Struggling homeowners are flooding their mortgage companies with requests for help as the coronavirus pandemic wrecks the economy. Many are having a hard time getting it, the Wall Street Journal reported. Homeowners say they are waiting hours on the phone just to reach a real person. When they do, some are told that getting an answer could take weeks. That is a troublesome timeline for the many borrowers whose mortgage payments are due in the first half of April. The $2 trillion stimulus package is supposed to make it easier for homeowners to suspend their monthly payments and temper a potential foreclosure crisis. The difficulty in doing so threatens to squeeze Americans further just as the pandemic puts millions of people out of work. The stimulus legislation that was signed by President Trump says that homeowners hurt by the coronavirus or its fallout can ask their mortgage servicer for a forbearance, in which their monthly payments are interrupted for up to six months, and can also request an additional six months. Borrowers don’t have to show documented proof that they have been hurt by the coronavirus. If the loan is backed by the government, the mortgage servicer is generally supposed to grant the request. About 70 percent of U.S. mortgages are backed or insured by a federal agency.
