To: Eric Holder, United States Attorney General
Department of Justice: Stop the Big Bank Bullies!
Please investigate the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) and major banks' plans to redline the city of Richmond and other communities considering local principal reduction programs. The banks' threats to restrict credit to qualified homebuyers, especially those in the communities of color previously hurt by redlining and reverse redlining, violate the fair housing law and represent an anti-competitive trade practice.
Why is this important?
We knew the big banks would play dirty when officials in Richmond, CA announced a game-changing plan to stop the wave of foreclosures decimating their city. But we didn’t know they would stoop this low.
The banks want to bully Richmond out of our plan to seize or buy underwater homes by threatening to make it more expensive for people to borrow money to buy homes if our plan passes. They know that if Richmond successfully implements their plan, other cities will follow -- and that would threaten the banks’ power.
Thing is, there’s another name for this kind of bullying: redlining. It’s a tactic that was used for decades to maintain neighborhood segregation and keep people of color out of home ownership -- and it’s completely illegal. By threatening us, the banks are betting that our plan will lose political support not only in Richmond, but nationwide.
That’s why we must hold them accountable for threatening illegal action right now. Sign the petition calling on the U. S. Department of Justice to investigate the banking industry’s threats.
Decades of redlining kept qualified borrowers in working class communities and communities of color from having the opportunity to own a home. Then came reverse redlining, otherwise known as predatory lending: the banks peddled high-cost bad loans to unsuspecting borrowers. The result? More than 4 million Americans have lost their homes and decades of hard-earned wealth -- mostly in black and brown neighborhoods -- has been wiped away.
Cities across the U.S., with Richmond leading the way, are developing a smart strategy to save homes from the bank-caused foreclosure calamity by acquiring troubled loans through purchase or use of eminent domain. This plan would effectively rewrite the rules of the game -- levelling the playing field so that homeowners have a fighting chance to keep their homes.
The plan we have to save homes is fair, sensible and has the potential to help tens of thousands of families across the U.S. It’s a win-win solution that reduces foreclosures and blight, helping to stabilize home values and improve property tax revenue for our cities.
The big banks and their allies are doing everything they can to intimidate Richmond out of pursuing this plan -- like any bully, they want to keep the game tilted in their favor. They’ve threatened the city with lawsuits, they’ve spread lies about the impact of the program. But their latest tactic -- threatening to make credit more expensive for homebuyers in any city that passes a similar plan -- is way over the line.
Don’t let the bullies of Wall Street derail a program that will help communities across America recover. Please sign this petition calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Wall Street’s plans to discriminate against cities that use the laws at their disposal to fix bad loans and save homes.
The banks want to bully Richmond out of our plan to seize or buy underwater homes by threatening to make it more expensive for people to borrow money to buy homes if our plan passes. They know that if Richmond successfully implements their plan, other cities will follow -- and that would threaten the banks’ power.
Thing is, there’s another name for this kind of bullying: redlining. It’s a tactic that was used for decades to maintain neighborhood segregation and keep people of color out of home ownership -- and it’s completely illegal. By threatening us, the banks are betting that our plan will lose political support not only in Richmond, but nationwide.
That’s why we must hold them accountable for threatening illegal action right now. Sign the petition calling on the U. S. Department of Justice to investigate the banking industry’s threats.
Decades of redlining kept qualified borrowers in working class communities and communities of color from having the opportunity to own a home. Then came reverse redlining, otherwise known as predatory lending: the banks peddled high-cost bad loans to unsuspecting borrowers. The result? More than 4 million Americans have lost their homes and decades of hard-earned wealth -- mostly in black and brown neighborhoods -- has been wiped away.
Cities across the U.S., with Richmond leading the way, are developing a smart strategy to save homes from the bank-caused foreclosure calamity by acquiring troubled loans through purchase or use of eminent domain. This plan would effectively rewrite the rules of the game -- levelling the playing field so that homeowners have a fighting chance to keep their homes.
The plan we have to save homes is fair, sensible and has the potential to help tens of thousands of families across the U.S. It’s a win-win solution that reduces foreclosures and blight, helping to stabilize home values and improve property tax revenue for our cities.
The big banks and their allies are doing everything they can to intimidate Richmond out of pursuing this plan -- like any bully, they want to keep the game tilted in their favor. They’ve threatened the city with lawsuits, they’ve spread lies about the impact of the program. But their latest tactic -- threatening to make credit more expensive for homebuyers in any city that passes a similar plan -- is way over the line.
Don’t let the bullies of Wall Street derail a program that will help communities across America recover. Please sign this petition calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Wall Street’s plans to discriminate against cities that use the laws at their disposal to fix bad loans and save homes.