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California to Retrain Laid-off Mortgage Workers

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California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced a massive program to address a number of aspects of the housing slump in the state which has probably been harder hit by its effects than any other.

The various initiatives will use a variety of state and federal funds including a $5.6 million federal grant to retrain mortgage and banking industry workers laid off as a result of the subprime crisis.

The training monies will come from a U.S. Department of Labor National Emergency Grant; funds which the Department Secretary can parcel out when events create a sudden need for unemployed worker assistance that is beyond a state's capacity to handle.



The California mortgage lending industry has seen more than 8,400 layoffs since last July. Dislocated employees include mortgage bankers, clerical, and administrative staff.

The length and type of training provided will very depending on the skill level of each individual and will include information on the availability of unemployment insurance benefits and other employment services.

The Governor said "We applied for this grant because we want to help displaced workers transition to new jobs and the money will go to the counties with the greatest need. We are not just sitting by and waiting for the economy to pick back up. We are taking all the action we can to keep people working and rebuilding California."

Yesterday Schwarzenegger also awarded $73 million for 40 housing projects in 26 California cities which will be used to help 1,611 California families rent or purchase affordable housing

In the last few weeks the state has undertaken other projects to attempt to blunt the impact of the housing slump. Among them:

  • $69.5 million in permanent low-interest loans from Proposition 1C housing bonds to jumpstart 14 affordable multi-family projects up and down the state.
     
  • $72 million in federal HOME Investment Partnerships Program funds to provide assistance to first-time homebuyers, reduce the number of bank owned homes and increase the number of rental properties.

    •  
  • Joined with OneCalifornia Foundation to announce a bridge loan fund for homeowners facing foreclosure in Oakland.

    •  
  • Launched a $1.2 million public awareness campaign to help educate homeowners about options that can help them avoid losing their homes to foreclosures.
     
  • Announced an agreement with major loan servicers to streamline the loan modification process for subprime borrowers living in their homes.
     
  • Enacted legislation to increase protections for Californians who own or plan to purchase homes and to expand affordable housing opportunities.
Posted Feb 22 2008, 08:00 AM
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Comments

