1. Two Recent Policy Issues
• Home Mortgage Foreclosure
– Issue raised at state and local level (plus
national attention)
– State Assembly Bill
– Developed WHPE: Wisconsin
Homeownership Preservation Education
• Payday Loan Regulation
– Bill in Assembly in 2010 (and earlier…)
– Issue raised at state events

2. Policy Issues: Family Finance
• Foreclosure
–Rising rates
–Media attention
–Consumer stories
–Stakeholder interests
• County judges
• Local policymakers
• Financial institutions

3. Policy Issues: Family Finance
• Payday Loans
–High cost loans
–Media attention
–Visible in community
–Assembly bills
–Other states take action

4. Policy Issues: Family Finance
• Foreclosure Responses
–Moratorium
–Lender responsibility
–Mediation
• Payday Lending Regulations
–Rate Cap
–Regulation of practice

5. Framing
• Foreclosure
– Avoid blame game
– Broad impacts on neighborhoods /
communities
• Payday Loans
– What service do these firms provide that
make them so popular? What alternatives
exist and what do they cost?

6. Exploring Alternatives
• Foreclosure
–Understand scope of issue
–Focus on underlying issues
–What services & programs are in place?
• Turns out take up rates low…
• Payday Lending
–Understand scope of issue
–Focus on underlying issues
• Cost of late payments and NSF also very high

7. Potential Actions / Consequences
• Foreclosure
– Moratorium – slow not stop; dampens credit
– Mediation – costly; slows process
– Counseling/Education – maybe too late
– Awareness raising – every minute counts
• Payday Loans
– Rate caps – evidence at best mixed
– Location restrictions – visibility

8. Specialist Strategy
–Share data: understand scope
–Share models: what are other places
doing?
–Disseminate research (highlights)
• Testimony at Hearings
–Conduct research / evaluate models
–Convene / facilitate – around fact-based
evidence
• Include industry, public-private partners

9. Challenges
• There is no middle road
– Consumer advocate vs. industry lackey
• Emotions run hot
• Media wants sound bites
• Stakeholders want simple message
– including County Educators
• Easy to be dismissed as ‘too academic’

10. Current Status of Issues
• Foreclosure
– WHPE being tested as educational strategy
– Data on trends distributed regularly
– Mediation bill stalled out
• Payday loans
– Bill passed to regulate locations and loan size
(not rate/fees)
– Highlighting “small dollar loan alternatives”
– Use of loans as teachable moment

11. Scenario Today…
• People going through foreclosures have paper
work mistakes
– Some lenders used high volume legal providers and
not well executed forms
• Courts may dismiss cases
• Lenders voluntary moratoria
• County policy responses:
– A. Do nothing
– B. Moratorium (no more cases until X date)
– C. Mandate mediation
– D. Something else?