Posted on 10/15/2013 12:47:21 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
RICHMOND -- A San Francisco-based group of financiers called Mortgage Resolution Partners has been calling on Sacramento and other California cities for more than a year, pitching a plan to use government powers of eminent domain to seize underwater mortgages and refinance them for the benefit of homeowners who owe more than their homes are worth.
Most communities took a pass, saying the novel plan was too risky.
Not Richmond, a largely working-class city in the Bay Area. There, a determined and articulate Green Party mayor has helped steer the plan through the City Council in recent months. Today, the city is on the cusp of becoming the first in the nation to use its power to seize private property as a means of addressing lingering fallout from the foreclosure crisis.
Mayor Gayle McLaughlin contends the city has to step in because the banks that contributed to the crisis haven’t acted to help communities such as Richmond, where thousands of homeowners still face the prospect of losing their homes. Neighborhood blight, shrinking tax revenues and a downward-spiraling economy are among the repercussions of mass foreclosures, she said.
“We’re still feeling the impact, and we want to stop it,” said McLaughlin, 61, a former schoolteacher. “It’s not going to happen if we don’t do it.”
......The likely next step for the city is to form a joint powers authority, so that other interested communities could also take part, Gluckstern said.
Mayor McLaughlin said she has been talking with officials in San Francisco, the city of El Monte in Los Angeles County and several smaller cities in Southern California about forming a JPA. Oakland officials have discussed it, she said, and “there has been some outreach” to Sacramento-area officials, who earlier decided to take a wait-and-see approach.....
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Geez, this is a bad idea on so many levels.
why would this company want to do this if the homes are not worth that much? I think it sounds kind of fishy and it sounds like the homeowners will get screwed in the end along with the banks.
No doubt they will be required to put solar panels on all the state owned houses - paid for by taxpayers (Hugo Chavez “gave” houses to his supporters - it’s just that they didn’t own them). Chavez also nationalized a lot of businesses - which continues today under his hand-picked successor (now they can’t get toilet paper, inflation is just under 50% - the usual disasters that follow when socialists take charge).
The housing bubble was driven by giving mortgages to people who couldn’t pay them.
Responsible Americans were helpless and saw their net value tank.
Now more property is shifting to government control.
I guess it’s the natural progression, as this is how the Left sees America: it’s their property - note the shutdown of our monuments and parks (unless you’re a friend of the Left), they’ll control access.
Big "ditto" on that.
Cristina will know what to do with it. And a lot of its residents already speak her language.
>>>The housing bubble was driven by giving mortgages to people who couldn’t pay them.>>>
Fannie and Freddie, both Democrat organizations.
Is this like the 17th time this has been a headline?
Sorry if it’s been posted. I did a search.
Sorry if it sounded like I was razzing you. I am in an exceptionally foul mood over this “deal” thing which is an absolute capitulation to everything the Dems wanted, and as far as I’m concerned, the death of the GOP.
This idea sprang forth probably well over a year ago, but I *do* see it is suddenly heating up quite a bit.
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