We’ve read a lot recently in the media about a rebounding housing market. Still organizations like the NAACP report that thousands of homeowners throughout Seattle – who are also predominantly people of color – are drowning in underwater mortgages with no equity in sight. They report that in their communities the foreclosure crisis is a far cry from being over. Nationally, during the years of the great recession, half of the wealth of African-Americans and 2/3rds of the wealth of Latinos has been lost.
Join the Seattle King County NAACP on Thursday, March 6th from 6pm-8:30pm at Southside Commons (3518 S Edmunds, Seattle, Washington 98118) for a town hall discussion on protecting wealth through relief efforts of principal reduction. For more information click here. The event is being promoted by the NAACP as “Protecting Black Home Ownership;” still our friends at the NAACP say that anyone at all who has been impacted by the foreclosure crisis – regardless of ethnicity – is welcome to attend.
And here is a quick update on the City’s efforts. As you may recall, in December the City Council voted to form a City of Seattle Interdepartmental Team (IDT) to explore whether principal reduction and other foreclosure prevention programs can help low-income homeowners. That IDT has been formed and has been meeting to do the work described in the Resolution that formed the IDT. After the IDT completes its work, in the next month or so, the IDT will report to the City Council Finance Committee and the Housing Committee on the financial and legal implications of specifically the three principal reduction programs proposed in an earlier Council-commissioned Report and a recommendation on what approach the City should take to help low-income homeowners in order to support and revitalize communities impacted by the foreclosure crisis.