This searing photo essay show in stark relief the landscape of the foreclosure crisis, in this case in Florida. By now we all know the details. Foreclosures are continuing at a reord pace, three years after the beginning of the recession. This massive turnover of property has turned entire neighborhoods into ghost towns and continued to be a drag on the economy. While there are higher incidences in “sand states” where the housing bubble inflated larger than elsewhere, this crisis is far from being localized to one region, and is prevalent all over the country. The potential damage over the next few years is even greater, as one out of every three homes in cities like Boise, Idaho are underwater.
We know that banks and loan servicers have massive incentives to foreclose, and then in many cases keep the homes off the market and in shadow inventory, avoiding the realization of a loss on their books. Banks who made crucial errors in the origination and securitization stages don’t want to be held responsible for those mistakes, and think the best way to go about that is by burying the evidence. So they have rushed to foreclose on borrowers who could have handled a loan modification, in many cases illegally so. And the stories keep getting tallied up day by day. Banks are foreclosing on the wrong homes, ones that don’t even have mortgages. Homeowners who are current on their loans are getting thrown out of their homes. Banks are faking summons, faking documents, faking notarizations, even faking lawyers, all in a desperate and chaotic effort to foreclose.
Amidst this chaos, some heroes have really stepped up. There are foreclosure mediation groups and activists, like NACA, who are setting up face-to-face meetings between lenders and borrowers. There are successful advocacy groups like ESOP in Cleveland, also mediating on behalf of homeowners. And there are the lawyers, foreclosure defense attorneys who have uncovered virtually every seedy game the servicers and the banks have been playing, who have effectively represented their clients.
If anything, the government should strongly support these efforts. The status quo is hopelessly broken, and it threatens economic recovery. The Treasury Department should demand that banks stop the rush to foreclose, and having effective representation for borrowers goes a long way toward that. But when given the option to allow TARP funds to be used for legal aid for foreclosure victims, the Treasury blocked it.
Boehner’s spokesman raised the spectre of “groups similar to ACORN”, which no longer exists, as a recipient of this money. What it will actually go toward is legal services, defending borrowers who would otherwise have no way to afford access to the legal system.
And this is a state’s rights issue. This bill wouldn’t mandate legal services money; it would allow states to elect, if they so chose, to use their Hardest Hit Fund dollars in the manner to which they see fit. In the typical conservative game, state’s rights mean a lot except when that goes against their ideological goals. Plus, it doesn’t cost a dime, as the money is going to the states anyway. They should get to decide how to use it.
It’s unclear that this legislation is even necessary. Treasury only reverts back to TARP rules when talking about how legal aid services aren’t allowable as recipients, though it showed wide latitude in handing out money to whatever bank wanted a piece previously. But Geithner is insisting on it. His “enthusiastic support” of the House measure belies the fact that there’s no Republican co-sponsor in the Senate, and moving the bill on unanimous consent in the dwindling days of the lame duck session is dubious. If Geithner supports allowing states to decide if foreclosure victims can have access to justice, all he has to do is sign off on it as Treasury Secretary.
The funding problem for foreclosure legal defense is “part of the banks’ strategy,” says Bubba Grimsley, a leading foreclosure defense attorney. Foreclosure defense lawyers have been extremely successful in uncovering robo-signing and a host of other irregularities in the foreclosure process, but they have to be able to sustain themselves:
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We heard News Corp's 'iPad newspaper' The Daily was on track for release in early 2011, but AllThingsD is hearing something more specific -- week.
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New Study Shows FOX <b>News</b> Viewers Are Misinformed! | PerezHilton.com
Hey, don´t kill the messenger! Send all hate letters to the University of Maryland, where the study was conducted. A group of researchers in the Program on International Policy Attitudes at...
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We heard News Corp's 'iPad newspaper' The Daily was on track for release in early 2011, but AllThingsD is hearing something more specific -- week.
The Tools of Ignorance: Sunday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley
A breakdown of the Greinke trade, if the Yankees could have beat it, and what to do now.
New Study Shows FOX <b>News</b> Viewers Are Misinformed! | PerezHilton.com
Hey, don´t kill the messenger! Send all hate letters to the University of Maryland, where the study was conducted. A group of researchers in the Program on International Policy Attitudes at...
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We heard News Corp's 'iPad newspaper' The Daily was on track for release in early 2011, but AllThingsD is hearing something more specific -- week.
The Tools of Ignorance: Sunday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley
A breakdown of the Greinke trade, if the Yankees could have beat it, and what to do now.
