Home Defenders: Local Principal Reduction Helps Homeowners Fight Foreclosure
The Home Defenders League, a national coalition of underwater homeowners and community organizations housed at the Center for Popular Democracy, has announced its newest campaign: FightingForeclosures.org.
In a Local Principal Reduction program, the city works with private investors to acquire a set of the worst, hardest to fix underwater mortgages (called “Private Label Securities” or PLS) and refinances them to restore home equity. If banks refuse to cooperate, cities may use their legal authority of eminent domain to buy the bad mortgages at fair market value and then reset them to current value.
Local Principal Reduction has been pioneered in Richmond, California, and is gaining traction across the country.
Just $10,000 is enough money for the Home Defenders League and allied organizations to begin organizing for Local Principal Reduction in a new city. In its first week, FightingForeclosures.org has raised over $17,000.
Two newly released videos appear on the website: an animated video explaining how LPR works; and a newsreel featuring news anchors, underwater homeowners, local leaders, and nationally known experts, including Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, Congressman Keith Ellison, actor and activist John Cusack, labor leader Stephen Lerner, and noted urban policy academic Peter Dreier.
WATCH:
