Report recommends additional mediation programs

Congress should fund state and local mandatory foreclosure mediation programs, a new report from the Center for American Progress argues. When hearing foreclosure cases, most judges find that more than 80 percent of homeowners at risk of foreclosure have not made any attempt to work with their lenders to mitigate foreclosure. But in states where mediation programs are now used more frequently, up to 75 percent of foreclosure cases are being resolved without formal proceedings, the report found. The report recommends that the Department of Housing and Urban Development allow community development block grants to be used to fund mediation programs until Congress provides funding and that the government require mediation for all federally insured home loans. TRD