#158 Fall 2009

The Nitpicker’s Guide to Foreclosure Mitigation

First, it was judges like Justice Arthur M. Schack of the New York Supreme Court, who made waves by tossing foreclosure motions because he found a rising level of errors […]

First, it was judges like Justice Arthur M. Schack of the New York Supreme Court, who made waves by tossing foreclosure motions because he found a rising level of errors in bank paperwork, largely due to banks’ slicing and dicing nature of selling mortgage loans to outside investors. But now, it’s the homeowner that has made it hard on the bank trying to foreclose. In a semi rebellion known as “show me the note,” banks are being challenged, ever so slightly, when they find themselves legally required to prove that they hold the original mortgage documents before taking possession of a home.

However, it’s basically a means to buy some time. “I am encouraging [homeowners] to stay in their homes [and] go through the court proceedings until the institution in question can produce [the] note,” Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur told the Huffington Post in September. Further, there are only a handful of states, including Florida and New York, that require foreclosures to go before a judge.

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Shelterforce Staff

Shelterforce is the only independent, non-academic publication covering the worlds of community development, affordable housing, and neighborhood stabilization.

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ISSUE TABLE OF CONTENTS

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  • A 21st Century Vision For Community Development

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    Today's economic crisis is devastating neighborhoods and households across the country. Urban, low-income communities that were slowly recovering from the disinvestment of earlier decades are now falling back to where they were in the 1970s. Rural communities, walloped by the collapse of key economic generators, have suffered no less. Families that had begun to break the cycle of poverty and build small amounts of savings are now being plunged back into debt. Yet, at a time when the work of community development corporations is more needed than ever, there are growing questions about their long-term viability and efficacy.