Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Created: 09/06/2012 12:42:20 PM PDT

San Francisco-based Mortgage Resolution Partners is expanding its proposal to help individuals underwater on their mortgages in San Bernardino County and elsewhere by including homeowners who have defaulted or are delinquent on their loan payments.

“It does allow us to potentially serve many more families in San Bernardino County,” said Steven Gluckstern, executive chairman of Mortgage Resolution Partners, or MRP.

San Bernardino County and the cities of Ontario and Fontana have formed a joint powers authority (JPA) to consider the company’s proposal and any others that may come down the pike.

Roughly 150,000 homeowners in the county owe more on their homes than they are worth. A Royal Bank of Scotland analysis released last month determined that only a small percentage of those homeowners would qualify for a loan modification under MRP’s initial proposal: that homeowners have good credit and have been current on their mortgage payments for the past 12 months.

If the latest proposal is adopted, it could affect up to 15,000 homeowners within the joint powers authority’s sphere of influence and up to 42,000 families countywide should other cities opt to join the JPA.

“Forty-two thousands families can have an enormous impact,” Gluckstern said.

In a news release Thursday, MRP said it would use the same methodologies for valuing loans as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mae in order to alleviate opponents’ concerns that MRP will lowball the value of any loans the JPA attempts to acquire.

Greg Devereaux, chief executive officer for the county, said he had only been briefed by Gluckstern on the proposal Thursday and didn’t have time to fully absorb it.

“Clearly they’re trying to address some of the criticisms of the program, and ultimately it will be interesting to see what they submit,” Devereaux said.

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