Foreclosure Free Zones-Part3 Petaluma Throws a Monkey Wrench

In this 3nd  part of our series about the Foreclosure Menace, co-host Daniel Kerbein explores with Occupy Our Homes! activist CJHolmes and Petaluma, CA Vice-Mayor (and congressional candidate) Tiffany Renee, what communities such as the City of Petaluma are doing -- and other communities can also do -- to throw a monkey wrench into the foreclosure machine.

The Petaluma City Council voted in December to seek legal protection for homeowners faced with foreclosures and evictions. They wrote a letter to CA Attorney General asking that the AG work to 1) temporarily stay auction proceedings and 2) temporarily suspend CA Codes requiring County sheriffs to serve all process and notices related to foreclosures and evictions, noting that banks & other financial institutions have a track record of engaging in "…unfair and deceptive practices in violation of California law.”

In addition, the council is seeking damages for the city’s loss of more than $1 million in property tax revenue.

"If we don't stop values from constant decline, more loans will go upside-down, more sellers will have to sell short, more buyers will stop buying, and eventually Banks will probably stop lending", asserts CJ Holmes in her blog. "The far-reaching stress on Owners, Governments, and even Banks, will be far greater than the issues we face right now."

For Parts 2 and 3 of this series, we enhanced audio from CJ Holmes' video of our interview in the studio of KBBF-FM 89.1, Calistoga/Santa Rosa CA. This was due to a problem with our on-air recording. The interview can be seen at YouTube, KBBF012912.

Music credits go to: The Daddy Mack Blues Band, "Trickle Down Blues" by Eddie Dattel, from the CD "Pay the Piper" www.insidesounds.com, used with permission; Francisco Herrera, "Casa de Carton", from the CD "Fuerza de la Raiz.