Book Forum 

# *Shelter from the Storm: How a COVID-19 Mortgage Meltdown Was Averted*

Published By Cato Institute • 2023 

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Date and Time 

March 14, 2023 12 - 1 PM EDT 

Location 

Cato Institute, 1000 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC 

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##### Featuring 

[![Calabria Cropped](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-10/calabria-cropped.jpg?itok=5EpCNOFT)](/people/mark-calabria) 

[Mark A. Calabria](/people/mark-calabria)

Former Director, Federal Housing Finance Agency; Former Chief Economist, Vice President Mike Pence; Former Senior Advisor, Cato Institute

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](https://x.com/MarkCalabria) [ 

](mailto:mcalabria@cato.org) 

![Dana Wade Circle](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2025-08/dana-wade-circle.jpeg?itok=eKZB9nef) 

Dana Wade 

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation

[![Norbert Michel Cropped](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2025-01/norbert-m-cropped.jpg?itok=8WIx97Dk)](/people/norbert-michel) 

[Norbert J. Michel](/people/norbert-michel)

Vice President and Director, Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, Cato Institute

[ 

](https://x.com/norbertjmichel) 

The COVID-19 pandemic upended our daily lives. The crisis was not only an unprecedented shock to our health care system but also a threat to our economic well-being, including our mortgage and housing markets. Despite the reforms following the 2008 financial crisis, markets were not prepared, and March 2020 brought another financial crisis. When he was the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Mark Calabria led a considerable part of the response to the 2020 crisis. In *Shelter from the Storm*, he tells the story of how millions of families were provided with mortgage and rental assistance, both to keep them safe and to keep our financial markets functioning. He offers readers a peek behind the curtain of government decisionmaking in a crisis and shows how housing disruptions were minimized at little cost to the public, while resisting calls for Wall Street bailouts.

**Lunch will be served at 11:30 AM**

![Shelter from the Storm cover](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/promo_block_book_cover_1x/public/2023-02/shelter-from-the-storm-cover.png?itok=Forzm0yx) 

##### Featured Book 

### *[Shelter From the Storm](https://www.cato.org/books/shelter-storm)*

In *Shelter from the Storm*, Mark Calabria tells the story of how millions of families were provided mortgage and rental assistance―both to keep them safe and to keep our financial markets functioning. He offers readers a peek behind the curtain of government decision-making in a crisis and shows how FHFA minimized housing disruptions at little to no cost to the taxpayer and resisted repeated calls for industry bailouts and subsidies. This is a story about how you can directly help Main Street without bailing out Wall Street.

[Read about the Book](https://store.cato.org/products/shelter-from-the-storm) 

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