FHFA, Remove the Roadblocks to Recovery for Millions of Struggling Americans

Today American Friends Service Committee joined the Home Defenders League and Occupy Our Homes Atlanta in an effort to deliver a letter and petitions to Georgia Congressmen John Lewis, David Scott, and Hank Johnson. Similar deliveries are happening in 15 states today concerning the very serious issue of our governments approach to housing; more specifically Fannie Mae and Freddy Macs unwillingness to work with struggling Americans.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were created as government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) with the mission of expanding access to homeownership and affordable housing. After the housing bubble burst in 2008, Fannie and Freddie were bailed out with $180billion of tax-payer funds and placed under the conservatorship of the newly established Federal Housing Finance Agency. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which together are now 79% tax payer owned, own or control over half of all mortgages- over 90% of new mortgages- in the United States.

In the time since the crisis began the FHFA, under the leadership of acting director Ed DeMarco, served as a roadblock in the path to recovery, instituting policies that harm families, hurt communities, and violate federal law. For example, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have refused to offer principal reduction for underwater homeowners, a move that according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) would save the federal government $2.8 billion, pump $101.7 billion back into the economy, and prevent tens of thousands of foreclosures.Additionally, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have refused to allow buybacks of homes post-foreclosure or accept rent from former homeowners, choosing to sell the homes to investors for pennies on the dollar instead. These are just a few examples of current polices in place at the FHFA that continue displace families and destroy communities across our city and as an organization dedicated
to housing justice in Atlanta, we see this impact firsthand every day.

Today, with the help of the American people, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have returned to profitability, earning the US Treasury billions of dollars. In January, after a two year campaign to remove acting FHFA director Ed Demarco, North Carolina Congressman Mel Watt- was confirmed as the new permanent director of the FHFA, signaling the possibility for changes at the agency. While some progress has been made, for many struggling homeowners, relief is not coming fast enough. The changes we are calling for immediately include:
• Accepting rent from tenants and former owners after foreclosure
• Providing loan modifications that include principal reduction to the current market value
• Selling homes back to occupants post-foreclosure at the current market value
• Donating vacant homes to community organizations to create affordable housing
• Putting more than $570million into the National Housing Trust Fund that has been withheld by Mr.
Watt’s predecessor, Ed DeMarco.
• Reject legislation or proposals that would mandate discrimination by federal agencies against mortgage
loans made in communities that may implement local principal reduction programs.

After delivery a letter and a petition to pressure Mel Watt, we also left petitions with each congressman that were for individual local housing justice campaigns that were in their perspective districts. I hope you will consider signing each of those petitions!
Nancy Daniells
Zannie Jackson
Nazim Abdul-Latif

Mel Watt Welcoming Party!

After over a year of pressure from grassroots organizations like Occupy Our Homes Atlanta, former head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Ed DeMarco has been fired. There’s a new boss overseeing mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and his name is Mel Watt.

Today American Friends Service Committee joined members of Occupy Our Homes Atlanta, including struggling homeowners Zannie Jackson and Nancy Daniell who are facing foreclosure at the hands of Fannie and Freddie respectively, in  throwing a welcoming party for Director Watt at the Atlanta regional office of Fannie Mae. Like any good party there was cake, balloons, and even a great big greeting card for Mel Watt.  

Residents and community members spoke about Mel Watt’s potential to help communities around the country, and what we believe should be his main priorities at the FHFA.

 

We know that Mel Watt has the potential to be a great community partner and work to keep people in their homes. However, we want him to know that we plan on holding him accountable every step of the way. While Mel Watt has already taken steps to distance himself from DeMarco, we want to make sure he starts working on the things communities need right away.

Mel Watt has the power to relief struggling homeowners of dept that insures loans will remain underwater for years if not forever. We hope that Watt will also turn over vacant properties to community groups to be used for affordable/transitional housing units. As city's like Atlanta continue to see the number of homeless increase, it's painful to see empty homes in struggling communities.

 

After we gathered in front of Fannie Mae's regional head quarters, signed our cards, and each shared our hope and dreams for Mel Watt, we decided it was time to deliver our giant greeting card, the cake, and the balloons! Zannie and Nancy also delivery copies of their online petitions to save their homes. Well, it turns out the surprise was on us! Fannie Mae decided to tell the private security force not to allow us in the building, and not to accept our greeting card.

 

Never ones to leave the job undone,  we simply went around the side of the building and delivered our package at the building loading dock, where it was gladly accepted!

Please sign Zannie Jackson and Nancy Daniell's online petition's by clicking on their names.

Fannie Mae Break Through

After a year solid direct action and public pressure campaigns from grassroots organizations all over the country, Fannie Mae agreed to meet with us this past week to, discuss policies that many believe are holding our communities hostage, to discuss 98 homeowner/tenant campaigns that need to be resolved asap, and to develop a direct line of communication moving forward.

I was invited to attend the meeting along with 12 other housing justice organizers. I was especially excited that Mark Harris, a homeowner with an active campaign against Fannie Mae, was able to travel with me from Atlanta to Washington DC to represent his case in person and to deliver his online petition.

We were set to meet with three high level Fannie Mae officials; The communication’s Director, the vice president of sales, the vice president of REO fulfillment.

 

One thing that was made clear at the beginning of the meeting was that any principle reduction was off the table. Fannie may was put under federal conservatorship after the government bailed Fannie Mae out. That means that Fannie Mae is now overseen and forced to comply with FHFA, which is run by Ed DeMarco. Ed DeMarco has said that he believes that principle reduction presents a moral hazard for America despite moderate voices like President Obama and Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner calling for some sort of mass principle reduction that would act as a people’s bailout.  

Our crew represented!  Melonie Griffiths facilitated fantastically, and each Fannie Fighter (Marcia Iza, Marilyn Elazegui, Rose McGee, Mark Harris, and Kenneth Brown--representing his mother) was powerful in sharing their story and demands.  Fannie Mae agreed to continue formal communications and to look at cases (including new ones) and certain policy areas with us.  They said a clear NO to principal reduction but did show a willingness to work with us on some areas including donation of properties for $1 or low cost and tenant issues.  They will be give us an update in writing by the end of next week on the post-foreclosure cases we submitted (pre-foreclosure they say will take more time to get us responses.) 

" I went to D.C. to get principle reduction. That did not happen, but i did learn more about the process. This action is like chopping down a tree. Each sing of the ax weakens the tree and at that very instant the tree falls under its own weight. I lean not to my own understanding!!!" stated Mark Harris after the meeting.

Many of the systemic changes we have been pushing for are above the heads of those we were meeting with, so the fight must continue. Ultimately the removal of Ed Demarco would be a major victory, and it’s been heard through the grapevine that Obama said he would do it after the election. It’s up to us to make sure he doesn't put that on the back burner.