NeighborWorks COO Tells Congressional Committee That Working with Servicers Continues to be a Challenge for Counselors

NeighborWorks America COO Eileen Fitzgerald recently told the Congressional Committee overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) that while a number of improvements are being made to the Making Home Affordable Program, counselors continue to face difficulty working with servicers.

In testimony before the committee on September 24, Fitzgerald described several factors that continue to limit the success of the program, including difficult and inefficient communications between servicers and counselors, servicers’ disregard for the guidelines of the program, and frustrations with the system as a whole.

Fitzgerald said, for example, that it can take as long as two hours to reach a mortgage servicer. Some homeowners send in documentation, but are asked to do so again. And at times, Fitzgerald said, mortgage servicers are reluctant to disclose the full terms of the new loan. Read AP coverage. View testimony.