• Demand that the first item in any emergency federal legislation be protection for the victims of this crisis, the millions facing foreclosures and millions of others who are seeing their communities destroyed by the foreclosure epidemic brought on by the predatory lending and fraud of the financial industry.

• Demand the enactment of an immediate 2 year federal moratorium on all foreclosures.   Such a moratorium is mandatory under federal law, which mandates the imposition of a moratorium on foreclosures whenever there is a declaration of a State of Emergency.

• During the moratorium, an oversight committee of community representatives, civil rights organizations, unions should review and adjust every mortgage in the country, so people’s house payments reflect the real values of their homes and their ability to pay.  Such oversight cannot be left to the bankers or even to federal judges who are often disconnected from the reality facing working people today.

• Demand that rather than spending $1 trillion of taxpayer money to bail out Wall Street, that money be used to guarantee people’s needs, for decent jobs, health care, education, etc.  It is the decline in wages, massive restructuring that has eliminated millions of decent paying jobs, and spiraling health costs that in large part has brought on this crisis, forcing people to take out unaffordable predatory loans just to survive.
  

The Moratorium Now! Coalition has been pressing for a statewide moratorium on foreclosures in Michigan and recently held a demonstration in Lansing, MI to support SB 1306, which would put such a moratorium into effect. 

The Coalition is also demanding that new Detroit Mayor Kenneth Cockrel declare a State of Emergency in Detroit, the hardest hit city in the country by the foreclosure epidemic with an 18% home vacancy rate, and formerly apply to Governor Granholm to place a moratorium on foreclosures in Detroit pursuant to MCL 10.31

For more information contact 313-319-0870.