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Task Force Seeks Solutions for Aging in Place: Will HECMs Be Considered?
Task forces are formed to address critical issues requiring a solution. The question is, with the Bipartisan Policy Center Health and Housing Task Force promote the use of Home Equity Conversion Mortgages?
The Task Force includes some heavy-hitters in public housing and mortgage lending, primarily former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros. The group is seeking input from stakeholders seeking viable solutions to help older adults remain in their homes and communities. The primary focus is on cost-effective and innovative solutions to modify homes and communities, along with heath programs, making them more suitable for seniors.
“We are now taking the opportunity to solicit feedback from knowledgeable stakeholders and colleagues in three priority areas of interest: financing modifications at home and in the community for aging in place; accessing affordable housing for seniors; and integrating housing and health programs for seniors,” the BPC Task Force stated last week.
As a unique segment serving older Americans, the reverse mortgage industry should most certainly be a stakeholder…
Download a transcript of this episode here.
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3 Comments
wow…REALLY?…how could they not consider using a persons home equity to help mitigate the cost for aging in place….to even question that borders on ridiculous…..
Kevin,
We haven’t seen their final recommendations yet and Cisneros was a friend of the HECM program. The fact is most of these ‘aging in place’ task forces seem to ignore the largest asset the senior has. Let’s hope this time is different.
A HECM is a nonrecourse mortgage, It is debt. It has nothing to do with home equity other than as directed in the loan documents. However, home equity is also the title given to the difference of an applied real estate subtraction problem.
No one who wants to be elected to public office can anticipate any benefit from recommending the taking on of more personal debt to cure a systemic, societal problem. The task force is looking for other answers just like we should be when we are presenting the HECM program.
Until there is much broader support for HECMs (unfortunately there is less qualified demand for the product than at any other point in more than a decade), it is doubtful if any member of the task force will risk their credibility by promoting HECMs or any other kind of reverse mortgage.
Many seniors and their heirs look to the federal government to either find the answer or provide it at no cost to seniors. Of course we all know the cycle, constituents plead for a cure to their retirement income problems, politicians promise to do something about it, forms a task force which issues a report which never gets seriously considered because of estimated costs, and then constituents start the process all over again.
Perhaps this task force will break the cycle … but why?