(Bloomberg)—U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson said money should be set aside to help mortgage-servicing companies that are at risk of failing as millions of borrowers miss loan payments.
“Obviously, we want there to be money to help the servicers of these mortgages because some of them don’t have deep pockets,” Carson said in a Thursday interview with Fox News. “The housing-finance structure needs to be maintained. It’s not just the people who took out the mortgage.”
Carson made his remarks in response to a question about what he’d like lawmakers to provide for mortgage relief in future coronavirus-stimulus legislation. He didn’t comment on whether he believes agencies such as the Federal Reserve or Treasury Department should act now to provide a liquidity facility for mortgage servicers.
Servicers collect payments from borrowers and make sure investors in trillions of dollars of government-backed bonds get paid each month. With a wave of homeowners predicted to start missing payments, the industry says it needs a lifeline to head off the collapse of firms that could threaten the housing market.
Congress enabled widespread mortgage forbearance in the $2 trillion stimulus bill it passed last month by mandating that borrowers be allowed to delay payments on government-backed loans for as long as a year.
To contact the reporters on this story: Elizabeth Dexheimer in Washington at [email protected]; Vivek Shankar in Washington at [email protected].
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jesse Westbrook at [email protected]
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