This morning in Reno, Barack sat down with four local residents to talk about the mortgage crisis in America that has hit Nevada particularly hard. Most of the conversation revolved around economic issues, but Barack’s decision to not accept money from federal lobbyists or PAC’s was particularly important to the participants, because in order to Reclaim the American Dream, we must take back Washington from the political insiders and special interest groups that have too much influence over our government
One of the participants, Patty (on the right with red hair), is a real estate consultant, and she has seen firsthand how people are losing their homes left and right. She is no longer making enough money from her job, and she had to unfortunately take a second job helping banks foreclose on houses. Patty strongly believes that the American dream is that if you want a house, you should be able to have one—and she was particularly concerned by the downward trends in home ownership in Northern Nevada.
Alex, another participant, is a divorced father with seven kids who rents a trailer. Alex said he feels ashamed and angry that he can't offer his children a real home, and he feels that the American Dream is out of reach for too many people in similar situations.
Sitting to the right of Barack was Skye, who wants more education for new home buyers, because of the predatory mortgage practices. Her husband is a Reno police officer who was injured, but went back to work. He was then diagnosed with cancer and had to continue working—but got injured again. Now they are behind on their mortgage payments, without anyone to turn to. A car loan company offered to work with their situation, but their mortgage payments were not met with equal understanding. Their home is also now valued at less than what they bought it for, making it more and more difficult to plan for the future.
One of the most alarming stories came from Tamishia, sitting in the front on the left. Tamishia bought her home with no money down, at her "stated" income (she was a dealer at a casino- so her income varies a great deal). She ended up having to work two jobs to keep up with her payments, but after deciding to switch careers, she couldn't make payments anymore. Her loan ended up being passed from company to company before she tried a loan re-modification. During this process, her home was sold to an investment company without her knowledge, who then foreclosed and forced her to move out. She is currently having trouble finding an apartment because of her bad credit.
Barack is a vocal critic of these types of deceitful practices, and introduced a bill in the Senate over a year ago called the “Stop Fraud Act.” Barack is committed to tackling these complex issues that have been ignored for far too long.
Barack spoke clearly that the times have changed, and mortgage and lending laws have not followed suit. He also spoke at length about the lack of incentive for companies to give good advice, because it’s not banks that carry the loans, but rather investment companies. Nothing happens to them if the home forecloses, because the investment company has just picked another property. Barack also feels strongly that lenders should be able to negotiate directly with home buyers and owners, and that right now; the government’s role should be focused around stabilization of the market.
Read about Barack’s plan for Protecting Homeownership and Cracking Down on Mortgage Fraud.
Barack also feels strongly that everyone should be able to have a say in their government—which is why he regularly participates in roundtable discussions. In case you have a personal insight or idea, you can submit your own ideas here!
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