48 Hours to Save 1.7 Million Homes

by Sarah Byrnes · 2009-04-28 19:58:00 UTC
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The word from AFFIL's Partners in Washington is that the Senate will vote on Thursday on judicial loan modifications.  Lifting the ban on these court-supervised modifications would save 1.7 million homes and $300 billion in home equity for neighbors of families facing foreclosure.  (For background info on judicial loan mods, see this previous post.)

Even though this measure would be incredibly helpful and effective in fighting foreclosures, it's not certain that 60 Senators will vote for it.  (It's already been approved by the House.)  Without 60 votes to get around a filibuster, the measure won't pass.

You can use this link to contact your Senators and make sure they support judicial loan modifications.

Senator Durbin's office put together this useful table (PDF link) showing how many homes and how much home equity would be saved in each state by lifting the ban.  Even the numbers at the state level are huge - for example, 25,000 homes could be saved in Minnesota, 43,000 in Ohio, and a whopping 206,000 in Florida.

When you contact your Senators, make sure they know just how many homes a "no" vote on Thursday will cost your state.

To garner more votes, Senator Durbin changed the amendment from a previous version.  Now, only homeowners whose lenders have refused to use other, voluntary loan modification programs can get relief in bankruptcy.

Still, the amendment is powerful precisely because banks fear facing court-supervised modifications.  The amendment creates a powerful incentive for them to modify outside of the court - which they currently aren't doing.  For more on the politics in the Senate and how the amendment has changed, see this Huffington Post article.

Sarah Byrnes
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