Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes California foreclosure help using money diverted years ago
Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed Wednesday to spend California’s share of a national mortgage settlement on legal assistance for struggling homeowners and renters, funds that lawmakers illegally diverted in 2014 to help erase the state’s budget deficit.
The governor’s announcement of the effort at an event in Los Angeles came as a surprise to the community groups that sued the state, who said they had wanted to help craft plans for the money. And the leader of one group remained worried skeptical that the money would be used as promised.
Newsom unveiled the broad outlines of a plan to deposit $331 million, the amount originally set aside for statewide homeowner help, into a trust fund that would pay for legal services to help those Californians. The fund would also assist renters in need of legal advice. The governor said his plan will require approval by the Legislature before it adjourns for the year next month and is long overdue for those affected by the business practices of powerful mortgage lending companies.
“The idea that human beings could take advantage of other human beings at this level and go to bed at night and hug their kids is rather extraordinary in and of itself,” Newsom said at a news conference held at Public Counsel, a Los Angeles legal aid clinic. “Those that aspire to get into [the middle class] are being slammed, because we had been unable to produce enough housing, to prevent evictions and foreclosures and unscrupulous practices and to preserve the existing housing stock.”
Read more: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/california/story/2019-08-07/california-mortgage-settlement-legal-assistance-gavin-newsom
