[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 21]
[House]
[Page 29648]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2045
                 FORECLOSURES ARE ALL ACROSS THE NATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, listening to my colleague from 
New York, Representative Clarke, it reinforced for me how important it 
is to deal seriously with the whole question of subprime lending and 
how vast foreclosures are all across the Nation.
  I, like others, have been working with the coalition in my community, 
and many of them have come up with excellent ideas about what to do. 
But rather than just massaging the problem, than coming up with 
solutions, one solution that was put on the table the other day that I 
liked was the idea that rather than foreclosing on individuals who 
cannot pay the mortgages, why not rent the property to them and let 
them continue to live in it paying rent? Who knows, the time may very 
well come when they can go back to paying the mortgage.
  Their lives never would have been disrupted. Plus we're finding that 
foreclosed properties oftentimes end up being lose-lose situations; 
that is, it's a loss for the lender as well as a loss for the 
homeowner, because in many neighborhoods, once a foreclosure occurs and 
people move out, the houses are boarded up, and of course, vandals prey 
upon them, destroy everything that was in it.
  And so I simply wanted to appreciate all of those individuals who are 
part of the coalition of community groups and organizations with whom 
I've been working. And I join with others across the Nation to say to 
our government that we must correct the subprime lending process. But 
we also must do something that will aid those individuals who find 
themselves in tough situations right now.
  So I join with Representative Clarke.

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