Brennan Center for Justice

October 28, 2009

Xavier de Souza Briggs

Associate
Director for General Government Programs

Office of
Management and Budget

Executive Office
of the President

725 17^th St., NW

Washington, D.C. 
20503

Dear Mr. Briggs:

We write
to urge that the President's FY 2011 budget request to the Congress include a recommendation
to address a critical piece of the foreclosure crisis:  the lack of legal representation for
low-income families losing their homes.  As
"Foreclosures: A Crisis in Legal Representation," a recent report released by
the Brennan Center for Justice, demonstrates, the
overwhelming majority of homeowners facing foreclosure do so without legal
assistance that could save their homes. 
We therefore request that the Department of Housing and Urban
Development's ("HUD") budget include a request for $60 million in
foreclosure-related legal assistance.  We
believe such a measure would be a logical extension of HUD's existing efforts
to provide loan counseling to prevent foreclosure and request a meeting with
you or your staff to discuss this critical issue further. 

The
need is staggering.  In Stark
County, Ohio, one of the
hardest-hit counties in the nation, a Brennan Center
analysis found that 86 percent of defendants facing property foreclosure did
not have counsel in 2008.  In New York,
84 percent of defendants in proceedings in Queens County involving foreclosures
on "subprime," "high-cost," or "non-traditional" mortgages - loans
disproportionally targeted to low-income and minority homeowners - proceeded
without full legal representation.  The
situation was worse in New York's nearby Richmond and Nassau
counties:  91 and 92 percent,
respectively, of such defendants were unrepresented.

It is clear that legal assistance
could make the difference for many of these unrepresented homeowners.  The Brennan Center
study found five areas of advocacy for which
lawyers can make a critical difference in preserving peoples' homes:

1)  By helping homeowners to identify violations
of state and federal laws prohibiting predatory, fraudulent and other abusive
lending practices and enforce consumer protection laws;

2)  By helping homeowners negotiate loan
modifications with lenders, efforts bolstered by the lawyers' ability to
identify viable legal claims that can be used as appropriate leverage to reach
agreement on sustainable loan terms; 

3)  By helping homeowners ensure that the
foreclosure process is followed properly;

4)  By helping homeowners achieve bankruptcy
protection.  Bankruptcy is a complicated
and specialized area of law, and its protection can provide a safe-harbor to
homeowners attempting to get back on their feet; and

5)  By helping the secondary victims of
foreclosures - the tenants who reside in foreclosed properties -- by helping to
ensure that they are not improperly evicted.

These
interventions are particularly critical for those homeowners for whom
counseling is not sufficient.  These
homeowners may have been victimized by unsavory lenders or by those engaged in
mortgage fraud schemes.  They may be
facing particularly recalcitrant lenders who are unwilling to renegotiate loan terms
without the threat of legal action.  The
presence of lawyers as additional "watchdogs" in the process also can help
ensure that courts scrutinize foreclosure filings more carefully.

We believe that a targeted appropriation of funds
through HUD would be an effective way to staunch the damage of the ever-growing
foreclosure crisis.  As you know, the
issue of funding for foreclosure legal representation gained considerable
traction in Congress this year.  H.R. 1728, the House predatory lending
bill, authorized such a program in HUD and enjoys the support of Chairman Frank
and Congressman Watt, among many others.  Senators Dodd, Casey, Menendez and
others supported similar initiatives in the Senate throughout the year. 
The support of the Administration and HUD would be a significant boost to our
efforts to consolidate this support next year. 
We are hopeful that President Obama will join the effort and request a
meeting with you, Mr. Briggs, or another appropriate staff member to discuss
this critical issue further.

We have enclosed "Foreclosures: A
Crisis in Legal Representation," a recent front page USA Today story, "Lawyers Scarce for Poor Facing Foreclosure," and
a recent New York Times editorial
decrying the lack of legal assistance in the foreclosure crisis.

We will be contacting you to follow up on this
letter.  In the interim, please feel free
to contact Rebekah Diller, Deputy Director of the Brennan Center's
Justice Program, by phone at 212.992.8635 or by email at rebekah.diller@nyu.edu.

Sincerely,

Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School
of Law

International
Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Workers of America
and Local 2320, the National Organization of Legal Services Workers

National
Legal Aid and Defender Association

Cc:       Michelle
A. Enger, Housing Branch