MI: Attorney General accused of ‘grandstanding’

Over 4,000 homeowners descended on Cobo Hall Dec. 13 hoping to avoid being caught in the growing foreclosure crisis.

Sponsored by the State Attorney General’s office, the Avoid Foreclosure Forum gave participants the opportunity to address their lenders, get advice from independent loan counselors and attend educational seminars.

Although closed to the press, the Ballroom, where exchanges with lenders and counselors took place, was open to the public after a stringent registration process. Several security officers were on hand to check press credentials.

Many attending the forum had been contacted regarding the day’s events by their mortgage lenders, according to event coordinators.

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Many of the lenders represented at the forum are the same ones named in a federal lawsuit filed by the NAACP in July. The suit alleges "systematic, institutionalized racism in subprime home mortgage lending."

In Detroit, 70 percent of the loans let have been subprime.

To protect consumers against predatory lending, Attorney Generals in other states have taken a more active approach against the practice.

In Ohio, Attorney General Marc Dann has "oversight of foreclosures" according to his website. Dann has taken steps to weed out predatory lenders. New Century, a lender known for potentially harmful practices in Ohio, was barred from lending until an investigation by Dann.

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Protesters gathered outside the event accused the Attorney General of grandstanding. Abayome Azikiwe and Jerry Goldberg from the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice felt that the forum didn’t go far enough in addressing the issues that caused the crises in the first place.

"Attorney General Mike Cox has invited the same people that actually created this crisis to discuss these problems with the actual mortgage holders and it’s far too little, far too late," Awikize said. "The only real solution is a moratorium. He needs to investigate the practices of the banks, the mortgage companies and the real estate companies that have swindled people out of billions and billions of dollars here in the state of Michigan."


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