NeighborWorks Pushing for 5-Year Reset Freeze

The housing counseling organization NeighborWorks America is urging its colleagues in the Hope Now Alliance to endorse a five-year freeze on resets of adjustable-rate subprime mortgages."We are hoping for at least five years," said Marietta Rodriguez, who serves as NeighborWorks' liaison with the lenders and servicers in the Hope Now alliance. "Three is probably not going to be enough." Treasury Department officials and alliance members are expected to agree on a plan this week to prevent the wave of resets from becoming a wave of foreclosures. The nonprofit organization, which receives federal funding, provides housing counseling services to troubled borrowers who call the Hope toll-free hotline through its network of 245 community originations. NeighborWorks is conducting its own outreach efforts to increase public awareness of the hotline. Ms. Rodriguez noted in an interview with MortgageWire that servicers are responding to the crisis by increasing their capacity to respond to thousands of calls a day from housing counselors and borrowers in distress. But some servicers are "rushing to catch up," she said.