Evaluating The Impact Of The Home Affordable Modification Program In Response To The Foreclosure Crisis: Why Real Estate Securitization Demands A New Approach

Authors

John Kinney

Abstract

This case presents an unfortunate, but all too common set of circumstances in the world today. Plaintiff is a homeowner in financial distress who seeks a loan modification from an unresponsive bank relying on an ineffectual federal program. This statement, by Magistrate Lois Bloom in Rivera v. Bank of America, best captures the utter frustration felt by financially distressed homeowners and sympathetic judges regarding the government's failed efforts to stem the foreclosure crisis. Heard countless times in thousands of courtrooms across the country in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial meltdown, Magistrate Bloom expressed what seemed deliberate efforts by banks and government officials to impede implementation of the federal Home Affordable Mortgage Program ("HAMP").2 The United States Treasury Department's ("Treasury") HAMP program, created pursuant to the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act ("EESA") of 2008, encourages banks to make monthly mortgage payments more affordable for homeowners at possible risk of foreclosure. 3

First Page

244

Recommended Citation

John Kinney, Evaluating The Impact Of The Home Affordable Modification Program In Response To The Foreclosure Crisis: Why Real Estate Securitization Demands A New Approach, 17 U.D.C. L. Rev. 244 (2014).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.udc.edu/udclr/vol17/iss1/11