On the recordMarch 16, 2011
I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Chairman, I do want to point out that the Neighborhood Stabilization Program that we're talking about here today isn't just dealing with foreclosures. As we all know in this country, there have been pockets where the foreclosure phenomenon and the wave of foreclosures and property abandonment have been concentrated. I have an area like that in my district, in the area of Brockton, Massachusetts, but I can point to other areas all across this country. What the Neighborhood Stabilization Program allows is for cooperation between communities, banks, lenders, homeowners, and servicers to either preserve homeownership; or in areas across this country such as in Illinois, Nevada, California, and Florida, where thousands and thousands of units have been abandoned in one concentrated area, it allows us to address those abandoned properties where the lender has taken a walk, where the homeowner has taken a walk, where the servicer has taken a walk. The surrounding communities of homeowners who are trying to stay in their homes are having, first of all, their property values lowered because of the density of abandoned properties in their neighborhoods. This Neighborhood Stabilization Program provides the only opportunity for us to address that crisis. We are trying to put a floor under the housing market in this country--some of us are--and this is one program that allows us to do that. So I rise in opposition to this bill.…
