A Blog Called Hope

Senator Jack Reed continues to be a catalyst for rescuing struggling homeowners

As mentioned last week, Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) has been working extremely hard to salvage homeowners from the current mortgage crisis.

In yesterday’s Providence Journal, John Mulligan detailed the work that Senator Reed has been doing on Capitol Hill. As a member of the Senate Banking and Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, Reed has worked to craft a revenue producing fee on leading lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The money from these fees would help create a federal housing fund that would go to finance federally backed mortgage insurance to alleviate the financial burden on indebted homeowners.
Senator Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Banking Committee, believes this new bill would raise roughly $500 million that would help stave off foreclosure for as many as 500,000 families.

The bill itself is built to adapt to the changing economic culture. The “rescue” function of the bill will eventually phase out and the new housing fund will remain to provide a source of subsidies for low-cost housing for the poor.

“Good housing is essential to families, not just for shelter but for whether they have a chance to live decently, whether they can hold a job, how they can hold a job with a permanent address, whether the kids can do well in school. It’s hard if you go to two or three different schools moving house to house.” -Senator Jack Reed (D-RI)