Why START Now?

This letter is in response to James Hagerty’s and Ruth Simon’s article “Activist Financier ‘Terrorizes’ Bankers in Foreclosure Fight,” in May 20th’s edition of the ‘Wall Street Journal.’
I appreciate and applaud what Mr. Marks and his Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America is trying to accomplish in helping homeowners through the foreclosure process. We all need to do our part in helping families in need in these trying times. However, we believe there is a more constructive way to help these families other than terrorizing banks and CEO’s or picketing homes of bank employees. We don’t need to use demonizing tactics, just some cooperation by all those involved.
I was part of a loan modification event on April 18th at the Yerwood Center in Stamford, CT. The program consisted of 5 banks and 6 agencies all working under the HOPE NOW alliance. During the three hour event, more than 100 families attended and were educated on the process and 41 loans were modified at an average savings of $441 per month, while the families were sitting at the event. This program was so well received that it has led us to host another one on May 30th, also at the Yerwood Center, and we are looking to schedule more within Fairfield County.
I would like to point out that the difference between these two events. START Now!, organizer of the Yerwood events, receives no money from a federal or state program. This is a grassroots driven program organized by members of the community who understand the issues we all face and are trying to help those truly in need. We don’t have a $40 million budget mostly covered by the banks doing the modifications, and we haven’t received $3.5 million of the government’s $34.5 million federal program designed to counsel distressed mortgage borrowers.
Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America is also a mortgage broker. If a homeowner becomes one of their borrowers, they must become members of NACA and participate in protests and work in NACA’s offices for several years – isn’t there a conflict of interest in there somewhere? NACA is being paid by the banks and funded by the federal government to hold events, wherein they can then try to sign families up as borrowers for their own originated mortgage. Am I the only one who sees something wrong with this?
In The Journal’s article, words such as ‘Terrorize, Threatened, Scourges, and Predator’ are used to define actions taken by Mr. Marks and NACA. The world is a terrifying enough place as it is now. Do we need someone with a bullhorn (he literally uses a bullhorn) out there putting more fear into people who just need some guidance and help?
START Now! reached out to all banks with operations in Stamford and asked for their assistance. Not all banks have participated, specifically Citibank and Wells Fargo, but a majority have signed on, including Bank of America, HSBC and JP Morgan Chase. It didn’t take any federal funding, protesting, or picketing someone’s private residence to get them to agree. It merely took a few phone calls consisting of a few key points – those being that people need help and that if the lender and borrower worked together, something could be resolved. The cooperation, understanding and willingness to work together are what have made the program the success it has become.
That is how results get achieved. If we all work together and stop pointing blame at this bank or that CEO or this group of homeowners, we can make real progress and can help to stabilize our housing crisis. It doesn’t matter who is to blame anymore. It’s about taking responsibility and working together as a community, as a society, to get positive results. If we stay focused on these few simple things, we can really start solving the issues we have here in our own backyards.
I agree with some of NACA’s views of favoring a return to more traditional mortgage standards, with full documentation of income, and with preparing renters for the responsibilities of home ownership. However, these partisan, angry attacks organized by Mr. Marks and his organization serve to do nothing other than tear society apart, which is what START Now! is trying hard to prevent.
Mr. Marks talks about using his Machiavellian ‘Know the enemy’ tactics to push these banks into participating. It’s time to realize we are our own enemy and we need to take responsibility for our actions. It is said about many addictions that “admitting the problem is the first step to recover”; if we acknowledge our problems, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish by working together to fix them. Working together, constructively, is a far better way to rebuild our communities than to use more tactics of aggression and fear-mongering.
Chris Meek