Oakland Vociferous Against Foreclosures

January 14th, 2008

Last Saturday hundreds of harassed foreclosure victims crowded around many local officials in the chambers of Oakland City Council worried about how to tackle the menace. This epitomizes the severity of the national crisis on the Bay Area. The Mayor of Oakland, Ron Dellums was loud and clear in this being the ‘local response to what is a national epidemic’.

The town hall was humming with all kinds of foreclosure related activity – modification of loans and refinancing. Counselors were also tackling issues related to lenders and their loan servicers. The tables of the non-profit housing agencies were overflowing with brochures as they met the residents individually.

Truth’n Youth is one such non-profit agency run by James and Eleanor of Oakland. Their focus is on assisting the young. They said that when within two days there were poised to lose the house that had been their home for the past 30 years in a public auction, they were helped by an agency to negotiate on favourable terms. James Warren stressed that it is this type of positive help that is the call of the hour.

Last year foreclosures had become an epidemic with millions across the country losing their houses because of high spike in mortgage rates. It was so steep that the people just could not afford it. In the Bay Area nearly 11,000 suffered foreclosure during 2007, as per public records. In 2008 even more will tumble in, as the rates are about to rise.

At the workshops there were some suggestions that were highlighted. One was the FHASecure programme that was backed by HUD. It allows refinancing into fixed rate mortgage. Till last year this scheme was open only to those whose loan amount is more than the value of the house and to those who are behind in mortgage payment schedule. Most of the delinquency was due to the abnormal rise in interest rates.

Sandre Swanson, an Assemblyman, opined that for this mess both the corporate bodies as well as the individuals are responsible. People did not take a lesson from the dot.com crash that what goes up tends to come down. Thus it is necessary to think before inking.

The event itself is a pointer to the state of foreclosures and it prominence. In Oakland a similar workshop held in October had drawn 150 people but this time the number had doubled. Many had to stand because all the seats were occupied.