NLIHC, National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), and National Housing Law Project (NHLP), along with more than 80 other national organizations, sent a letter to the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and acting chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) urging them to take immediate action to prevent or limit imminent rental evictions and home foreclosures in the private mortgage market. CFPB and FTC have existing legal authority to address unfair, deceptive or abusive evictions or foreclosures in the midst of a health and economic crisis and must act on them to protect over 11 million families at risk of losing their housing.
According to the letter, “While the CDC eviction moratorium has been helpful, it still leaves many families unprotected, it has been inconsistently implemented, and some landlords have used questionable and sometimes abusive tactics to evade it. The CDC moratorium also does not address the loss of homes due to foreclosures, and the foreclosure moratorium adopted by the federal housing agencies does not extend to one-third of the mortgage market.”
Homeowners with private loans, including those with private loans including those with private loans on 2-4 family properties, or homeowners facing a foreclosure due to past-due taxes, homeowner association fees or payments on most manufactured homes are not covered in the foreclosure moratorium. Many of these homes are behind in mortgage payments and may soon lead to foreclosure actions. Without additional protections by the CFPB and FTC, many will lose their homes and be forced to move at a time when COVID-19 levels are still high and vaccination access for many is still months away. As a result, the financial impact of COVID would result in substantially greater risk of spreading illness.
The letter urges CFPB and FTC to immediately take bold action to ensure the protection of the health and welfare of families, promote equity, and prevent avoidable foreclosures and evictions.
The letter is at: https://bit.ly/3kIybvf