The MMCC meetings provided an opportunity to share information and intelligence, including ideas for individual or collective action and research needs that could inform policy and practice.

 In the first year, as the COVID crisis unfolded, three workstreams quickly emerged, focusing on:

• Servicer liquidity, exploring the key differences between the GNMA and GSE markets and how these changes contribute to greater stress in the GNMA space;
• Consumer access to credit, analyzing tightening of the mortgage credit box by third-party originators and its impact on underserved groups, credit score performance during the crisis, and trends related to the housing market and housing supply; and
• Borrower assistance and servicer-borrower communication, to ensure impacted borrowers understand and take advantage of their CARES Act rights.

The borrower assistance/servicer-borrower communication workstream quickly emerged as a hub for facilitating action by MMCC-participating organizations without Urban’s direct involvement, including:

• A consumer outreach campaign developed by a group of MMCC-participating industry and consumer organizations to ensure COVID-19 impacted borrowers at risk of delinquency and foreclosure understand their full CARES Act rights;
• A letter from 18 organizations to Treasury, HUD, FHFA, and CFPB with suggested improvements for the public portal on mortgage and rental relief options available during COVID-19;
• A letter from 31 consumer, civil rights, real estate, and other organizations and individuals urging Treasury and the federal government to create a liquidity facility for servicers; and
• A similar letter from seven industry organizations to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Reserve, Federal Housing Finance Agency, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the US Treasury.

Based in part on the discussions in the workstream and regular MMCC meetings, HFPC staff published the following work products between March 2020 and December 2021:

Research Briefs

1. The Race to Save Millions From Eviction
2. How Newark, New Jersey, Provides a Template for Targeting the Homeowner Assistance Fund
3. Loss Mitigation Toolkit Improvements for Borrowers Exiting COVID-19 Forbearance
4. Preserving Small Rental Buildings during the COVID-19 Crisis
5. Averting an Eviction Crisis
6. Increasing Rental Counseling Capacity and Awareness as a Prescription for COVID-19
7. During the Pandemic, Policymakers Should Maintain Forbearance but Fix Its Costs
8. A State Framework for Delivering Targeted Housing Assistance to People and Places Hit Hardest by COVID-19
9. A New Mortgage Penalty Is Blocking Homeownership and Refinancing Opportunities for 255,000 Borrowers
10. The Need for a Federal Liquidity Facility for Government Loan Servicing
11. How Much Assistance Is Needed to Support Renters through the COVID-19 Crisis?
12. How Economic Crises and Sudden Disasters Increase Racial Disparities in Homeownership
13. Can Unemployment Numbers Predict the Number of Mortgages That Will Go into Forbearance?
14. The Impact of the Coronavirus on Mortgage Refinancings
15. Avoiding a COVID-19 Disaster for Renters and the Housing Market
16. A Liquidity Vehicle for Mortgage Servicing Advances Is in Consumers' Best Interest

