Federal funds to fight foreclosure
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Renita Jablonski: The nations’ mayors are in Miami for their annual meeting. Today, mayors are expected to pass resolutions calling for federal money to help deal with the foreclosure crisis. Big cities want the aid to go beyond low-income families. Jill Barshay has more.
Jill Barshay: Foreclosures are strangling some cities. They’re choking off property tax revenues just when city services are needed the most.
Frank Ortis is mayor of Pembroke Pines, a city near Miami. He says people getting kicked out of their homes are adding to urban blight.
Frank Ortis: Some even poured concrete down toilets, put holes in walls. And then you have the over-growing of the grass. And you have pools, in Florida especially, turn green and become mosquito-infested. Those are all problems for us as mayors to deal with.
Everyone expects more foreclosures to come. Mayors want federal funds to keep homeowners in their houses.
But big city mayors are worried federal aid could be restricted to low-income households. Expensive cities like New York and Boston argue they need help too.
I’m Jill Barshay for Marketplace.
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