In recent weeks, President Obama has announced a series of programs designed to help homeowners stay in their homes and stabilize communities hard hit by foreclosure. The programs improve the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) and expand similar benefits to homeowners with non-GSE-backed loans through an FHA refinance program, introduce a Homeowners’ Bill of Rights with better mortgage disclosures and standardized servicing practices, and expand HAMP eligibility and triple incentives for servicers to conduct principal writedowns, among other initiatives. Together, these programs will help make homeownership more affordable and boost homeowners’ incomes and/or equity. We call on Congress to work through the political gridlock to pass these measures.

During his State of the State address, Governor Pat Quinn announced the launch of an effort to better connect struggling homeowners to foreclosure prevention resources. He also emphasized the importance of the recent expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which will help working families build wealth and invest in their futures and plans to make Illinois a leader in making public data open and accessible. Woodstock Institute applauds the Governor for making resources more accessible to homeowners facing foreclosure and helping low-income workers build more assets.

Illinois has made significant advances in protecting consumers from high-cost, short-term loans like payday and consumer installment loans, but more and more loans are originated online where  state consumer protections are too often ignored.  A bill introduced by Illinois Rep. Greg Harris would tackle the problem of unlicensed payday lenders, which generally operate online, by eliminating an unlicensed lender’s ability to collect on illegally-arranged loans.

Every day, we see families and communities struggling with foreclosure, job loss, debt, and lack of access to affordable credit as a result of the foreclosure and economic crisis. Many of our families, friends, and neighbors have lost their homes, suffered damaged credit, or filed for bankruptcy. Consequently, fewer people have access to affordable credit to buy a home, start a business, pay for college, and so on. The wealth gap between the haves and the have nots has widened significantly. The problems continue to hit hardest in communities of color, where there is a higher concentration of predatory lending, low credit scores, and bankruptcies.