National

Congressional Progressive Caucus, Homeowners Call on FHFA Chief Ed DeMarco to Write Down Underwater Mortgages or Leave His Job


New Website ‘America Underwater’ Launches Highlighting Map, Photos and Stories of Underwater Homeowners with Petition Calling on DeMarco to be Fired

Washington, D.C.—(ENEWSPF)—March 6, 2012.  On March 7 at 12:15 p.m. at the House Triangle, members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, including CPC co-chair Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), will join underwater homeowners from CA, CO, FL, MA and WA to demand that Federal Housing Finance Agency Acting Director Edward DeMarco commit to large-scale principal reduction for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages or get out of the way for a FHFA Director who will. DeMarco is not a household name, but should be because he is holding our economy and millions of homeowners hostage.

Experts across the political spectrum have called for write-downs of mortgage principal for underwater homeowners to save families from foreclosure, reset the housing market, and drive an economic recovery. DeMarco, a career bureaucrat and Bush Administration holdover, has flatly refused. He oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, government-sponsored agencies that hold or guarantee 60 percent of the residential mortgages in the U.S., including nearly three million underwater loans. 

At this event, The New Bottom Line and Rebuild the Dream will announce the launch of the America Underwater website, with a map that calculates the influx of money to each state if FHFA and the banks did large-scale principal reduction, a take action petition calling on President Obama to fire DeMarco, and the America Underwater Tumblr blog where underwater homeowners are posting pictures outside their homes with signs of how much they are underwater and stories of how they got there.

Who:   Congressional Progressive Caucus and Underwater Homeowners from CA, CO, FL, MA and WA and their clergy, Ilyse Hogue from Rebuild the Dream, Vera Johnson from The New Bottom Line, who is fighting for principal reduction with Fannie, and Rose Guidel from The New Bottom Line, who saved her home from foreclosure by Fannie

What: Press Conference to call on FHFA Acting Director Ed DeMarco to commit to large-scale principal reduction or leave his job

When: March 7, 2012 at 12:15-12:45 p.m.

Where: The House Triangle, southeast of the House Capitol Steps, outdoor space at the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

The New Bottom Line is a new and growing movement fueled by a coalition of community organizations, congregations, and individuals working together to challenge established big bank interests on behalf of struggling and middle-class communities. Together, we are working to restructure Wall Street to help American families build wealth, close the country’s growing income gap and advance a vision for how our economy can better serve the many rather than the few. Coalition members include PICO National Network, National People’s Action (NPA), Alliance for a Just Society, and dozens of state and local organizations from around the country.

Rebuild the Dream is a platform for bottom-up, people-powered innovations to help fix the U.S. economy. Using 21st-century digital technology, we advance highly inventive solutions that are designed to protect and expand the middle class, while creating pathways to prosperity for those who are locked out of it. Our goal is to put America back to work—and pull America back together.

Source: www.newbottomline.com


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