There has been a lot of talk around the country about homes being illegally foreclosed upon. For instance, the word on the streets of Oakland right now is that greedy banks are specifically targeting the houses of African Americans. But such stories have gone from rumors to, well, legitimate stories when it comes to America's fighting forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency recently released data that indicates nearly 5,000 military members may have been improperly foreclosed upon. And that frosts a certain Orange County congresswoman on the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces.
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“Hardworking
people all across the country have been the victim of improper
foreclosure, but this recent epidemic of wrongful military foreclosures
is particularly atrocious,” says Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) in a statement her office issued this morning.
“Soldiers
have an extra layer of legal protection in mortgage lending, thanks to
legislation that restricts foreclosure of properties owned by
active-duty members of the military,” Sanchez notes. “I
will fight for these nearly 5,000 service members who have been
wronged. They deserve to get their homes back where possible and
deserve monetary damages in cases where the home has been sold. While
our troops fight for us abroad, they should not have to worry about
losing their homes stateside. We must ensure that justice is served.”
Real justice would involve putting unscrupulous bankers in the civilian equivalent of a brig–not that that will ever happen.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.