Case Study #4 – Home Foreclosure

The Challenge

Moving good policy to reduce poverty also includes opposing and defeating bad legislation that would impact struggling families. Florida consistently ranked 2^nd in the nation from 2007-2012 in foreclosures and 1/3 of foreclosures happened in working class neighborhoods of color. Florida foreclosures must be approved by the court and this protected many families as banks often did not have the documentation to foreclose. In 2012 homeowner associations got legislators to  file a bill that would speed up the court foreclosure proceedings by shortening the due process for homeowners and shifting the burden of proof to the homeowner to stop foreclosure in court. 

The  Approach

Working as Executive Director of PICO United Florida, I reached out to our member congregations to understand the scope of the issue, identified if families, wanted to organize, and brought them together in local meetings around the state and on conference calls. I used my relationships with legislators on both sides of the aisle to learn and understand the impact of the proposed legislation. I also reached out to foreclosure advocacy organizations (Florida Consumer Action Network, Legal Services) and invited them to participate in leadership meetings.

As the bill was brought to House and Senate committees, I worked with clergy and leaders to visit committee

members and their staff and share our concerns for the bill. We then gave testimony at each committee meeting opposing the bill.  Our analysis concluded that:

1. The bill was an unfair restriction of due process, especially for low income families who may not have access to an attorney.
2. If the bill passed, it would possibly approve hundreds of thousands of pending foreclosures that did not have legal documentation. This could allow the illegal mortgages of the big banks to be foreclosed. 

Our organizations often had 10-15 leaders at committee meetings in Tallahassee coming up weekly from our federations of congregations around the state. Working with our partners and legislators I trained leaders who held a number of press events at the Capitol to share our opposition. Tampa Bay Times, Orlando Sentinel, Miami Herald, Sarasota Herald Tribune (where the bill sponsor was from) gave extensive coverage and did editorials against the bill.

How did our role make an important difference?

• We brought authentic voices of hard working homeowners who put a face on the issue.
• Our testimony and public statements raised questions with too many legislators that made the bill unpopular and died. 

The Result

In a dramatic meeting of the Senate Insurance and Banking Committee, sponsors had to back pedal when confronted with the extent of damage the bill could do. The bill passed out of committee but never made it to the Senate floor because it had so much controversy.