MINEOLA, N.Y. (WCBS 880) — A Long Island State Senator is proposing mortgage help for homeowners who cannot afford payments.
Congresswoman Kathleen Rice and State Senator Todd Kaminsky have proposed a bill that would ease the pain of paying back missed mortgage payments to financially stressed homeowners after the pandemic is over.
They say if the banks do not help, there will be a domino effect with foreclosures and zombie homes in the future.
The bill they have proposed would have those missed payments added to the back end of their loan. For example, if a loan was supposed to be paid off in August 2024, but several payments were missed, the loan might be due until December 2024.
“I'm hearing from people that are dreading it. They're saying, ‘I don't know how this is possible if I don't have the money now to make payments, how am I doing to suddenly come up with the money when this emergency period ends and have three months’ worth of money just sitting around.’ I mean it's ridiculous,” Kaminsky says.
He says people did not stop working on their own, they were forced to stop to help protect other – and it’s not fair to penalize them.
“It would be completely perverse and ridiculous if the end result of, coming out of this emergency period, is that banks start foreclosures and people have their credit ruined and they are caught in an endless cycle of debt. That cannot happen,” he said.
The news came as Long Island approached a grim milestone with nearly 60,000 cases of coronavirus. Suffolk County has a total of 28,154 and Nassau has 31,079.
Long Island has also seen over 2,000 deaths with 1,390 fatalities in Nassau and 888 in Suffolk.