UPDATE: There’s an even better letter you can copy and edit to send to your representatives about this issue in a more recent post I wrote about the need for bankruptcy reform as part of the legislative fix for the economy.
The Story So Far: Bailout Pending for the Big Guys Only
I read today in my email inbox that one of the professional groups I belong to that’s concerned with consumer bankruptcy issues has been communicating with Congressional staffers about the upcoming bailout (more on that in a subsequent post). The proposed bailout, make no mistake, is concerned only with helping Wall Street and the investment community - not homeowners, not consumers.
President Bush and his administration’s supporters are even now calling for a “clean bill” to pass quickly. What’s that mean? In Congressional code-speak, it means “Pass it fast and NO AMENDMENTS, buckos!” In short: Don’t even think about trying to help out the little guy. Just bail out our finance industry contributors, and then back away from the table slowly.
The Suggestion: Mortgage Modification for Chapter 13 Debtors
Hmm. I have a different idea. And so does NACBA, the afore-mentioned group: why not use this opportunity to help stabilize the economy AND help out the little guy? Surely we can all agree on that as a useful and productive thing for our legislators to do?
Here’s the idea: Pass bankruptcy reform legislation that’s been languishing for awhile now that will allow bankruptcy judges to modify residential mortgages as they do other forms of secured debt and thus allow Chapter 13 debtors some honest-to-goodness relief.
Bear in mind the modification of secured debt isn’t some new concept. It’s been around for awhile. It can’t be used for residences, however, and homeowners hoping to use bankruptcy to keep their homes can only do so at the often-inflated values at which they bought the property. In other words - no real relief at all, except for forcing a payment plan, albeit at the same terms. While that’s helpful to a degree, why not treat homes at least as well as we do the five-year-old upside down family car loan?
The Call to Action: What YOU Can Do
So here’s the kicker: we need to act NOW. My sources tell me that if calls and emails will be helpful at all, they have to be made Monday and Tuesday - that’s 9/22 and 9/23.
So, do these things:
- Go to Congress.org’s website. In the upper left corner of the page displayed, you’ll see a small text box that reads: “Find and contact your federal, state, and local officials.”
- Enter your zip code into the text box below that sentence. Click “GO” - you’ll be taken to a new page where you can either add more information about your address or add your “zip + 4″ digits (this eliminates possibility of confusion in the event of split districts).
- You’ll be taken to a results page where the President, VP, Congressional representatives, senators and key state officials are listed with links anchored to their names that will take you to their personal pages.
- Click on those personal pages links and you’ll be given several options in a tabbed box - “Bio/Contact/etc…” What you want is “Contact.”
This takes less than one minute, maybe up to two if you’re a slow typist. Now, you can send your message to your representatives. Put it in your own words, or you can feel free to copy and paste the language below as a template. In any case, I do urge you to put your own unique thoughts into it. Tell them what you think! They NEED to hear it.
Suggested Letter to Elected Representatives on Bankruptcy Reform
Feel free to copy and paste the following, and add your own thoughts as you see fit:
I am your constituent. My peers and I sent you to Washington to protect not only the interests of big business and finance, but our own interests as well. I urge you to think twice before rewarding the finance industry players who created this economic disaster without also helping those of us struggling to keep our homes in the midst of that disaster. To that end, I urge you to support legislation that would, along with the bailout, permit mortgage modification in Chapter 13 bankruptcies. It is only fair that homeowners be given some consideration simultaneously with those whose lax lending and underwriting practices helped put those homeowners in danger of losing their homes. Thank you for your consideration.