Flack and Feedback on Obama's New Housing Plan

Last week, I was being interviewed on the Leslie Marshall Show (great woman, by the way!), specifically discussing the new Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan. The objective, of course, was to provide listeners with information about the meat of the plan, requirements, who does and does not qualify, etc. I ended up in an all out verbal fight with a caller from Buffalo who was IRATE over the proposed plan, and wouldn't even let me - or the host! - get a word in edgewise.

The new plan is drawing some heat, to say the least. On another show this week, The Daily Drum on WHUR in Washington, DC, I was being interviewed (by my good friend, Harold Fisher), and a caller from Maryland called in to say that he thought the plan was a bad idea. He said he had been responsible with his mortgage... why should he have to pay for someone who wasn't?

Let me clarify some very important points:

1. The Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan is designed to assist BOTH homeowners who are behind on their payments as well as those who have been responsible, but cannot refinance because they have seen the value of their house plummet in this current market.

2. The new plan does NOT reward speculators - investment properties are not eligible under this plan, and neither are mortgages that are not classified Fannie/Freddie-backed mortgages (a lot of the "no documentation/no money down/no income verification loans do not fall under this category).

3. There are a MULTITUDE of reasons that people fall into foreclosure. For someone to lump everyone who is losing their property into the "deadbeat" category is short-sided and irresponsible. People experience a wide variety of hardships - death, divorce, job loss, incarceration, medical issues to name a few. These factors and more can lead to major financial upheaval. There are those who have been irresponsible, yes, but it's not everyone's story.

This plan helps communities in ways that are fundamental to our survival through this crisis - it keeps people in their homes. Now, why should homeowners who currently feel slighted care about that? Because think of how slighted you will feel when the person who lives next to you abandons their home because they don't see any other option, and a meth lab moves in to the vacant property. A prostitution ring set up shop there. A group of squatters see that property as their new abode. YOUR property taxes increase because there is no one to pay the property taxes on the abandoned house and the county feels the need to spread the cost throughout the neighborhood.

Think of how upset you'll feel then.