Local Homeowners Blast Fannie & Freddie

By PRISCILLA PEREZ

A New York activist group accused Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac of working with Wall Street speculators instead of homeowners in avoiding foreclosures and default mortgages on Thursday.

Gathered outside the Fannie Mae Community Business Center on 49th Street and 3rd Avenue, The New York Communities for Change, homeowners and supporters shouted “Whose home? Our home,” as individuals declared their anger and call for change.

“I’m joined with community leaders and elected officials to stop to government, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, from helping investors take our homes,” community activist Phyllis Pruitt said.
“When there is a default on a mortgage, the banks won’t work with us: no loan modification, nothing at all. But they will give investors huge discounts to take over.”

According to Freddie Mac, the current average rate on a U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is 3.72 percent, down from 3.79 percent last week. Still, community leaders are expecting federal housing agencies to work with families who are at risk of foreclosure by modifying loans, keeping mortgage payment affordable.

In Brooklyn, one in every 2,929 housing units falls under foreclosure, according to housing database RealtyTrac.

In Queens, the same occurs in one in every 2,409 housing unit. However, in neighborhoods like Saint Albans, foreclosure are far more common; one in every 544 homes.

Pruitt said that though housing loans are protected by the Federal Housing Authority, FHA, homeowners are not are being offered additional options to keep their homes, or rent their homes.

“The most is that a family gets to stay in their home, the worst is that a family gets to rent the home that they’re living in,” she said.

Similar rallies occurred Thursday in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and San Francisco, calling for the same action and reform by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The HUD has sold more than $17 billion worth of distressed mortgages in the last five-plus years, about 95 percent of which went to private investors, according to Bloomberg News.

Within the last week, the HUD also proposed a rule that may evict over 25,000 families from government low-income housing nationally, as they are classified as “over-income.”

Fannie Mae also introduced the HomeReady mortgage project in September 2015 to help low to moderate income borrowers meet the debt-to-income, DTI, ratio in order to be eligible for a mortgage. In implementation, Fannie Mae would consider extended-family income towards meeting that ratio; between 45 and 50 percent.

“We’ve done nothing wrong and we need our communities strong, we need our children in strong communities,” Pruitt said. “We need communities drawing together, working together to make a difference and we’re out here this morning for you, to let you know that we’re making a difference for all of us.”