Executive Summary
1. What Results Do You Want?
Creating economic opportunity for families ensures that they can earn adequate income and build assets, and thereby avoid hardships including hunger, living in substandard housing, and untreated illness. These hardships are especially harmful for children, who are more likely to experience long lasting negative outcomes in the areas of health, social and emotional development, educational attainment, and employment.[i]
The economic well-being of children and their parents are inextricably linked, so successful policy strategies will promote opportunities for parents and opportunities for children at the same time. See more information on priorities and indicators in this area.
2. How Are Your Kids?
Over 2 million home mortgage foreclosures were initiated in 2008,[ii] and almost 800,000 more were initiated in the first third of 2009.[iii] By 2012, an estimated 8 million or more foreclosures could result from the current crisis.[iv]
Children suffer when their family faces an economic crisis and home loss. Research indicates that children who face home loss are more likely to move from school to school. This school mobility is associated with poor educational outcomes and behavioral problems, and family economic stress is associated with poor health outcomes for children.[v] See data for your state on home foreclosure rates and on the total number of homes with foreclosure filings, plus guidance for understanding root causes, creating projections, and setting targets.
3. What Can Policymakers Do?
STRATEGIES
Although federal policy governs many of the transactions involved in home foreclosures, state policy plays an important role as well. A number of states are pursuing strategies that are considered promising by experts in the field.[vi] These include requiring mediation in foreclosures, creating a moratorium on foreclosures, enacting protections against predatory mortgage lending, and providing counseling and financial assistance. See more information on these strategies.
FINANCING
Using federal and state funds, policymakers can pursue multiple financing strategies, including connecting residents to federal sources of aid, pursuing no-cost legal protections, and assessing the return on investments in preventing foreclosures. See more information on financing.
4. How Can You Ensure Success?
As policymakers enact promising policies, attention must be paid to implementation and accountability to ensure that the desired results are achieved. Key implementation and accountability
strategies for reducing home foreclosures include supporting monitoring and enforcement, ensuring that loan modifications benefit borrowers, and enacting protections against abusive “foreclosure consultants.” See more guidance on overseeing implementation and ensuring accountability.
[i]
Child Trends, "Children In Poverty," Washington, DC: Child Trends. Online resource accessed September, 2008 at
http://www.childtrendsdatabank.org/indicators/4poverty.cfm
:
[ii]
Mortgag
e Bankers Association, “Delinquencies Increase, Foreclosure Starts Flat in Latest MBA National Delinquency Survey,” News Release, December 5, 2008; as cited in Stephanie Casey Pierce,
Emerging Trends: State Actions to Tackle the Foreclosure Crisis.
Washing
ton, DC: National Governors Association: February 2009.
[iii]
Center for Responsible Lending Website, Accessed April 23, 2025 at
http://www.responsiblelending.org/issues/mortgage/
[iv]
MarketWatch, “Foreclosures could top 8 million: Credit Suisse,” December 9, 2008; as cited in Stephanie Casey Pierce,
Emerging Trends: State Actions to Tackle the Foreclosure Crisis.
Washington, DC: National Governors Association: February 2009.
[v]
Phil Lo
vell and Julia Isaacs, May 2008 “The Impact of the Mortgage Crisis on Children,” First Focus.
[vi]
See
State and Local Prevention Policy Options
by the
Center for Responsible Lending
.