The National Association of Mortgage Field Services (NAMFS) appears to be one of the only trade associations in the mortgage sector whom continues to remain silent with respect to COVID vaccination for their membership and subcontractors. There is no denying that NAMFS members and their subcontractors interact with elderly Americans nearly each and every day of the week in the course of their duties ranging from in person initial inspections and distribution of information to the forced eviction of those most vulnerable in our population. More on point, though, these interactions occur, in a higher propensity, upon minorities versus the white population in the US. And it is important to note this statistic as the all white NAMFS Board of Directors, whom has never had a minority Executive Director, colors its decision making process from a privileged point-of-view.
Most recently, there is widespread evidence that the real estate finance industry targeted Black and Latino or Hispanic neighborhoods with subprime loan products, committing “reverse redlining” in the years leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. As a result, foreclosure rates between 2005 and 2009 were an estimated 3.5 times higher in Black neighborhoods than in white neighborhoods, and 2.7 times higher in Latino or Hispanic neighborhoods.
The Biden Administration has made no bones about the fact that all federal contractors and subcontractors — NAMFS members included — shall receive the COVID vaccination or lose their ability to perform upon any federal contracts including, but not limited to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development‘s (HUD) Management and Marketing (M&M) Asset Manager and Field Service Manager (FSM) contract. This applies to Prime Vendors, their in house office staff, their domestic remote personnel and all contractors and subcontractors. It additionally applies to Realtors performing upon the HUD M&M AM contract and operating as Listing Agents. These requirements are absolute and unassailable. The Biden Administration’s requirement that all companies with 100 or more personnel must also submit to COVID vaccination, under the Department of Labor’s OSHA Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) to be released soon. This undoubtedly will include all Top Tier and Prime Vendor NAMFS members. And yet, NAMFS remains silent.
The biggest scandal, by far, is the belief that a trade association whose membership have been embroiled in waste, fraud, and abuse will address COVID differently. I wholeheartedly believe that NAMFS membership will fight COVID vaccination of its personnel, contractors and subcontractors. I wholeheartedly believe that in the same modus operandi in which NAMFS members have projected when it comes to misclassifying employees, the same will be applied to COVID vaccination requirements. And I wholeheartedly believe that this callous behavior could put elderly and minority Americans at risk of death.
It is vital to understand that foreclosures happen at a higher level with minorities than with white people. And based upon that, the contact between NAMFS members, their contractors and subcontractors is markedly higher. These systemic inequities have most recently been exposed by COVID-19’s disparate impacts along lines of race and ethnicity. Nationwide, Black people are dying at 2.4 times the rate of white people — the result of the inequitable living conditions, work circumstances, underlying conditions, and lower access to health care that characterize segregated neighborhoods.
Millions of dollars thrown away to rub shoulders and not a single penny for Labor on the front lines of COVID.
The irony of ironies is that tens of millions of dollars poured into NAMFS members through welfare programs like the America CARES Act — Paycheck Protection Program and SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) — were gobbled up all the while from the Trump side of the aisle. Case in point is the One Million Dollars given to the Trump Inauguration Campaign by NAMFS member Cyprexx’s owner Ronnie Ory. To that point, NAMFS members appear not to give a damn about whether or not front line personnel whom interact with the elderly and minorities are vaccinated as it would appear to be a liberal issue and on the other hand will gladly take the money distributed based upon COVID as a crisis. If they did, perhaps they would have both ensured that their contractors were either testing or vaccinated and compensated them as front line workers — instead of dropping pricing.
The most challenging group to vaccinate, and the largest, are those ideologically opposed to Covid-19 vaccines. A July poll by the Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that among unvaccinated people, 35 percent said they probably would not get vaccinated, while 45 percent said they definitely would not. And refusal is closely tied to political views. “The group that really hasn’t changed over time are those in that ‘definitely not’ or ‘only if required’ groups,” said Kirzinger. “They’re largely white — there are loads of white evangelical Christians, they live in rural areas, they lean Republican, and they haven’t changed their minds.” If that sounds vaguely familiar to the corporate hierarchy of the Industry, you wouldn’t be far off base.
Part of the problem, which we cover in this week’s Foreclosurepedia Podcast, is that the Mortgage Field Services Industry has refused, for over a decade, to modernize. Archaic software such as CoBOL exists throughout the Industry — CoBOL is not even taught in universities anymore. Moreover, though, there has been a visceral campaign to ensure that NO software providers are allowed in the Industry without NAMFS membership. Concerns over data privacy, business secrets, profiteering and spite have resulted in a fragmented approach creating fiefdoms rather than a national system as both Ed Delgado of the Five Star and Foreclosurepedia proposed years ago. The fact of the matter is there is a responsibility to protect Labor; to protect the homeowners; and to protect the employees — including those working remotely. And while the US government has stepped to the plate, it is quite obvious — from the deafening silence — that NAMFS members are not onboard.
Tune in for this weekend’s Foreclosurepedia Podcast as we interview a new Tech Start Up providing COVID testing and vaccination verification. Did we forget to mention that for less than ten cents a day — that is not a typo — they verify AGS Number (or any background check), Insurance documentation, Licensing (both trade and business), and all from a universal dashboard? And if you are interested in some of the Product lines Foreclosurepedia offers, take a look below.
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Interview With COVID Survivor
