgage companies are compelled to evaluate each and every homeowner with an income and a desire to pay, belies this myth. 

Justice now joins the Federal Reserve in advocating for fewer, not more, foreclosures.