Katrina vanden Heuvel: Resisting Foreclosures

[marmar]

from The Nation:



Resisting Foreclosures
posted by Katrina vanden Heuvel on 09/12/2009 @ 1:43pm


In Georgia, the ease with which someone can lose a home is staggering.

A foreclosure-eviction can occur without judicial review in just 35 days, and at 10 a.m. on the first Tuesday of every month, the state's 159 counties hold a sheriff's auction of foreclosed homes.

That translated to 1,500 homes for sale in Atlanta on September 1. Reverend Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition--including 125 ministers from throughout the south--were in town to try to stop the auction.

They appealed to both Citibank and Wells Fargo to withdraw homes from the sale. Citi pulled thirty of its forty properties and will restructure those mortgages. Wells Fargo is still considering its response. Jackson commended Citi for taking "courageous action" but also noted that there is a need for a "massive restructuring" to truly stem the tide of foreclosures.

"The systematic hemorrhaging of foreclosures is outdistancing by far the loan modifications," Jackson said in a recent interview. "We've given a massive blood transfusion to the banks, but it's not linked to stopping the hemorrhaging at the bottom. We're taking care of a head wound...but the aorta is gushing." ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/472262/resisting_foreclosures

[Politicub]

1. I live here and I'm convinced that Georgia may be the most corrupt and evil state in the union

Reading through any of our laws makes it evident that this state is set up to provide the maximum benefit to business at the expense of everyone else.

Recently, many in the Georgia state legislature were in the news saying Georgia was going to try to disallow any health care benefits that get passed at the federal level to be made available to the people of the state. Why would they do that, other than to protect some insurance company interests?

From energy deregulation, which results in higher costs, and on down, this state does nothing good for its citizens. It's surprising that Atlanta even exists as an oasis of moderation in this sea of conservatism.

[3waygeek]

2. Another example of GA's government at work...

the http://www.ajc.com/news/legislature-slashes-watchdog-agency-136912.html">front page article in today's AJC about the General Assembly's cutting the budget for the state Ethics Commission.