PRESIDENT BIDEN EXTENDED A BAN ON HOUSING FORECLOSURES

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Housing – Foreclosure-Mortgages-Housing Market – Veteran Affairs

February 16, 2021

TrueNewsBlog-TNB

BY: NATHANIEL BALLANTYNE 

(TrueNewsBlog) – President Joe Biden is extending a ban on housing foreclosures to June 30 to help homeowners struggling during the coronavirus pandemic. The moratorium on foreclosures of federally guaranteed mortgages had been set to expire March 31. 

Census Bureau figures show that almost 12% of homeowners with mortgages were late on their payments. The White House says the coordinated actions announced Tuesday by the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Veterans Affairs and Agriculture also will extend to June 30 the enrollment window for borrowers who want to request pauses or reductions in mortgage payments.

One year into the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of N95 masks are pouring out of U.S. factories and heading into storage. Yet there still aren’t nearly enough going to hospitals. An Associated Press investigation finds that this logistical breakdown is due to federal failures over the past year to coordinate supply chains. Internal emails also show there were deliberate decisions to withhold vital information about new mask manufacturers and availability. 

Exclusive trade data and interviews with manufacturers, hospital associations and frontline medical workers reveal a deadly disconnect — and not an actual shortage — that is depriving doctors, nurses, paramedics and other people risking exposure to COVID-19 of first-rate protection.

Latinos are facing daunting barriers to getting COVID-19 vaccines, creating a risk for public health as the coronavirus mutates and spreads. Many are struggling with a lack of knowledge about the shots, state vaccine websites that don’t have Spanish instructions, ways to find appointments in their communities and fears they could be targeted for immigration enforcement. 

Ranging from elderly Cuban Americans in Florida to farmworkers in California, Latinos tend to have health problems like diabetes, obesity and hypertension. That makes them one of the groups at highest risk from COVID-19 in the U.S.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, there were 53,883 new COVID-19 cases and 989 deaths in the United States on Monday. The record high for new cases was 300,282 on Jan. 2 and the record high for deaths was 5,443 on Feb. 12. DEATH TOLL: The total number of deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. reached 486,994.