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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. Eugene DePasquale |
   
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DePasquale throws support behind additional foreclosure rescue proposals
HARRISBURG, June 18 – With the national mortgage crisis still impacting thousands of Pennsylvanians in communities large and small, state Rep. Eugene DePasquale, D-York, joined other members of the state House in supporting three measures that would help residents keep their homes.
At a Capitol news conference today, DePasquale joined state House Commerce Committee Chairman Peter J. Daley, D-Washington/Fayette, in unveiling legislation that would create a Pennsylvania Housing Trust Fund and a mortgage foreclosure rescue program. The proposals are aimed at stemming the tide of foreclosures that have risen exponentially over the last year.
"Although Pennsylvania has not seen the same level of foreclosures as other states, we are still more than 10 percent above the number of foreclosures from a year ago," DePasquale said. "And this is not just a big city or metropolitan problem. This crisis is hitting small towns and rural communities all around York County."
DePasquale said one of the proposals (H.B. 2600), sponsored by Daley, would create a housing trust fund and allow the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency to build or rehabilitate and preserve housing for low- to moderate-income people, the elderly and people with disabilities.
The other two measures relate to the creation of a foreclosure rescue program, which DePasquale said would help homeowners crippled by high interest rates and devalued homes to remain property owners and avoid foreclosure.
House Bill 2602 would establish the foreclosure rescue program to aid in transferring families from unaffordable, adjustable-rate mortgages to fixed-rate mortgages, with the PHFA to assist in renegotiating alternative payment plans with the original lender. House Bill 2601 would provide $10 million to PHFA to reimburse the agency for losses incurred in assisting homeowners at risk of foreclosure because of adjustable-rate mortgages or because the value of the mortgage exceeds the value of the property.
DePasquale said the rescue program would be funded mainly by the sale of bonds by PHFA; payments from homeowners would repay the bonds.
"Each and every day, it seems more and more people are losing their homes to foreclosure," DePasquale said. "Earlier this year we passed a package of bills that would act as a comprehensive approach to helping consumers and borrowers adjust to the instability of the housing market. These proposals unveiled today would directly help residents keep their homes and avoid becoming victims to the housing crisis."
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