WASHINGTON, D.C. –U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chairman of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy, attended a Banking Committee hearing today on President Barack Obama’s Homeowner Affordability and Stability plan. In response to the hearing, Brown issued the following statement:
 
Thank you, Mr. Chairman for holding this hearing today and for your leadership during these challenging times. And thank you, Secretary Donovan for testifying today. 

Let’s face it, you’ve inherited a mess—a mess borne of 'get rich quick' schemes for the very wealthy and the monetary middlemen who conceived of and carried out those schemes. Mortgage schemes that painted unaffordable homes as easily within reach. Unregulated credit markets fueled by false promises and sustained by false hopes.  

Not only did the perpetrators of these schemes paralyze American Families and the American Economy, they tainted the American Dream. I hear disillusionment, despair, and unbridled outrage in the voices of Ohioans as they watch their homes slip away, their property values plummet, their communities crumble. Their gut level feeling that all of this is not only unjust, but criminal, is completely understandable.  

We owe it to the Americans we serve to respond quickly and forcefully to the housing crisis. We owe it to them to stop prioritizing the demands of corporate moguls over the wellbeing of everyday Americans. Enough is enough.

We all need to worry about the erosion of home values.  Too many working families who pay their mortgages on time are facing lower home values when their neighbors’ homes are foreclosed. Each foreclosed home reduces nearby property values by as much as nine percent. It doesn’t stop at home values.  Police, fire, schools, and other programs that are funded based on property values are facing massive shortfalls.

Other building blocks of the American Dream are also under fire: a car in every driveway, a stable income upon retirement, a college education for every child. A quick Internet search of just one website yields 109 foreclosures for sale in Pickerington, Ohio. Pickerington has an estimated population of about 16,000 people.   

Profiteers exploited the American Dream peddling subprime loans in their quest for more—more bonuses, more private jets, and more European vacations.
No one cared how much they spent—they always had the golden parachute to safely land them when the money dried up.

That is the problem we’re left with--cleaning up after a long, loud party. It is no easy task. 

While I know that the nuts and bolts of the administration’s Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan are to be released next week, the broad outline holds promise.

I understand the plan the administration is proposing will help at least nine million struggling families hold onto their homes, which is necessary if we care whether people get back on their feet or fall into poverty. It’s also a smart move to help neighborhoods thrive rather than fragment and help communities on shaky ground to get on stable ground.

I am heartened that after eight long years, we finally have an administration who remembers that it reports to Main Street, not Wall Street. 

I look forward to learning more about the plan.  Getting our nation back on track will be a multi-faceted process.  No facet is more important than this one.

# # #