Housing Advocacy Groups Press For National Mortgage Settlement Fair Servicing Data

National Mortgage Servicing Settlement Fair Servicing

On May 23, a group of 17 housing and advocacy organizations sent a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer – the judge presiding over the consent judgments that constitute the National Mortgage Settlement – questioning whether the homeowner relief activities of the mortgage servicers subject to that settlement are being conducted fairly with regard to borrowers in minority communities. The group urged Judge Collyer to require full public disclosure of the distribution of principal reduction and other loan modification benefits. In particular, the organizations are concerned that servicers may not be complying with state and federal fair housing laws in their distribution of loan modifications. The organizations ask that the servicers be required to report census tract and other data for each mortgage adjustment for which they seek credit under the settlement. In March, the group and other organizations sent a similar, more detailed request to National Mortgage Settlement Monitor Joseph Smith, pressing him to monitor and audit the fair lending compliance of the servicers involved in the settlement. To date, the Monitor has not publicly done so.