"Most politicians avoid saying—let alone doing—anything of consequence regarding the foreclosure crisis....
"At a point when an estimated 8 million American families face eviction from their homes due to the threat of foreclosure, and when roughly one-third of all mortgage holders are “underwater”—that’s the term for when a homeowner owes more to his or her lenders than their property would be worth if they attempted to sell it—.... Stein put things in perspective Wednesday: “The developers and financiers made trillions of dollars through the housing bubble and the imposition of crushing debt on homeowners. And when homeowners could no longer pay them what they demanded, they went to government and got trillions of dollars of bailouts. Every effort of the Obama Administration has been to prop this system up and keep it going at taxpayer expense. It’s time for this game to end. It’s time for the laws be written to protect the victims and not the perpetrators. It’s time for a new deal for America, and a Green New Deal is what we will deliver on taking office. “
"Stein says she would:
issue an executive order establishing a moratorium on foreclosures of occupied dwellings
encourage local governments to help homeowners get out of underwater mortgages by seizing mortgages through eminent domain and letting nonprofit community development organizations—not Wall Street banks—reissue the mortgages.
"That may sound like radical talk. But older Americans will hear echoes of Franklin Roosevelt, from whom Stein has taken inspiration with her “Green New Deal” campaign."
