Attorney General Kamala Harris is scheduled to speak about the provisions in her Homeowner Bill of Rights and the state’s efforts to protect homeowners at a Town Hall sponsored by the California Legislative Black Caucus on Thursday, June 21, 2012 at 6 p.m. at the California Science Center, Wallis Annenberg Building (Muses Room),700 State Drive, LA.
The mortgage crisis has resulted in the largest loss of Black wealth in history due to foreclo¬sures and the loss of home values for Blacks, according to a report released by The Center for Responsible Lending.
“Communities of color are being devastated by this crisis and members of the Legislative Black Caucus stand strongly in support of the Attorney General’s courageous efforts to protect California homeowners and hold lending institutions accountable,’ said Senator Curren D. Price, Chair of the Caucus.
According to the Center’s report: Foreclosures by Race and Ethnicity: the Demographics of a Crisis, for every 100 African-American homeowners, 11 have either lost their homes or at imminent risk of foreclo-sure. For Latino families, the figures are even worse—17 of every 100 La¬tino homeowners are affected by fore¬closures,” the Center noted.
More than one million California homes were lost to foreclosure between 2008 and 2011—with an additional 500,000 currently in the foreclosure pipeline.
And between 2009 and 2012, the center estimated that property depreciation in communities of color related to foreclosure was $194 billion for African Americans and $177 billion for Latino communities.
The California Homeowner Bill of Rights is a legislative package designed to bring fairness, accountability and transparency to the state’s mortgage and foreclosure process. Find out about these bills, as well as what the historic $18 billion national mortgage settlement and other protections will do to protect California homeowners.
"The single most important investment of most Americans is the purchase of their homes. That is why it is essential to support the California Homeowner Bill of Rights to ensure California will not be a place where home mortgage schemes can continue in record numbers. The 18.9 billion dollars and the new set of laws which will be provided by this package are necessary for us to make sure our state protects its citizens from these unfortunate violations," explained Assemblyman Mike Davis, Vice Chair of the Caucus.