Booker Commends HUD for Making Improvements to Foreclosure Program

WASHINGTON — Sen. Cory A. Booker (D-NJ), today issued the following statement after Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julian Castro announced key improvements to the Federal Housing Administration’s Distressed Asset Stabilization Program (DASP), a program designed to provide foreclosure alternatives and keep more families in their homes:
“Today is a good day for homeowners and for non-profit organizations who have worked to reverse the cycle of foreclosure and abandonment in hard-hit communities across New Jersey. The DASP program helps keep families in their homes, and these changes will help this program work even more effectively for more people. I applaud HUD Secretary Castro and his team for his leadership in taking initiative to improve a program that supports stability in areas that have some of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation.”
Earlier this month, Sens. Booker and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) sent a letter to Secretary Castro with recommendations for improving the Federal Housing Administration’s Distressed Asset Stabilization Program (DASP).
HUD has included a number of these recommendations in the improvements announced today, including:
• Agreeing to sell pools of distressed mortgages directly to non-profits that are dedicated to ensuring positive outcomes for families and communities, allowing New Jersey non-profits dedicated to helping homeowners better compete for mortgage pools against for-profit entities.
• Expanding access to non-profits by providing smaller, more manageable mortgage loan pools.
• Increasing flexibility for non-profits by doubling the required amount of time allowed to non-profits to assemble financing and perform due diligence on loans.
As of July 2014, New Jersey had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation at 5.8 percent. New Jersey, by percentage, also has more distressed properties than any other state in the nation — approximately one in nine mortgage loans in the state is either in foreclosure or 90 days in arrears.