California Dems intensify pressure on Obama to tackle foreclosures

An exasperated group of California Democrats is intensifying its attack on President Obama’s handling of the ongoing foreclosure crisis.

The lawmakers — who maintain the president has unilateral powers to help struggling homeowners — say he’s chosen instead to prioritize the well-being of the financial industry. And they aren’t mincing words.

“The challenges that we are facing are exacerbated by an administration that has simply not gotten it right over, and over, and over,” Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.) told reporters Thursday in the Capitol. “The administration has simply not done a darn thing to help my constituents.”

“The dignity of people is gone,” added Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), “and the administration has not come up with a response that is satisfactory.”

Other California Democrats were only too eager to pile on, with Rep. Lois Capps hammering the administration’s housing initiatives as “woefully inadequate,” Rep. Jackie Speier urging “bold” reforms in lieu of tweaks to existing programs, and Rep. Barbara Lee decrying an administrative timidness that’s “turned the dream of home-ownership into a nightmare.” 

{mosads}In a Wednesday letter to Obama, the lawmakers laid out some concrete steps they say the White House can take immediately to tackle the lingering foreclosure crisis. Among the reforms, they want to grant all homeowners with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac the option of refinancing to take advantage of historically low interest rates; to install a mechanism allowing more underwater homeowners to pay down principal balances; and to establish a “Homeowner’s Bill of Rights” making it easier for borrowers to refinance.

“These are solutions that are readily available,” said Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.). “The president could simply order them.”

The White House declined to comment Wednesday.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, the leader of the California Democrats’s delegation, noted that the banking industry “has resisted” most of the proposals the lawmakers are advocating. She said it’s no coincidence, therefore, that those changes haven’t been installed.

“The banking industry has been deferred to [by the administration] to the detriment of the American public,” Lofgren charged.

Almost all of California’s 34 House Democrats endorsed the letter, including two members of its leadership, Reps. Xavier Becerra and George Miller. 

In customary fashion, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) did not sign the group letter. But a spokesman said Wednesday that she supports the delegation’s message and will be sending a similar letter of her own shortly.

Recent foreclosure numbers reveal the reason for the Democrats’ concerns. In August, one in every 226 homes in the state was in the process of foreclosure — the second highest rate in the country. Only Nevadans are suffering more.

It’s not that Obama has outright ignored the crisis; speaking to a joint session of Congress last month, the president acknowledged the problem and vowed “to work with federal housing agencies to help more people refinance their mortgages” to take advantage of low interest rates.

“That’s a step that can put more than $2,000 a year in a family’s pocket, and give a lift to an economy still burdened by the drop in housing prices,” Obama said Sept. 8.

As part of that effort, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) — an independent agency that oversees Fannie and Freddie — said recently that it’s “working hard with other market participants to enhance the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP),” the administration’s two-year-old anti-foreclosure initiative. 

“Our goal is to provide expanded refinance opportunities for all HARP eligible homeowners and for the changes to have a meaningful impact,” FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco said last week in a statement.

Yet when DeMarco met with a group of House Democrats in the Capitol last week, he revealed the agency is still working on its strategy, expected by the end of the month.

“We’re still looking for the plan,” Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.) said Wednesday, criticizing the delay.

{mossecondads}The concerns are hardly limited to the House. On Tuesday, a group of 16 senators petitioned the administration to take greater steps to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure. The lawmakers noted that almost 19 million homeowners with mortgages backed by Fannie or Freddie are paying interest rates above 5 percent and “could benefit from a refinance.”

“Any changes to existing programs must enable as many of these borrowers as possible to refinance and to do so at rates comparable to those received by any other current borrower who has not suffered a drop in home value,” the senators wrote to DeMarco, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling.

Spearheaded by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), the letter was endorsed by four Republicans — Sens. Johnny Isakson (Ga.), Scott Brown (Mass.), Richard Burr (N.C.) and Saxby Chambliss (Ga.). 

Many lawmakers are warning that the administration’s efforts to create jobs will be all but futile without a solution to the ongoing foreclosure problem. 

“You can run 100 jobs bills,” Cardoza said, “but the economy will not improve until you fix housing.

“They don’t get it,” he added, referring to the administration. “They need to get it.”