Right to Rent Plans Offers Simple Solution to Foreclosure Crisis [View All]

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/07/16-21

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 16, 2009
4:22 PM


CONTACT: Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR)
Alan Barber, [phone] x 115
Right to Rent Plans Offers Simple Solution to Foreclosure Crisis


WASHINGTON - July 16 - In the face of mounting frustration over the nation's soaring foreclosure rate, the Obama administration and Congress are exploring a handful of options to offer families relief from the current housing crisis. Of these options, one policy has emerged that offers an easy, straight-forward means of ensuring housing security for millions, the Right to Rent Plan.

Acknowledged as a means of keeping families in their home while helping to alleviate the neighborhood blight of soaring foreclosures, this proposal has already been endorsed by several members of Congress and enjoys support from both the left and the right.

The Right to Rent Plan, first proposed two years ago by Dean Baker, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), would allow families facing foreclosure to rent their homes at the market rate for a substantial period of time. The market rent would be determined by an independent appraiser in the same way that homes are appraised when banks issue a mortgage.

"The Right to Rent Plan is simple," says Baker. "It can take effect immediately, it requires no taxpayer dollars, and it creates no new bureaucracy."

Late in the last Congress, Rep. Raul Grijalva introduced the Saving Family Homes Act, based on the Right to Rent Plan. Other members of Congress have voiced support for the plan, including Sen. Charles Schumer and it is consistently mentioned as one of a few proposals currently being considered by the White House.

The full details of the plan can be found here:

http://www.reuters.com/article/euRegulatoryNews/idUSN1429055220090714
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