New Study Shows FOX <b>News</b> Viewers Are Misinformed! | PerezHilton.com
Hey, don´t kill the messenger! Send all hate letters to the University of Maryland, where the study was conducted. A group of researchers in the Program on International Policy Attitudes at...
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We heard News Corp's 'iPad newspaper' The Daily was on track for release in early 2011, but AllThingsD is hearing something more specific -- week.
The Tools of Ignorance: Sunday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley
A breakdown of the Greinke trade, if the Yankees could have beat it, and what to do now.
New Study Shows FOX <b>News</b> Viewers Are Misinformed! | PerezHilton.com
Hey, don´t kill the messenger! Send all hate letters to the University of Maryland, where the study was conducted. A group of researchers in the Program on International Policy Attitudes at...
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We heard News Corp's 'iPad newspaper' The Daily was on track for release in early 2011, but AllThingsD is hearing something more specific -- week.
The Tools of Ignorance: Sunday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley
A breakdown of the Greinke trade, if the Yankees could have beat it, and what to do now.
New Study Shows FOX <b>News</b> Viewers Are Misinformed! | PerezHilton.com
Hey, don´t kill the messenger! Send all hate letters to the University of Maryland, where the study was conducted. A group of researchers in the Program on International Policy Attitudes at...
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We heard News Corp's 'iPad newspaper' The Daily was on track for release in early 2011, but AllThingsD is hearing something more specific -- week.
The Tools of Ignorance: Sunday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley
A breakdown of the Greinke trade, if the Yankees could have beat it, and what to do now.
New Study Shows FOX <b>News</b> Viewers Are Misinformed! | PerezHilton.com
Hey, don´t kill the messenger! Send all hate letters to the University of Maryland, where the study was conducted. A group of researchers in the Program on International Policy Attitudes at...
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We heard News Corp's 'iPad newspaper' The Daily was on track for release in early 2011, but AllThingsD is hearing something more specific -- week.
The Tools of Ignorance: Sunday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley
A breakdown of the Greinke trade, if the Yankees could have beat it, and what to do now.
New Study Shows FOX <b>News</b> Viewers Are Misinformed! | PerezHilton.com
Hey, don´t kill the messenger! Send all hate letters to the University of Maryland, where the study was conducted. A group of researchers in the Program on International Policy Attitudes at...
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We heard News Corp's 'iPad newspaper' The Daily was on track for release in early 2011, but AllThingsD is hearing something more specific -- week.
The Tools of Ignorance: Sunday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley
A breakdown of the Greinke trade, if the Yankees could have beat it, and what to do now.
New Study Shows FOX <b>News</b> Viewers Are Misinformed! | PerezHilton.com
Hey, don´t kill the messenger! Send all hate letters to the University of Maryland, where the study was conducted. A group of researchers in the Program on International Policy Attitudes at...
truebench craft company scam<b>News</b> Corp's 'The Daily' pub to hit iPad in January? -- Engadget
We heard News Corp's 'iPad newspaper' The Daily was on track for release in early 2011, but AllThingsD is hearing something more specific -- week.
The Tools of Ignorance: Sunday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley
A breakdown of the Greinke trade, if the Yankees could have beat it, and what to do now.
New Study Shows FOX <b>News</b> Viewers Are Misinformed! | PerezHilton.com
Hey, don´t kill the messenger! Send all hate letters to the University of Maryland, where the study was conducted. A group of researchers in the Program on International Policy Attitudes at...
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We heard News Corp's 'iPad newspaper' The Daily was on track for release in early 2011, but AllThingsD is hearing something more specific -- week.
The Tools of Ignorance: Sunday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley
A breakdown of the Greinke trade, if the Yankees could have beat it, and what to do now.
New Study Shows FOX <b>News</b> Viewers Are Misinformed! | PerezHilton.com
Hey, don´t kill the messenger! Send all hate letters to the University of Maryland, where the study was conducted. A group of researchers in the Program on International Policy Attitudes at...
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We heard News Corp's 'iPad newspaper' The Daily was on track for release in early 2011, but AllThingsD is hearing something more specific -- week.
The Tools of Ignorance: Sunday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley
A breakdown of the Greinke trade, if the Yankees could have beat it, and what to do now.
New Study Shows FOX <b>News</b> Viewers Are Misinformed! | PerezHilton.com
Hey, don´t kill the messenger! Send all hate letters to the University of Maryland, where the study was conducted. A group of researchers in the Program on International Policy Attitudes at...
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