Efforts to spare unemployed from foreclosure stall, By Andrew Martin, June 5, 2011, Boston Globe: “The Obama administration’s main program to keep distressed homeowners from falling into foreclosure has been aimed at those who took out subprime loans or other risky mortgages during the heady days of the housing boom. But these days, the primary cause of foreclosures is unemployment. As a result, there is a mismatch between the homeowner program’s design and the country’s economic realities – and a new round of second-guessing about how best to fix it. The administration’s housing effort includes programs to help unemployed homeowners, but they have been plagued by delays, dubious benefits, and abysmal participation. For example, a Treasury Department effort started in early 2010 allows the jobless to postpone mortgage payments for three months, but the average length of unemployment is now nine months. As of March 31, there were only 7,397 participants…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty