Gayle McLaughlin talking:
the housing crisis in Richmond is not over, far so from being over. We had 900 foreclosures last year and just as many in the pipeline this year. So, this situation is something that we feel in the city of Richmond we have to address. It’s destabilizing our families. It’s destabilized neighborhoods. And it’s caused a huge impact to the city as a whole.
So, the city is stepping in to fix the situation. The banks sold our community predatory loans, and now they have no solution that they’re presenting for this crisis. So we are stepping in to fix the situation. We’re stepping in by taking these troubled loans off the hands of the banks. And we’re paying them fair market value for these loans, and then we’re working with the homeowners to refinance and modify loans in line with current—current home values. So we call on the banks to voluntarily sell us these loans. And if they don’t cooperate, we will be considering eminent domain—again, paying them fair market value for these mortgages.
Republican Congressmember John Campbell of California has introduced a bill that would block McLaughlin’s efforts to use eminent domain to purchase home mortgages.
This is a fair and simple transaction. They’re getting fair market value for mortgages. The city has every legal right to do this. The city has researched this, you know, vastly and from many legal sources. We’re utilizing eminent domain, if necessary, to help a situation. The market will not recover without this recovery for cities like Richmond that are struggling still with a spiraling-down housing crisis. So, we don’t think that bill in Congress will pass. We don’t think it holds water. We think that we have every right to do so, and that is—to move forward, as we are, and an obligation to do so. So, we think these kind of actions are totally, totally outside the realm of the law.
— source democracynow.org
Gayle McLaughlin, mayor of Richmond, California.