Pallone Applauds Treasury Department Funds to Prevent Foreclosures and Stabilize NJ Housing Market

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 20, 2016


WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) applauded the allocation of more than $45 million through the Hardest Hit Fund to the state of New Jersey to help stabilize the housing market and prevent foreclosures. The Hardest Hit Fund was created in 2010 to provide targeted assistance to 18 states and the District of Columbia deemed hardest hit by the economic and housing market downturn. The resources will be given to the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency’s New Jersey HomeSaver Program, which offers counseling and financial assistance to bring down monthly mortgage payments or allow for refinancing.

In data released last year, New Jersey had the highest rate of Zombie foreclosures in the nation. Zombie foreclosures take place when homeowners vacate a residence prior to a bank repossessing the property. With the home unoccupied the property often falls into disrepair and becomes a targets for criminals, endangering home values throughout the neighborhood.

“I was proud to support the Hardest Hit Fund in Congress and am pleased that these funds are contributing to New Jersey’s economy recover,” said Pallone. “Thousands of New Jersey families suffered greatly during the great recession through no fault of their own and the Hardest Hit Fund will help ensure that more New Jerseyans can stay in their homes. A stable housing market is essential to the American Dream and we need to continue to work to make sure that home ownership is within reach for working families.”

The latest funding brings the Hardest Hit Fund total assistance to $9.6 billion for 18 states and the District of Columbia. New Jersey has received more than $400 million in total as part of the program. For more information on the latest round of HHF funding information please refer to the Treasury HHF page.

President Obama's Weekly Address 6/7/14: Supporting America's Students

WASHINGTON, DC -- In this week’s address, President Obama underscored the importance of helping to lift the burden of crushing student loan debt faced by too many Americans and highlighted the efforts he’s taken to ensure we uphold America’s commitment to provide a quality education for all who are willing to work for it. While the President will continue to take action on his own, he urged Congress to do its part and commended Senate Democrats for working on a bill that would help more young people save money.

Rush Holt: "Occupy Wall Street" and the American Dream

You have often heard me say that the American Dream belongs to all of us. Occupy Wall Street has, over the past month, gained the support of hundreds of thousands of Americans who seem to be saying the same thing. They are expressing many different ideas but are united by a conviction that is impossible to deny: that unless we act now, America will no longer be a land of equality, that our middle class will not have a fair shake, and that Washington’s policies will tilt ever more fiercely in favor of the most privileged among us.

The protestors feel in their gut that our nation is less fair and equitable than it was a generation ago, and the evidence proves them right. Nearly 25 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed. The typical working-age family’s earnings are no higher today than they were almost two decades ago. And according to one study by a Federal Reserve economist, inequality has become so entrenched that a poor family would need nearly 10 generations – more than 200 years – to achieve middle-class income.

Put another way, if you are poor today, then you may reasonably hope that your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren will finally climb into the middle class. Is that what the American Dream has come to?

Yet despite the tremendous challenges facing ordinary families, today is a good time to be very wealthy. Over the past three decades, the after-tax income of the top one percent of Americans has nearly tripled.

This explosion in inequality was not a freak occurrence beyond the influence of policymakers. Rather, it was the direct result of policy run amok: decades of tax cuts for the very wealthy and a determined strategy of taking cops off the beat on Wall Street. I have fought tooth and nail against these policies, with some success – most notably the passage of last year’s Wall Street reform bill and the creation of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But too many in Congress are clinging to the failed ideologies that led to this crisis and are abandoning ordinary Americans who, through no fault of their own, cannot find a job or pay their mortgage.

Those people of privilege who disparage or dismiss the demonstrators as unfocused, naïve rebels without a cause seem to miss the point. Mystified, they say, “What are these demonstrators talking about? Our success shows the reality of the American Dream. We have made it through our work and wit.” Some politicians, clueless, want to pursue policies that would exacerbate these inequalities. Yet the truth is that runaway inequality has dampened America’s growth and weakened America’s society. If we fail to restore the American Dream to all of our citizens, the cost to our country – economically and in our individual freedoms – will be enormous.

It is no wonder that people are frustrated, angry, and disillusioned. What is astonishing, and alarming, is that so many in Congress have ignored their plight for so long.

Sincerely,

Rush Holt
Member of Congress

Don't Kill the Dream

Democracy for America targets Republicans for killing the American Dream and failing to create jobs. The ad, "Don't Kill the Dream," which will air both nationally and targeted locally, features Americans who want Republicans in Congress to stop dismantling the middle class and killing the American Dream by slashing vital programs they depend on, while simultaneously insisting on tax breaks and loopholes for corporations and millionaires.

Local Residents To Rally Outside Of Rep. Pallone’s Office Wednesday To Urge Him To Continue To Focus On Jobs Not Cuts

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Residents To Deliver New "Contract for the American Dream"

To Representative's Office

Rally Wednesday at noon at

504 Broadway Long Branch, NJ 07740

In the wake of the final debt deal that raises the nation's debt ceiling but fails to protect the middle class, local residents will gather Wednesday, at noon, at Rep. Pallone’s office to ask that he continue to stand up for the American Dream and focus on job creation, while many in Washington are focusing on cuts to vital programs that Americans depend on.

The recently passed debt deal, which will do nothing to create jobs, forces deep cuts to important programs that protect the middle class while asking nothing of big corporations and millionaires. And though it does not require cuts to Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid benefits, it opens the door for these down the road via an unaccountable Congressional committee.

“We need Washington to focus on protecting the American Dream and creating jobs, not pushing for more cuts to vital services," said Marilyn Michaels, a local MoveOn member. “The Republicans in Washington are holding our economy hostage in pursuit of their extreme ideological agenda. We need Representative Pallone to continue to stand up for the folks in our community and demand more jobs not more cuts."

The rally will take place on Wednesday at noon at 504 Broadway Long Branch, NJ 07740.

Participants will also deliver to Rep. Pallone a new Contract for the American Dream: a plan, written by over 125,000 Americans, to create jobs rather than destroy them. The Contract was released Monday and is attached.

The rallies being held this week are being organized by the new American Dream Movement. In July, over 800 rallies were held across the country to protest the final debt deal that fails to protect the middle class. The American Dream Movement is a growing movement inspired by protests in Wisconsin and fueled by the brutal right-wing attacks on

ContractDream



Contact: Marilyn Michaels
973-727-6424-cell phone