February 16th, 2012

HUD Secretary Donovan: Mortgage settlement and other programs to help millions

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan joins Starting Point to discuss how millions of people will be helped by the new sweeping mortgage settlement and additional programs recently announced.

Donovan states, “We think the settlement itself will be close to two million.  About one and three quarter million people will get help.  But…there are many other things that we’ve announced just over the last few weeks.  We think an additional million people could be eligible for our modification programs with the changes that we made.

He continues, “There are about three million, 3.5 million families that if we can expand the refinancing work we’ve done with Fannie and Freddie to other homeowners that are current on their mortgages and been doing the right thing, that’s 3.5 million more families that could be reached there.  So when you put all of these together, there is no single….  There’s no silver bullet here, but all of these together can make a real difference and build on the progress that we’re making.”

Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien airs week mornings from 7-9am ET on CNN.