Military Families Face Loss Of Security Clearance Along With Homes In Foreclosure Scenarios
March 14th, 2011
Losing your home is bad enough, but for some members of the military, a foreclosure or a higher level of debt could close doors to promotions or even render current security access levels suddenly inaccessible[1]. When military members receive PCS orders (permanent change of station), they are expected to move from their current location and start working in a new area. Historically, this has not been hugely problematic for most families who simply place their houses on the market, sell and move. However, in today’s housing market, many military families are underwater on their homes, meaning that thanks to falling home values they owe more than their homes are worth. This not only makes selling difficult, but it can make getting a new home in the new location problematic as well, since the family’s new debt-to-income ratio may not only make getting a loan difficult, but it can impact military members’ security clearances as well.
Currently, the Department of Defense Homeowners Assistance Program is attempting to help military members by reimbursing part of the losses on the sales of underwater homes and has helped almost 5,000 homeowners at a cost of $744.5 million. Another 4,524 claims are in the pipeline. The assistance is available to military personnel who bought homes before July 1, 2006 and were reassigned between February 1, 2006 and September 30, 2010. Critics of the program believe that it should be expanded to help those who bought in 2007 and 2008, but currently there is no funding available for such an expansion. Many families must attempt to rent out their home or split up when PCS orders come until the house is sold or, in some cases, until the market recovers.
How do you think that this issue should be addressed? Is it fair that forced military moves can impact debt to the extent that a service member’s security clearance could be compromised?
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[1] http://www.kansascity.com/2011/03/14/2724253/fallen-home-prices-sting-military.html
March 15th, 2011 at 10:16 PM
This is a disgrace to the United States of America, that our military members should be forced into foreclosure or loss of security clearance, when they have no options open to them. As a retired Vietnam Veteran I believe that all Military Families should be exempt and their lenders should be required to automatically swallow their losses and lower payments meeting the families budget.