U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson said Thursday that funds should be designated to assist mortgage companies with higher risks of failure, citing predictions of millions of missed payments by homeowners.
“Obviously, we want there to be money to help the servicers of these mortgages because some of them don’t have deep pockets,” Carson said in an interview with Fox News.
“The housing-finance structure needs to be maintained. It’s not just the people who took out the mortgage,” he added.
The mortgage industry has warned of a possible collapse as people fail to make their payments and get behind on their mortgages.
The $2.2 trillion stimulus package signed into law last month allows a forbearance for payments on government-backed mortgage loans for up to 180 days, making it challenging to guarantee consistent on-time payments for a large part of 2020.
The secretary did not say whether he thinks the Federal Reserve or Treasury Department should intervene to provide liquidation for mortgage service providers.
Following President Trump’s statement that some states may be able to open before May 1, Carson suggested it would be unwise to wait until “every vestige” of the coronavirus has disappeared to reopen the economy.
“Common sense would dictate that if we wait until everything is going, our economy is gone also,” Carson said.