Senator Durbin Features SWOP in a Senate Subcommittee Hearing in Chicago

Illinois US Senator Richard Durbin held up SWOP and our neighborhoods as an example of the tremendous local suffering caused by the national mortgage crisis during a federal hearing on December 4th at the Dirsken Federal Building in Chicago.

Two days earlier, the Senator was visibly moved by seeing the huge number of foreclosures on maps produced by SWOP at a meeting with our staff and leaders. Father Stan Rataj from St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church, Livia Villarreal from the Southwest Reach Center, Mike Reardon from Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) and SWOP staff Jeff Bartow and David McDowell had arranged the meeting to speak with the Senator about our work fighting the foreclosures on the southwest side. As Father Stan laid out the impact of the crisis on his parish and Villarreal and Reardon shared information about the “Keep Our Homes” campaign recently begun by SWOP, SW Reach Center and NHS, the Senator began thinking with us on ways to bring the key decision makers from the top foreclosing banks to the table to speak with our leaders about local solutions to save our homes.

At the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee Hearing on December 4th, Senator Durbin pointed to two enlargements of the SWOP foreclosure maps that SWOP had shared with him, spoke about the devastating effects of foreclosures on zip code 60629 and related the stories that Father Stan had told him about St. Nicholas parish. He then questioned Neel Kashkari, Interim Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability, Department of the Treasury about what the Treasury Department was doing to specifically help families stay in their homes and heard testimony from Michael Krimminger, Special Advisor to the Chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on the FDIC plan to save homes.

Also testifying at the hearing were Lisa Madigan, Illinois Attorney General; Matthew Scire, Director, Financial Markets and Community Investment, U.S. Government Accountability Office; Bruce Gottschall, Executive Director, Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago; and Marguerite E. Sheehan, Senior Vice President and Home Lending Senior Executive, JPMorgan Chase.

SWOP leader Katie Van Tiem from Neighborhood Housing Services, and SWOP Staff Jeff Bartow and David McDowell were present at the hearing and had the opportunity to speak with the Senator and his staff about a continuing partnership to keep our families in their homes in our neighborhood.

Stay tuned to our website for further developments.