Rapid Response Blogs

1. As Renter Protections End, Emergency Rental Assistance Is Critical. Why Haven’t More Landlords and Tenants Applied for It?
2. Renters Living in Units Owned by Mom-and-Pop Landlords Are Struggling to Pay Rent More Than Those Living in Large Multifamily Buildings
3. The Pandemic Is Making It Difficult for Mom-and-Pop Landlords to Maintain Their Properties
4. With Just a Month Left of the Eviction Moratorium, Many Mom-and-Pop Landlords and Tenants Are Still Unaware of Federal Rental Assistance
5. The Tight Housing Market Boxes Out Government-Insured Borrowers, Widening Homeownership Gaps
6. The FHA’s New Loss Mitigation Waterfall Will Offer Much-Needed Relief to Borrowers Exiting Forbearance
7. Understanding the Differences between the COVID-19 Recession and Great Recession Can Help Policymakers Implement Successful Loss Mitigation
8. Housing Vouchers Have Helped Tenants and Landlords Weather the Pandemic
9. Landlords and Tenants Need More Information on Rental Assistance and Eviction Moratorium Policies
10. Many People are Behind on Rent. How Much Do They Owe?
11. More Housing Data Have Been Released During the Pandemic. Here’s How Policymakers Can Best Use It.
12. The Predicted Foreclosure Surge Likely Won’t Happen, Even among Financially Vulnerable Borrowers
13. Three Ways to Help 3.2 Million Struggling Homeowners 
14. Delinquent Homeowners in Neighborhoods of Color Are Less Likely to Be Protected by Forbearance
15. Low-Income Renters and Renters in Their Prime Working Years Urgently Need More Federal Assistance
16. Mounting Pressures on Mom-and-Pop Landlords Could Spell Trouble for the Affordable Rental Market
17. Appraisal Waivers Have Helped Homeowners Find Payment Flexibility Amid Pandemic-Induced Economic Struggles
18. Evictions Are on Pause, but Many Renters Still Can’t Pay
19. A Broader Outreach Strategy Would Help 400,000 Needlessly Delinquent Mortgage Borrowers
20. Black and Hispanic Landlords Are Facing Great Financial Struggles because of the COVID-19 Pandemic. They Also Support Their Tenants at Higher Rates.
21. 22 Million Renters and Owners of Manufactured Homes Are Mostly Left Out of Pandemic Assistance
22. Six Facts You Should Know about Current Mortgage Forbearances
23. Why It’s Harder to Offer Mortgage Assistance to 3 Million Borrowers with Private Loans
24. Owners and Renters of 6.2 Million Units in Small Buildings Are Particularly Vulnerable during the Pandemic
25. Moving to a 70 Percent Income Replacement for Unemployment Insurance Benefits Will Disproportionately Hurt Low-Income Renters
26. Reducing the Amount of Federal Unemployment Insurance Would Increase Rent Burden for Millions of Households
27. What It Would Take for States to Support Renters through the COVID-19 Crisis: A Snapshot of Florida, Michigan, and Idaho
28. To Stay Stably Housed, Renters Need $16 Billion per Month in Housing Support during the COVID-19 Crisis
29. New Data Suggest COVID-19 is Widening Housing Disparities by Race and Income
30. Housing Supply Constraints from before the Pandemic Will Worsen Inequality as We Start to Recover
31. Hispanic Homebuyers Will Be Critical for the Next Housing Market Recovery. Here’s Why They May Struggle.
32. Don’t Overlook the Importance of Unemployment Benefits for Renters
33. The Pandemic is Shrinking the Mortgage Credit Box
34. COVID-19 Policy Responses Must Consider the Pandemic’s Impact on Young Renters and Renters of Color
35. The CARES Act Eviction Moratorium Covers All Federally Financed Rentals—That’s One in Four US Rental Units
36. The Price Tag for Keeping 29 Million Families in Their Homes: $162 Billion
37. We Must Act Quickly to Protect Millions of Vulnerable Renters
38. Is the 2020 Toolkit for Helping Homeowners in Crisis Better Than What We Had in 2008?

Data Resource Presentations

1. Deploying the Homeowner Assistance Fund: How States Can Get Help to Those Who Need It Most
2. Targeted Housing Assistance for States Hardest Hit by COVID-19
3. Manufactured Housing and COVID
4. Delinquent borrowers and COVID-19: Sizing the Problem 
5. Homeowners’ Guide to Mortgage Solutions During the COVID-19 Pandemic
6. Small Multifamily Units and COVID
7. CARES Act Policies for Homeowners and Renters
8. Credit Availability and the COVID-19 Crisis
9. Lenders, Loan Channels, & Industry/Occupation by Income and Race/Ethnicity
10. Impact of COVID-19 Forbearance: How much liquidity is needed for advances?

Actions Influenced and Directly Impacted by This Include:

1. The HFPC blog post, A Broader Outreach Strategy Would Help 400,000 Needlessly Delinquent Mortgage Borrowers, inspired participants to collaborate pro-bono on the above-mentioned a consumer outreach campaign for servicers, counselors and consumer organizations launched in November: https://www.covidhelpforhome.org/
2. The letter collaborative participants wrote in May to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mark Calabria and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Kathy Kraninger that helped spark CFPB’s creation of a new .gov website to standardize consumer-facing housing-related information for owners and renters.
3. HFPC convened a federal advisory group including all the key regulatory players (FHFA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, USDA, USVA, CSBS, CFPB, Treasury) to share information and data to set the table for these later actions.
4. HFPC convened a data roundtable with key federal and industry data providers to create an index of COVID-related housing data sources.
5. To reach a broader audience of policymakers, industry players, and stakeholders, HFPC hosted three webinars to share the MMCC’s work:
   • Caring for Borrowers Outside the CARES Act: A Closer Look at Privately Held Loans (350 attendees)
   • Measuring the Crisis: Housing Data during the COVID-19 Pandemic (700 attendees)
   • Deploying the Homeowner Assistance Fund: How States Can Get Help to Those Who Need It Most (470 attendees)