Today Neighborhood Partnerships is taking part in a nationally coordinated release of the Corporation for Enterprise Development’s Assets and Opportunity Scorecard. The Oregon Scorecard builds on a family financial resilience framework developed by CFED that looks at ways we as a state can act to support the five steps to financial security – Learn, Earn, Invest, Save, and Protect.
The Scorecard highlights the need for us to take action. Oregon received 1 B, 3 C’s and a D based on our data, and noted both long term and short term opportunities to make improvements.
The Oregon Legislature will re-convene in February for a short, one month session. While the budget will be the big topic of the session, we hope to be able to make improvements on one of the Scorecard recommendations and also make a difference for Oregon homeowners facing foreclosure.
Neighborhood Partnerships and the Housing Alliance will be working in parallel with other advocates in an effort to pass bills that will:
- Require mediation – stop preventable foreclosures: Mediation should be required before finalization of a foreclosure, to provide homeowners and lenders the opportunity to gather information and make timely decisions regarding alternatives to foreclosure.
- Provide “Dual-Track” protection: Homeowners should be protected from foreclosure during the time they are actively engaged in negotiations to modify their loans. We hope to increase transparency and accountability in loss mitigation negotiations.
- Set and enforce servicer standards and regulations: Servicers should adhere to basic minimum standards of good faith and fair dealing. The pending national settlement between the states’ Attorneys General and the 5 federally regulated banks may include these concepts, but state law would still be necessary to cover local banks and to provide an enforcement mechanism.
You can help! Call your legislator today and ask them to take action in February to stop preventable foreclosures and hold servicers to a high standard. And, join us in February as we visit legislators to share our stories. Contact jbyrd@neighborhoodpartnerships.org if you’re able to make a trip to Salem in February.
Not sure who your legislator is? Look here http://www.leg.state.or.us/findlegsltr/.
Click here to listen to a news story on the scorecard release.