Franken, Snowe, Murray Homeowner Advocate Amendment Passes Senate

WASHINGTON, D.C– The Senate passed
an amendment offered by U.S. Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.), Olympia J. Snowe
(R-Maine), and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) to the safety net legislation now being
considered on the Senate floor. The proposal will create an Office of the
Homeowner Advocate, funded from existing sources, whose focus would be on
assisting homeowners who believe their mortgage servicer is breaking the rules.
Currently, these families have nowhere to turn when wrongly denied from the
assistance program, or encounter difficulties in navigating the already
stressful system of avoiding foreclosure.  The amendment passed with broad
bipartisan support, 63 to 33. 

“Washington state families who have been hit hard by lost jobs and
plummeting housing prices are fighting to stay in their homes,” said
Senator Murray. “We need to make sure that the programs we put in place to
help these families are actually working and that the big banks are being
forced to play by the rules. Giving families a strong voice in this process is
critical to preventing future foreclosures and speeding our economic recovery.”

“This victory means help for the
many Minnesotans who are in danger of losing their homes through no fault of
their own,” said Sen. Franken. “These families are doing their best in a
tough economy that they didn’t create. And they need to know there’s someone
who has their back when they’re trying to navigate the already stressful system
of avoiding foreclosure.”



“I could not be more pleased that the Office of Homeowner Advocate Amendment
passed the Senate, and by a bipartisan vote. As Mainers and Americans know too
well, these turbulent economic times, in which we have witnessed record high
unemployment rates, have been confounded by the housing market crisis and
certain mortgage servicers who are, frankly, taking advantage of our nation’s
families,” said Sen. Snowe. “By creating an Office of the Homeowner
Advocate, these Americans will receive the vital assistance they require when
they are faced with the daunting foreclosure system.”



The Office of the Homeowner Advocate is modeled after the successful Office of
the Taxpayer Advocate at the Internal Revenue Service. It aims to help resolve
problems with the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), a program
developed by the U.S. Treasury Department to help homeowners struggling to keep
their homes.  It would be funded from money that is available for the
costs of administering the HAMP program, but is not otherwise committed.

 

Those currently participating in the HAMP program and stand to benefit
immediately from the Franken amendment. More could participate in HAMP if the
proposal goes through, as the Office of the Homeowner Advocate would be tasked
with correcting the mistakes currently denying them eligibility. As the
foreclosure crisis goes on, many more people are expected to join the HAMP
program, which was originally expected to help three to four million homeowners
nationwide.

 

The Office of the Homeowner Advocate would have three primary functions: To
assist homeowners, housing counselors, and housing lawyers in resolving
problems with the HAMP program; to identify areas where homeowners are having
problems in dealing with the HAMP program; and to identify possible
administrative and legislative changes to HAMP.

 

The Office of the Homeowner Advocate would:

• Have an independent director, appointed by the
  Secretary of Treasury in consultation with the Secretary of Housing and
  Urban Development.  This director would have a background as an advocate
  for homeowners and have experience dealing with mortgage servicers.
   The director cannot have worked for a servicer or for the Treasury
  Department within the past four years.
• Make the Director available to testify in front of the
  Senate Banking Committee and House Committee on Financial Services at
  least four times a year, or at any time at the request of the Chairs of
  either committee, and issue a formal report to Congress once a year.
• Have staff designated by the Director to have the
  authority, on a case-by-case basis, to implement servicer remedies,
  subject to the approval of the Assistant Secretary for Financial
  Stability. This will help to ensure that the staff of the Office of the
  Homeowner Advocate actually have the ability to make servicers follow the
  rules.