Secret Docs Show Foreclosure Watchdog Doesn’t Bark or Bite

[TacticalPeek]

Source: ProPublica

Secret Docs Show Foreclosure Watchdog Doesn’t Bark or Bite

by Paul Kiel
ProPublica, Oct. 4, 2011


Why has the administration’s flagship foreclosure prevention program been so ineffective in helping struggling homeowners get loan modifications and stay in their homes? One reason: The government’s supervision of the program has apparently ranged from nonexistent to weak.

Documents obtained by ProPublica — government audit reports of GMAC, the country’s fifth-largest mortgage servicer — provide the first detailed look at the program’s oversight. They show that the company operated with almost no oversight for the program’s first eight months. When auditors did finally conduct a major review more than a year into the program, they found that GMAC had seriously mishandled many loan modifications — miscalculating homeowner income in more than 80 percent of audited cases, for example. Yet, GMAC suffered no penalty. GMAC itself said it hasn’t reversed a single foreclosure as a result of a government audit.

The documents also reveal that government auditors signed off on GMAC loan-modification denials that appear to violate the program’s own rules, calling into question the rigor and competence of the reviews.
. . .

“It demonstrates that if you have a set of rules for which compliance is completely voluntary and no meaningful consequences for those who violate them, having all the audits and reviews in the world are not going to make a bit of difference,” he continued. “It’s why the program has been a colossal failure.”



Read more: http://www.propublica.org/article/secret-docs-on-foreclosure-watchdog

---

This program could have done so much good, but instead it has been, net, an evil thing, imo.

And no "hope" of "change".

[DirkGently]

1. HAMP is a bad joke. Lenders must be FORCED to work with people, or they just won't.

[EFerrari]

9. HAMP was a honeypot that lured people into foreclosure

on the promise of a modification.

[truedelphi]

2. And it cost the tax payers some fifty billion dollars -

a small percentage of which went to actual help for homeowners.

Yet another way that the banks have gouged the public.

[No Elephants]

4. +1

[Mr Deltoid]

6. To put it in perspective

The total cost of the space shuttle program over 30 years was $200 billion.

[truedelphi]

10. Thank you for that tidbit.

And then there is the fact that the Space Shuttle Program actually launched space shuttles, filled with scientific equipment, and people trained to use that.

So there was a huge return on the investment.

While the fifty billions of dollars HAMP was awarded has just been passed around from one "manager" to another.

And the only thing that is really "managed" is the secret accounts this corrupt program has allowed those in charge of the program and the banks to stash away.

But hey - what's the importance of fifty billion dollars, when nine trillions and counting has been offered up by the Paulson/Bernenke/Geithenr trio in "loans' to the Biggest Financial firms.

[SoapBox]

3. *sigh* Another, NOT surprised thing.

[buckrogers1965]

5. More of the same tired ineffective government.

You would have to be pro-actively trying to make a government agency so ineffective. If you just randomly selected a group of people, at least some of them would want to perform the job they were hired to do.

[shanti]

16. *ush's legacy

they never left. i never heard anything about obama trying to "clean house" after *ush left, so assume he didn't. remember, *ush and co. wanted the government to look ineffective.

[mother earth]

7. Our gov't was broken by Bush/Cheney & not much has changed.

It's treasonous & an utter tragedy. We need emergency measures because chaos seems to be ruling, band-aids are falling left and right since they were never truly applied.

[EFerrari]

8. The administration's mishandling of the foreclosure crisis is scandalous

and even Elizabeth Warren bears some blame for signing off on what they were doing.

No amount of blame will put those families back in their homes or heal their wrecked lives.

[DirkGently]

11. It was THE most important thing. Not the bank failures. A complete failure.

[fasttense]

12. The federal government working at its best to help the idle rich at the expense of the working class

[jzodda]

13. I used to work for the Banks on HAMP mods....

and what I found was total incompetence on the part of the banks. Even the law firms handling the foreclosures were frustrated with the banks when trying to get any information.

Hamp is a total joke. The only way to make it work was to force participation by said banks. Without it-it was doomed to failure. I would say that over 90% of the loans that came across my desk were denied and I couldn't figure out why most times because the loans I saw were tailor made for inclusion.

When one actually went through I had a mini celebration because it was sooooooo rare.

[chill_wind]

14. IG Neil Barofsky had blistering criticisms

about Treasury and the failure, once again to hold the banks accountable in this program.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x593092

Of course, he's been sent packing since.

[shanti]

15. much of the government "incompetence"

i believe, is due much in part to the burrowers that *ush left in place to sabotage the few positive programs that obama enacted. :(

[bvar22]

17. Good Reform Legislation is WORTHLESS...

...if there are NO Oversight Agencies, or the Agencies put in place have NO enforcement powers.

The WAY to fight Medicare/Medicaid Waste & Fraud is NOT to defund these programs or call them failures,
but to adequately fund & empower OVERSIGHT, and PROSECUTE the criminals.

Expect the same disasterous results when 50 MILLION* already struggling Working Class Americans
are herded into the Exchange Pens by the MANDATE in 2014.
Lambs to the Slaughter.
It won't be pretty.

*conservative estimate of Uninsured Americans by 2014.
Could be as high as 70+Million required to BUY Health Insurance in 2014.



You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.

Solidarity!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[closeupready]

18. Of course. It's more like an Emily Post Etiquette Column than anything else.

nt

[Rex]

19. What more proof do we need that corporations control D.C.?

The govt simply doesn't give a fuck about The People and since we have no oversight or regulations that are enforced, expect this to get a lot worse. It is sad that people decide to serve as public defenders, only to be found out as fucking tools for Big Biz.

[Missy Vixen]

20. We made it through final MHA docs and closed

It took Senator Murray calling the CEO of our mortgage lender HERSELF, but it happened.

We are not wealthy, huge donors, and we don't know her. The only people who actually managed to make it through a loan modification were those who were smart enough to contact their electeds and ask for help.

Imagine the sheer amount of human misery that could be avoided if HAMP had actually had administration oversight and enforcement.

:mad:

*edited for inartful use of the English language