and people in healthcare facilities. Every day is a whole new adventure. Yet while my days are quite busy, they’re made manageable by the incredible team we have here at FHA and more broadly in the Office of Housing. Coming from outside HUD into this job, I heard the stereotypes of government workers, and I’m here to tell you those stereotypes are not true. Some of the smartest, most creative and hardest-working people that I’ve met in this industry are working here at HUD. We’re especially fortunate to have some of those people working in the HECM program. For example, we recently made some changes to the assignment process that involved multiple staff from across the country, from our Home Ownership Centers to HUD headquarters. They’re all trying to make sure that the experiences our partners have when they interface with us are as good as they can be, and we do all of this while being under-resourced, including sometimes having to work without a full fiscal-year budget. Also, my day includes far more than just policy and operational decisions within the Office of Housing. It includes time spent working with HUD’s chief information officer, on IT modernization, human resources issues, procurement matters and a variety of cross-cutting departmental initiatives. I can assure you that this job is never boring. RM: Do you have a closing message that you would like to convey to our members? JG: We remain deeply committed to this program. The input that we’ve had from the industry and the dialogue that we have both with individual lenders and servicers, as well as with NRMLA, is critical to helping us maintain and enhance this program for the seniors who rely on it. We have tried to be as transparent as we can be. We put policies up on the drafting table before we finalize them so that we can crowdsource the wisdom that so many people in this industry have. America is aging, and HECM is maybe not the first tool that everybody turns to, but it’s going to be an increasingly important tool, and we want it to remain strong and viable. We want to support liquidity in the sector, and we want to make sure borrowers can access the program at a reasonable cost. We want to hear from you, our stakeholders, including lenders, servicers, NRMLA, borrowers and consumer advocates, both through our formal rulemaking and through the policies and changes that we post for feedback. That’s how we can keep this program strong and viable into the future. Darryl Hicks is NRMLA’s vice president of communications. From the Top NATIONWIDE REVERSE MORTGAGE FIELD SERVICE EXPERTS FOR OVER 30 YEARS 1.800.639.2151 www.nfronline.com Inspections - Preservation - Insurance Loss Inspections - Violation Management - Vacant Property Registrations - Utility Management - REO Services - Special Services REVERSE MORTGAGE / JULY-AUGUST 2024 13
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