Robert Greenstein, founder and executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, spoke at the Center for American Progress on Friday, December 5 about CAP’s proposed economic recovery package. Referring to the current recession as probably the longest and deepest since World War II, Greenstein highlighted the severe unemployment crisis and its relationship to poverty. CBPP recently released a report predicting the number of people in poverty will rise by between 7.5 million and 10.3 million.
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The Coalition on Human Needs and the Emergency Campaign for America’s Priorities have released a report in conjunction with their webcast on the economic crisis.

The report describes about $90 billion in economic recovery measures specifically targeted to assist low- and moderate-income families, including the extension and modernization of unemployment insurance benefits, the development of green jobs, increased funding for Head Start and other early education programs, and protections for renters and low-income homeowners.
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By Jon Hurdle
Reuters

Pennsylvania’s U.S. senators said on Friday a program that has helped many homeowners in the Philadelphia area to avoid foreclosure could be a model for rescuing thousands of strapped borrowers nationwide.

Sens. Arlen Specter and Robert Casey held a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Philadelphia to hear how the city was able to prevent foreclosure of about 80 percent of homes referred to the program in its first three months.
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By Paul Jackson
HousingWire.com

New Jersey state officials last week said they would begin to roll out a program requiring mandatory mediation on certain foreclosure proceedings, the latest effort by local government officials to stanch a growing tide of foreclosures. New Jersey Chief Justice Stuart Rabner said in a press statement that the program would provide mediators to help homeowners and lenders negotiate with one another and try to work out agreements to avoid foreclosures.
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Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) will host a hearing, “Keeping Families In Their Homes: How to Prevent Foreclosures – Part II” in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Friday, October 24 at 10 am. The Committee will hear from several witnesses about the housing mediation program that has been successful in reducing foreclosures in Philadelphia.
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The biggest news in the final days of this Congress was the financial crisis and the bailout legislation attempting to respond to it.

We should take note of some items particularly important to low- and moderate-income people, and to all working Americans.
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By the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights’ Karen Tanenbaum

On September 10, the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) and the Advertising Council released a series of public service announcements, or PSAs, designed to educate consumers about predatory lending practices and how they can protect themselves from these practices.
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By Jon Hurdle
Reuters

With the U.S. financial system in crisis due to surging mortgage defaults, a Philadelphia program designed to reduce foreclosure sales may provide a national model to keep people in their homes.

The program, based not on bailouts but reconciliation between borrowers and lenders, has been able to prevent at least temporarily the disposal of many of the properties in its purview.

The first such city-sponsored plan in the United States, it has also saved banks money because it is cheaper to renegotiate than foreclose.
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For years, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has called for regulatory measures to stanch the increasing problem of subprime lending and the resulting foreclosure crisis. Read more about their efforts across the nation.
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By the Center for American Progress’ Andrew Jakobovics

Last week President Bush signed The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, which provides almost $4 billion in grants to help states and localities stem the housing crisis by reducing downward pressure on local housing markets. States will be able to use the money to restore foreclosed properties to productive use.
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