Sister and Brother Democrats,
I am writing asking for your very urgent attention. We need you to help us get to Attorney General Healey.
People don’t seem to realize that foreclosures are still going on at a historic rate. Our estimate is that 1 in 13 Massachusetts households have seen their home taken by foreclosure over the past decade, and the current rate, while perhaps a third that at the peak of this financial crisis, is still at the peak of the Great Depression in this, our eleventh year.
We have had evidence for years that most of these foreclosures were rampantly illegal. We are now able to show that many of these illegalities cross the line and are also criminal acts.
As candidate for Attorney General in 2014, Maura Healey publicly promised historic public access to her office. She also specifically and explicitly promised to support homeowners fighting foreclosure, and to make her office accessible to homeowners and their movements and advocates. Lamentably, since taking office she has a track record of slashing help to homeowners and tenants facing foreclosure and post-foreclosure evictions; and she is demonstrably allowing her staff to bend over backwards to help the mega banks and foreclosure mills override homeowner resistance and illegally take their homes. In doing so she has not only broken her promises to the voters and failed many specific legal responsibilities of her office; she has profoundly failed to uphold one of the three “inalienable rights” specified in the Massachusetts Constitution – the right to property – by helping foreign corporations take people’s homes illegally.
This could be the A.G.’s Achilles Heel. I think Democrats must talk to her urgently. As Democrats, we have held the Attorney General’s office for forty-nine years, and our Party must be prepared to answer to the voters for the norms and practices of that office. If the full extent of how Healey continues to treat this huge percentage of Massachusetts residents gets out, that leaves her incredibly vulnerable as a candidate, and us as a party.
The most recent test Healey has failed lies in her office’s apparent refusal to enforce some critical (and fabulous) regulations Coakley promulgated to protect homeowners. Several of these regulations are directly the legal responsibility of the Attorney General’s office.
One of them, in particular, imposes stays of execution on mortgage debt collections while homeowners’ appeals are in process. We know of dozens of homeowners who have recently taken the steps to impose these stays on the banks in their own situations. Despite even the Massachusetts government website stating that these regulations control mortgage debt collection, the banks’ lawyers are completely ignoring these regulation-imposed stays, as have been the Housing Court justices. Many homeowners have reached out to Healey’s office, which has either refused to answer follow-up calls or has literally told them that the Attorney General’s office – the sole office responsible for enforcement of these regulations – would do nothing, that it was not their responsibility!
Healey needs to step up to the plate on this and numerous other legal responsibilities and commitments she has to the Massachusetts people around foreclosures. And she needs to do it now before this makes her a target on an issue that effects 1 in 13 households directly and all of us indirectly – even if too many of us seem to have forgotten.
Or have we so quickly forgotten the horror of the mass evictions we experienced at the height of the last financial crisis? Have we been so desensitized that we can’t see that it is still ongoing for hundreds of families a month? Is it too frightening to consider how the stage has been set for this ongoing crisis to accelerate again when inevitably the next financial panic hits?
Steve Consilvio says
One of the primary architects of our system, Robert Morris, went bankrupt and ended up in debtors prison. In fact, quite a number of individuals involved with the Revolution and crafting the Constitution were under difficult circumstances.
The whole purpose of government was to use our collective strengths to not only prevent injustice but also to lend a limited hand. A government that becomes an agent of the banks and allows and facilitates foreclosures and evictions is failing in its duty on many levels.
Obviously, by failing to protect the weak from the strong, but also by failing to regulate the economy intelligently enough to prevent a divide into the excessively strong and the excessively weak.
Maura Healy likely doesn’t know what to do or how to do it, as this issue is simply not debated but only avoided. Mr. RoboForeclosure has a cabinet level post. Things are upside down.
I don’t really understand why we hear all this rhetoric about how bad Trump is, when state officials sit on their hands and do nothing about areas for which they have some control. Matthew 23-4 (I think) says something about those who put burdens on others but don’t lift a finger to help them.
The complacency with marketplace theory is astounding. High real estate prices can only result in widespread misery, and the powers that be worry more about speculators and bankers and insurance corporations than anyone else. It’s shameful, especially in an allegedly liberal state. A fascist state would be similarly indifferent….self-contradictory, and inept at bridging the gap between theory and reality.
A public bank, lower interest rates, and some sort of pricing control would make housing cheap, affordable and easy for all. The King is gone, we have no one left to blame but ourselves.
Under a situation with so much doublethink and groupthink, she will likely not be courageous enough to buck the status quo, because there is no political benefit to the truth and doing the right thing for the forgotten and marginalized when empty platitudes work just as well at getting elected and re-elected.
It isn’t just the judges, as you know too well Chris, that close their eyes to evidence of banker’s fraud and the existing laws. Our previous democratic governor was part of the sub-prime mortgage industry. These are not people that grasp the concept of mercy very well.
johntmay says
After reading “Winner Take All Politics” by Hacker & Pierson and most recently “Rigged” by Dean Baker, none of this shocks me. By the way, you can read “Rigged” for free. Here
If anyone thinks the Democrats are the party of the working class, they are living in the past. This is not to say that the Republicans are, they just sold the deception better in 2016, just as Democrats sold it better in 2008 & 2012. (remember, Obama bailed out all the banks, but not the home owners).
We had our chance with Bernie and we may have it again with Elizabeth soon. But first, and until then, we need to fight the neoliberals who have taken over the party. By neoliberals, I refer to a belief that markets are the preferred approach to our wants and needs and it is only where markets fail that government steps in to correct market failure. Governments serve no other purpose and are seen as inefficient, costly, and used only as a last resort.
Christopher says
Do you all really think that two weeks before an election is the best time to engage the circular firing squad?
bob-gardner says
In all fairness, though, I raised the issue of her treatment of the Farak drug testing scandal over a year ago, to not much effect. The election was over a year away at the time. I think two weeks before the election is probably the one time people are paying attention.
Steve Consilvio says
You seem to be under the illusion that a couple of comments here will have an impact elsewhere. I’m not. If we can make the few who read each other’s comments see the issue differently, them maybe we can avoid the status quo, which is the real circular firing squad. What is the definition of insane? Repeating the same behavior and expecting different results. For Maura Healey to behave differently then she needs to think differently, the same as everyone else. Ideas percolate up. Dean Baker and other writers (myself included) are outliers that probably recognize the circular firing squad better than you realize. Don’t be so afraid of such little things. Who do you think would vote for the opposite party because of their disappointment with their own?
pogo says
The people under illusion of the impact here are the ones throwing this grenade two weeks out. This is a bush league effort. If sincere, the post would be better received after the election. Clearly there was no rush or the spot would have been made a month ago.
Steve Consilvio says
I have no doubt about the sincerity of the original post, and the timing was equally sincere. People seeking re-election should be reminded of their previous campaign promises. The clamoring has been going on for months, just not here and now. Again, I don’t quite get the sensitive skin or the FUD. As a practical matter, yes, too much might be going on for Maura Healy right now and after the election might be better for her, but now is the time when people are more engaged and likely to get an opportunity to have access to her and bring up this topic. Since she is ignoring the issue, I think any attempt by citizens to influence their representatives is fair. Your desire for banality is the real grenade.