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Anonymous
on Fri, Feb 22 2008 8:00 AM
I think this is a great idea! I am glad that someone is thinking ahead. Not everyone in the buisness was in it doing fraud. Some of us were actually trying to make a living and put food on the table!!
Harry
on Fri, Feb 22 2008 8:00 AM
The Govenor does not have to do anything for people who are unemployed, they are already eligible for job retraining all they need to do is apply. And it is a very goog opportunity for anyone who wants to work becuase the company that retrains will not get paid until the individual has been employed for 90 days. Tax Payers money watsed "HA".
sal
on Fri, Feb 22 2008 8:00 AM
to the previous comment. you are funny. most of the people that were forced to quit the busniess were the honest ones. please do your homeowrk before you talk out of your a#$. this action from the state is well needed.
Anonymous
on Fri, Feb 22 2008 8:00 AM
How can one go about getting the training??? Anyone know?
anonymous
on Fri, Feb 22 2008 8:00 AM
This is always a good idea because the more people on unemployment drags our economy down. The problem isnt the mortgage people its your major investment bankers and government.
Anonymous
on Fri, Feb 22 2008 8:00 AM
In response to the comment posted by 'Anonymous' on 2/22 at 9:10 EST: How unfortunate that you are so quick to judge and 'stereotype' people in the industry that are now out of work. Not all of the employees that are out of work were involved in fraudulent or unscrupulous loans. Did you stop to consider how many different areas have been affected? In the mortgage business you have so many areas that have been affected including processors, doc drawers, funders, shippers, post closers, accounting personnel, administrative personnel...and the list goes on and on. You also have many people in title and escrow that are in the same position. There are so many people that are out of work and they didn't make the decisions that caused this collapse yet they and their families are suffering along with all of the other homeowners to pay their bills and survive! It is nice to hear that our Governor is concerned about the people in his state! Hopefully his request for this grant will not get hung up in a bunch of red tape and they can move quickly! There are a lot of honest and hard working employees out there...hopefully potential employers will see beyond this 'stereotype' and give them an opportunity.
Anonymous
on Fri, Feb 22 2008 8:00 AM
I have been mortgage lending for over thirty years. I have never sold the more creative loan products like pay option arms. The stated loan that I obtained for clients always had to supported by actual income. When the business was booming many new people joined this indusdry and as with any occupation, some of these people were either inexperienced or unscrupulous. Many mortgage professionals, Realtors, appraiser and the list goes on, have been hard hit by this crisis. For the most part these are ethical, honest, hard working people. I think the funds for retraining would be welcomed and would be good for the economy.
uw of the day
on Fri, Feb 22 2008 8:00 AM
California has what,,,an 80 BILLION dollar defictSo naturally they cant afford to carry these peopleWE HAVE TO FUND their paychecks on a federal level-Pretty soon we will have to FEED ALL of california-lets get them all a new TV too,,,,,,if they have 2 jobs can they get 2 paychecks????
katiekei
on Fri, Feb 22 2008 8:00 AM
Maybe the laid off workers(the corrupt ones) are facing foreclosure and need help! Gee, tell them to go to the back of the line and beg like the rest of the people that are losing everything because of them! Sorry, I know there are honest ones too, but I have lost any sympathy for these people that stole hundreds of homes from hard working honest people.
Anonymous
on Fri, Feb 22 2008 8:00 AM
If you don't like the "re-training" idea for ex mortgage employees who "may" have been involved in fraudulent or unscrupulous loans, then why don't you pick out the ones who were involved to make sure they are not "re-trained" and wasting taxpayers dollars. Like re-training ex-employees of the mortgage industry is a "first" in wasting taxpayers dollars. Get a Grip!
Anonymous
on Fri, Feb 22 2008 8:00 AM
I can not believe they are re-training employees who may have been involved in fraudulent or unscrupulous loans. And then we taxpayer's and mortgage employees with integrity are paying the bill. Horrible injustice!!!!!
Beth
on Sat, Feb 23 2008 8:00 AM
We need help here in New Jersey too. I am a mortgage underwriter who has been in the mortgage business since 1986 and I have been out of work for 2 years now, with the exception of a 2 month contract job back in the spring of 2007. I need our someome to do something here in NJ. There is nothing corrupt about me, I am a hard working person, nothing dishonest about me, I need a paycheck. People are losing there houses because they are out of work. No Jobs, No Money. we are not all dishonest people, it hit every level in the mortgage business.
Jeff
on Sat, Feb 23 2008 8:00 AM
I hope other states follow this. I've been in Banking over 28 years and was laid off last March due to the economy. I dealt with my customers honestly and I know of others in the industry that are still working and not being honest with their customers. We need new guidelines in the Housing sector and cut out the corporate greed!
Anonymous
on Sun, Feb 24 2008 8:00 AM
This is unfair to every tax payer who did not profit from junk mortgages, which includes all W's frat brothers & Arnie's muscleheads. This BS is a refinement on the savings & loan bail out as tuned by Arthur Anderson and Ken Lay, major W constributors from Taxes, the hyphenated state. Please Mexico, take Taxes back...
Gwen
on Mon, Feb 25 2008 8:00 AM
Does anyone realize this all began in the Fall of 2006? This has been a very long & continues to be a painful process. One by one the largest lenders in the US (many in CA) fell, with no apparent foresight. Why? Because Wall St was buying & some cases demanding these "exotic" products for the almighty dollar. At the end of the day, its always about money. It makes the world go round & people greedy. The fascinating thing is that in 2007 millions of people suddenly became subrpime experts, with the media's derogatory help. People bought houses with hugely inflated values in 2003 & 2004, simply to keep up with the Jones'. And lets not forget, they were all ADULTS who CHOSE not to understand, before they signed. Indexes rise & fall historically. In that span of time, they rose, making payments unaffordable. The Mortgage Banker was the only face to face contact in the transaction & the easiest to fire upon. Now we are all listed & grouped as one big, bad, guilty group, thanks to the media.
Douglas M. Thomson Sr.
on Mon, Feb 25 2008 8:00 AM
