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Stop the Foreclosure Crisis
More and more working families are finding themselves in trouble with debt—and many face foreclosure due to the current subprime mortgage crisis. We have a chance to turn this crisis around and find a solution for families feeling immense pressure.
We're asking the U.S. Treasury Department to step up to the plate and by supporting a freeze on foreclosures. Please join us by adding your name to the petition today, while we have politicians and lenders paying attention.
The freeze, and our plan to make sure this crisis never happens again, are urgent, bold, and necessary steps to ease the pressure on working families—and we expect predatory lenders to fight us every step of the way. That's why it's critical that the Treasury Department hears from people like you. Thank you for your action today.
Dear [ Decision Maker ] , Our country faces an urgent housing financial crisis that is threatening to snowball into a recession. While the Treasury Department has moved in the right direction by urging the banks to restructure subprime loans, this crisis requires more aggressive action, and President Bush's plan will only help a small fraction of the mortgages at risk. We need a moratorium on subprime mortgage foreclosures for at least six to 12 months--enough time to restructure these mortgages and develop a long-term plan to address this crisis. I urge you to take bold leadership by supporting the steps that would stop the snowball of working families losing their homes and their life savings. Otherwise, we face a wave of foreclosures that would crush our economy. Banks will not restructure enough loans to head off a crisis unless a foreclosure moratorium is imposed. But the moratorium is not enough. The mortgage industry and government must create a structured program providing for the replacement of teaser rate loans with conventional 30 year mortgages at the teaser rate, and stop rewarding mortgage companies for foreclosing on homes rather than encourage refinancing. In order to assess the damage, we also need mortgage servicers to report--company by company--how many subprime loans they hold, how many have gone from the teaser rate to the astronomical interest rate, how many have been restructured and how many foreclosures are occurring and where. Stabilize our economy and stop the snowball of foreclosures by supporting these steps today.
Signed by: |
Campaign Launched: |
| Background Information |
Our country faces an urgent housing financial crisis that is threatening to snowball into a recession. While the Treasury Department has moved in the right direction by urging the banks to restructure subprime loans, this crisis requires more aggressive action, and President Bush’s plan will only halt a small fraction of the mortgages at risk.
We need a moratorium on subprime mortgage foreclosures for at least six to 12 months – enough time to restructure these mortgages and develop a long-term plan to address this crisis.
We face a wave of foreclosures that would crush our economy. Banks will not restructure enough loans to head off a crisis unless a foreclosure moratorium is imposed. But the moratorium is not enough. The mortgage industry and government must create a structured program providing for the replacement of teaser rate loans with conventional 30 year mortgages at the teaser rate, and stop rewarding mortgage companies for foreclosing on homes rather than encourage refinancing.
In order to assess the damage, we also need mortgage servicers to report -- company by company -- how many subprime loans they hold, how many have gone from the teaser rate to the astronomical interest rate, how many have been restructured and how many foreclosures are occurring and where.
