- Last week, CNBC published an op-ed written by Elyse and entitled "The Only Way to Fix the Housing Crisis", calling for a Federal Housing Finance Agency program with a far broader reach than the recently-announced Principal Reduction Modification program:
"All underwater homeowners, regardless of mortgage size, should be able to access principal reduction, to bring their mortgages in line with the fair market value of their homes. Such a proven, commonsense solution would keep families in their homes, save taxpayers money and create real change in our economy— especially in low-income neighborhoods."
- David Dayen interviewed Elyse for his piece in Salon, "This election is blinding us to a Wall Street outrage: Inside the media’s negligent response to a foreclosure disaster," critiquing the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)'s attempts to mediate the effects of the foreclosure crisis in its Distressed Asset Stabilization Program.
Elyse and David suggest that HUD work with homeowners who are seriously delinquent on their payments and identify borrowers whose income can support paying a mortgage under a principal reduction, working with a program like BCC's SUN Initiative to help the homeowner repurchase their home with a mortgage that they can afford.
- Xhevrije West of DS News also reached out to BCC and Elyse to discuss strategies for solving the ongoing housing crisis, specifically related to principal reductions for homeowners with underwater mortgages. In "Assessing the Full Impact of Principal Reduction", West quotes Elyse on the FHFA's recent launch of its Principal Reduction Modification program:
"While we're delighted that the FHFA is doing something, the idea that [this program] is limited to 33,000 loans is just really a drop in the bucket, There are somewhere between four and six million loans in this country that are still underwater... The country has moved on in terms of our focus and interest, but in fact, this crisis continues to play out, particularly in lower-income communities, and I would like to see the FHFA be far more aggressive in terms of their approach to principal reduction."
Elyse also recently gave a talk entitled, “Opportunity and Inequality: Breaking Down Barriers to Social and Economic Justice” at Brandeis University's Heller School for Social Policy and Management and will offer the keynote address at the Massachusetts LGBTQ Bar Association's annual dinner in May.