Thursday, September 11, 2008

Statewide demand for foreclosure moratorium builds Target Monroe Senator’s home;statewide march set for Sept. 17

By Diane Bukowski
The Michigan Citizen

MONROE — Dozens of demonstrators descended on the Monroe County courthouse and the home of St. Sen. Randy Richardville (R-Monroe, Washtenaw) Aug. 28 to demand that he immediately convene hearings on S.B. 1306, the two-year moratorium on foreclosures bill

St. Sen. Hansen Clarke (D-Detroit) sponsored the bill, with the co-sponsorship of nine other Senators. The bill has many other prominent supporters as well.

Richardville is chairman of the Senate Banking and Financial Services Committee. Organizers from the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions, who helped sponsor the demonstration, claim that he has refused to entertain the bill within his committee or bring it to the floor.

“It was a good event, with good energy,” said Dawn Bates of the Monroe County Democratic Party Committee. “People were stopping cars to tell the drivers about the campaign, and we had people walk up to tell us their own stories. One man was living in his car because he had lost his home due to having only a seasonal job.”

Bates said that nobody opened the door when they tried to deliver a letter demanding a hearing to Richardville, but that his uncle came to the scene and called the police. She said the police, however, acknowledged their right to demonstrate.

“We hope to do more demonstrations at his house,” said Bates. “The foreclosure rate in Monroe County increased 42 percent in 2007, with worse figures in Monroe itself. The only thing that Richardville responds to appears to be humiliation.”

Bates added that the city and county of Monroe, among many others across the state, have been hard pressed to provide public services because of the loss of tax income due to foreclosures.


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