Mortgage Servicer With Ties To Bucks To Distribute $30M To Distressed Homeowners

As a key vote on financing a new basketball arena approaches, the City of Milwaukee has announced that a mortgage servicing company with ties to an owner of the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team has agreed to give financial help to troubled homeowners in the city.

Under the agreement, Nationstar will provide up to $30 million in financial assistance for its homeowners. The decision came after a citizens group called Common Ground spent months pressuring the company to help reduce foreclosures in the city. The group had argued that since Bucks co-owner Wes Edens owns the investment firm that controls Nationstar, the company should do more to help Milwaukee homeowners before the Bucks get any public financing for an arena.

Mayor Tom Barrett indicated Friday that Nationstar’s decision is related to the arena package vote. He suggested that it made sense an agreement would come during the final phases of approving an arena deal.

“I’ve been through many budgets, for example, and I’m well aware of the fact that lots of things happen when you get close to the end. And I think that that’s true here,” said Barrett.

Common Ground praised the Nationstar agreement, but the group said it won’t reveal its view on the arena proposal until Monday, when a Common Council committee takes up the plan.