Well its been 2 weeks since Senator Steinberg, The Federal Housing Admistration and other local Government Agencies from Sacramento, Ca. held their work shop. At the Work shop The Senator and others stated that we would be meeting with the lenders to negotiate not just talk to them about our current loans. I arrived early and was directed to meet with the a representitive of Countrywide Bank. The first words out of their mouths were. They could only gather information. I provided the same documents and information to them that I had been sending for the past 18 months. I made several more phone calls to them and sent additional documents requested of me. I finaly was told that they would need to take another 2-3 months to process my documents. This is the exact same statement I was told for the past 18 months. I contacted Senator Steinbergs office today and was told they would get back to me to. I won't hold my breath. Over 500 people attended the Work Shop and over 40 were from the Stone Lake Developement in Elk Grove. Not one family has been able to lower their interest rate or modify their loans as of this date. I have invited the staff at Senator Steinbergs office to contact the Countrywide Bank and see how the process really works. I have not been contacted yet nor do I expect to. After all that would mean that the bank would have to actually lower their interest rates and modify loans as we were told. At this point the wheels of justice have stopped and the leaders are making statements that don't hold water. I suggest that the Senator and the other government agencies take my loan and contact the bank as if it were me. Then they would see how the banks minipulate and misleed you into making payments with false hopes. I have been playing the game for so long I could write a script on how to lie cheat and minipulate your buyers into making payments that don't cover the actual interest owed and continue to add interest to the principle while keeping the buyer in suspense. This seems to be the way the banks have been operating. The Government still does't understand or is not paying attention to their actual activities. If you live in the Sacramento area and are interested in sending me and e-mail I will be glad to add you to my growing list of people that are exeriecing similar problems with their lender. Maybe a petition from all of the home owners might wake up our government. Please feel free to e-mail @ commnityhomes@frontiernet.net. Perhaps together we can make a difference.
Jose
on Wed, Feb 27 2008 8:00 AM
In response to one of the comments placed on this article. I don’t recall that anyone complained when the media reported between 2003 and 2005 nearly daily that property value had gone up on the average of 20% to sometimes 40% per month. I guess that was then considered to be a positive outlook for the mortgage industry and Wall Street. Those were the facts then, and the negative reporting done today are the current facts. I do however blame the media for failing recognized and report then that the professionals in the mortgage and real estate field were orchestrating the scheme that caused the value of property to double and triple within a year thus creating a false sense to the consumers that they would never be able to afford a home. The mortgage and real estate industry will correct itself when those who purchased over inflated properties come to terms and the realization that they will not be able to sell these properties unless they bring down the price substantially.
Jeannie Martin
on Thu, Feb 28 2008 8:00 AM
I have been in the mortgage industry for 24 years and have been through many ups and downs. This is different for several reasons. Yes there are people that jumped into this industry to make a quick buck. Most of the time these people were not licensed or they were among the "I have a cousin, brother, friend, neighbor who is a loan officer group. The unprofessionals that professionals like myself always had to go up against. These are people that thought they could get into the business and make good money. How would anyone expect them to explain loan programs and loan documents....It takes years to become a good loan officer and understand products and guildlines. I have always done a good job for my clients and treat them the way I would want to be treated. The next problem is the news. To spread the doom and gloom every night on the evening news letting people think they have no hope and to walk away from their homes is just further depressing the markets. Real estate is a long term investment not a get rich quick flip this house episode. Real estate is cyclical and those that ride out the ups and downs will win in the long run. There are great buying opportunities out there for people looking to buy. There are loans for those that own and need a better loan but they need to act. Sitting waiting for the government will do you no good. Banks are NOT working with people as we are being told. I have people bring me their mortgage notes so I can explain their loan to them and I find that these people have no idea of what kind of loan they are in and even less of an idea of what their payments will adjust to. Education is key. Find a professional in your area, someone you can talk to face to face and see what your options are. If you need to sell then ask that mortgage broker for names of the best realtors and talk to each of them. Educate yourself and do not rely on the sound bytes of the evening news to be your teacher. To all the industry people out there...I am sure we that our left are the professionals (and not the rats that have jumped ship) it is up to us to educate the consumer and to keep our areas real estate healthy.
Joe Hill
on Sat, Mar 1 2008 8:00 AM
With all the useless fussing over who deserves retraining and who doesn't, the most obvious question is unasked and unanswered: what will all these folks be retrained to do? Work at Walmart or McDonalds? Perhaps the Governor would consider training these folks to speak Chinese so they can move to China, where all our jobs were sent by the same moronic, greedy capitalists that gave us the credit bubble in the first place!
LM
on Sun, Mar 2 2008 8:00 AM
I have only been in the business two years and only because it was foisted upon me. I have stayed because I am a business professor and have found it necessary and beneficial to educate my customers as to what they are reallly getting into. I have turned down a little more than $15MM in loans in the past 8 months because either they can't or won't pay in the long run and I don't have the ability to buy them back. BUT I worked for two different brokers - one that is no longer in business and the other is as crooked as he can get and he is still milking the system, blaming his lies on someone else and getting away with it. There are those that are legitimate and want to be beneficial and provide the proverbial value to the process and there are those who are crooked as a stick and they are the ones who seem to be profiting - until they steal from appraisers, falsify documentation and fraudulently development income docs to support a loan -as someone else said, it is for the almighty buck. For those of you who are honestly trying to do the best for your customers, hang in there - the ride ain't over but it will be worth it in the end.
Anonymous
on Fri, Aug 22 2008 7:00 AM
I would like to find out how to apply for this grant. I lost my job in the mortgage industry in April of 2006 when our jobs went to India.... does anyone know how to find out more??
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