Months after taking billions in taxpayer funded bailout monies, a number of banks, and their mortgage servicing subsidiaries are still refusing to help homeowners save their houses for foreclosure.  As we continue to read about massive bonuses and other wasteful Wall St. spending, foreclosure rates continue to skyrocket.

Over 80% of the mortgage industry has signed up for President Obama’s Make Home Affordable program, but four important companies have not: Litton (owned by Goldman Sachs), HomEq (owned by Barclays), American Home Mortgage (owned by Wilbur Ross), and OneWest, the new IndyMac. Between these companies, their parent banks have received over 18 billion dollars, and OneWest only exists because the FDIC backing. 

Collectively, the “Home Wrecker 4″ hold the fates of 2 million families in their hands. Since they have refused to sign the contract required to accept the subsidies, those 2 million families don’t have the same basic right to be considered for an affordable loan modification prior to being foreclosed. 

This isn’t the accountability we were promised, when the TARP “bailout” was passed, and it is time for these lenders to either do the right thing, and come to the table, or for the administration’s Make Home Affordable program to be made mandatory.

 
Glenn Burleigh
St. Louis