Rev. Jesse Jackson Takes On Chicago Foreclosures Ward By Ward

Aldermen Fioretti and Ed Smith ask for Chicago City Council hearing to address sub-prime lending crisis

CHICAGO (Dec. 2, 2007) – At a press conference today in the 2300 West block of Madison Avenue in Chicago, Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., founder and president of Rainbow PUSH Coalition, stood with 2nd Ward Alderman Bob Fioretti as he pointed out one house in foreclosure and two for sale on the street.

Rev. Jackson then listed the number of new foreclosures in each Chicago ward – including 133 in the 2nd Ward. Homeowners who could afford to pay their mortgages before their rates reset are at risk of being saddled with foreclosure judgments that can follow them for their rest of their lives, he said.

“People who started out paying $800 a month can continue to pay $800 a month, but they cannot pay a ballooned mortgage of $1600 a month,” he added.

Rev. Jackson called for a meeting with Chicago officials to discuss the rising number of foreclosures, and the disproportionate number of risky sub-prime loans in the city’s African-American and Hispanic communities. At today’s press conference, Aldermen Fioretti and Ed Smith (28th Ward) said they plan to request a City Council hearing on the crisis.

“This emanates across ward lines, so we intend to press as hard as we can for this American Dream,” said Alderman Smith. “The most important thing a parent can leave a child is a house.”

During today’s press conference, Rev. Jackson also listed the banks and mortgage companies involved in sub-prime lending schemes, whose terms have pushed many homeowners into foreclosure. “These banks are going down too, because without some restructuring, this will become an irreversible recession,” he said.

Rev. Jackson has met with Federal Reserve Board Chair Ben Bernanke, and has discussed the issue with CEOs of major banks, including J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup. He has called for a restructuring of the mortgage-debt market to prevent the repossession of a homeowner’s property in default as the result of a bad loan product.

Rev. Jackson urged the public to march December 10 on LaSalle Street in Chicago and Wall Street in New York, as well as in other financial centers across the country to show support for the more than 2 million homeowners nationwide – including more than 30,000 in Chicago – who have been victimized by sub-prime lenders.

Alderman Fioretti added that the foreclosure crisis is an international problem as some of the world’s largest investment banks backing American lenders are in Saudi Arabia.

Despite the international crisis, Rev. Jackson said media in the United States have virtually ignored the issue. “Our media is slow on this,” he said, “I have seen more coverage on this issue from the BBC in London and in newspapers in India than I have in the United States.”

Since his six-city tour across Michigan in October, Rev. Jackson has traveled to Los Angeles, Atlanta and England to address the concerns of homeowners in crisis. During the Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s annual Wall Street Project Conference in New York City next month, Rev. Jackson will call for congressional input to keep Americans in their homes.

“We need a full-scale government intervention to include a freeze on adjustable rate mortgages,” he said. “This is not the fault of the poor. These banks operated without transparency.”

Source: Rainbow PUSH Coalition

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