Mark Winston Griffith

The clock is ticking on foreclosure prevention

Deja vu all over again.

This time last year, New York State fair lending advocates were scrambling to make sure that Albany legislators got their proverbial stuff together long enough to pass some foreclosure prevention legislation. Unfortunately, Albany failed to do so.

Since then a new Governor has taken office.

Since then a variety of new legilsative solutions have been offered, including a comprehensive package issued from the Governor's office.

Since then foreclosures in New York have risen by forty percent and thousands more New Yorkers across the state have lost their homes because they were saddled with lousy, abusive loans.

Since then, even the slackers in Washington have managed to tee up tepid anti-foreclosure legislation.

Since then hundreds of op-eds and articles have been written detailing the foreclosure crisis in New York and across the country.

Since then a chorus of advocates, including New Yorkers for Responsible Lending, the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, ACORN, and agitators like me and DMI's chief, Andrea Batista Schlesinger, have renewed calls for Albany to pass anti-foreclosure legislation.

Since then there have been no new foreclosure prevention remedies enacted.

So there I was yesterday, attending a press conference in solidarity with my fellow members of New Yorkers for Responsible Lending, calling for the legislature to go from talk to action on the Governor's foreclosure prevention and anti-predatory lending bill. Folks like Sarah Ludwig, my former colleague at NEDAP, were issuing a warning at the press conference - and at a subsequent presentation organized by the Empire Justice Center on frightening foreclosure trends in New York State- that if legislators are not literally at this moment hammering out the details of what is complex legislation in the form of the Governor’s bill, and reconciling it with elements of the Responsible Lending Act, then Albany could actually let another session go by without doing squat about the foreclosure crisis.

There are only weeks left before the Albany legislative session ends in late June. In the face of every indicator saying that the foreclosure crisis is only worsening, it would be hard to imagine a more obvious and shameful dereliction of duty than if the legislature did not pass meaningful foreclosure prevention legislation before its members returned to their own comfortable homes.

Mark Winston Griffith: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 8:39 AM, May 23, 2008 in Economic Opportunity
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