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Sam Morris / Las Vegas Sun file
Houses sprawl across the Las Vegas Valley. When the housing bubble burst in 2007, Las Vegas became the No. 1 area in foreclosures nationwide.
By Tovin Lapan (contact) 
Tuesday, July 10, 2012 | 2 a.m.
HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan sits down with the Las Vegas Sun Editorial Board to discuss mortgage servicing settlements for Nevada homeowners, Thursday May 3, 2012.
During the four-day National Council of La Raza conference going on at Mandalay Bay, pressing issues such as immigration reform, access to health care and unemployment have all been addressed.
Yet the one issue that speaks most to the recession’s slippery slope, to the compounding problems faced by Latino families, is perhaps the foreclosure crisis.
“A lot of states have been hit hard, and Latinos have been particularly hit hard,” National Council of La Raza President Janet Murguia said. “A lot of Latino families have had a hard time staying in their homes. They lose a job. Then, they lose health insurance. It just becomes a whole snowball effect.”
In a speech during the Monday afternoon town hall, “Don’t Quit the Dream: A Vision for Homeownership Beyond 2012,” Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan referenced the disproportionate impact the recession has had on Latinos.
“Let’s be clear, while this crisis has touched the lives of every family, with 1.3 million Latino families having lost their homes, the Latino community has been harder hit than anyone,” Donovan said, also citing data that indicates blacks and Latinos are twice as likely to have faced foreclosure during the recession than other groups. “To anyone who cares about an equitable, fair and inclusive America, those statistics aren’t just troubling, they’re completely unacceptable.”
Donovan said the $25 billion settlement reached in February with the largest private mortgage servicers, which includes new guidelines for mortgage lending taking effect in October, will help eliminate unlawful foreclosures and spur refinancing.
Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto introduced the town hall panel, and did not fail to mention why this is such a critical issue in the Silver State, which led the nation in foreclosure rate for 62 straight months during the recession.
Catherine Cortez Masto
“To understand what’s happening here you literally just have to drive around our communities, and see what’s happening in our neighborhoods,” she said. “It’s been devastating here in Nevada, but it’s been devastating across the country.”
Richard Cordray, director of the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, joined the panel and outlined his strategy for protecting borrowers.
“I’m here today to say to the mortgage market ‘No Mas.’ No more costs and risks buried in the fine print that do not become clear until it’s too late,” he said. “No more mortgages designed to fail, mortgages that benefit originators but not borrowers. No more last-minute shocks at the closing table that leave consumers stuck with fees they did not know about or plan for. And, no more costly surprises and runarounds from mortgage services that leave people with no where to turn when they need help the most.”
Maria Cabildo, president of the East LA Community Corporation, which provides counseling to homeowners, also was on the panel to share what she sees at the street level.
“We met every program that is rolled out to help homeowners with enthusiasm, but were only deeply disappointed,” she said. “Instead of solutions we’ve seen lost paperwork, unexplained denials, misinformation from servicers, all leading to unlawful foreclosures. It’s been a very, very tough five years.”
Cabildo said people drove over 60 miles to visit the community organization because there were no Spanish-language services in their area.
On that front, Donovan had welcome news. The housing secretary announced a revamped Spanish-language website, where information on mortgages, refinancing, counseling, scams and other housing issues is available.
During the question-and-answer period, many of those in attendance asked about penalties and regulations for attorneys and others who took advantage of underwater homeowners.
Margarita Rebollal, executive director for Community Services of Nevada, said she knew one man who gave more than $6,000 to attorneys, received little in return and still almost lost his home before contacting Community Services.
“Who is monitoring the attorneys?” she asked.
Cordary said scams like the one Rebollal described are “as low as you can get,” and mentioned that while attorneys are generally exempt from his bureau’s oversight, those lawyers who offer financial services such as loan modifications are under his jurisdiction.
Donovan also said his department’s inspector general can investigate those types of fraud, and “make sure that the last hope these families have is not taken away.”
God forbid Latinos should face some of the same problems everyone else is facing. Maybe Obama can promise free houses next to get the votes of America's new favored voting bloc.
La Raza "the race".... why isn't this considered racist?
Bush misled people, including Blacks and Hispanics with his "ownership society" pitch. He then wrecked the economy by an unpaid for war in Iraq and tax cuts for his rich supporters.
This article is missing much information. What is the real percentage of Latinos out of work? Everyone says they do the jobs nobody else wants so it is hard to imagine they get cut as they seem essential to many of our bottom job workforce. What is the average percentage down payment they made on these house they bought? Average int rate? Reason they bought a house rather then rent at the time? Reason they don't want to pay on a mortgage they committed to? I would guess many of the labor to have had to move on for work, but they would expect to move around if in the construction biz.
A 4-Day sinister cabal of the Trojan Horse Reconquista strategists? The National Council de La Raza is the Mexican Facist Party, armed with contempt for Americans, U.S. laws, English, our border, and sovereignty. La Raza does like our welfare system and has encouraged millions of poor, illiterate, criminal, arrogant and frequently pregnant.
Along with LULAC, MALDEF, MEChA -- they not only share the Reconquista agenda, but funding, notably the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations. Por La Raza todo, Fuera de La Raza nada. For the Race, everything, for those outside the Race, nothing. In fact, every major city in the country now reflects Mexico: crime, murder, fraud, drunk-driving deaths, self-jurisdiction of the 14th Amendment, protest, crowded schools, hospital closings, collapse of infrastructure, and a $500 billion dollar burden each year.
They are becoming the fastest growing demographic, therefore it is essential that if any politician, party wants to survive, they must embrace illegal aliens or else. This is quintessential racism, and will destroy our identity. Never before in the history of this nation have we witnessed the most disrespectful, ungrateful, arrogant behavior demonstrated by people who demand they be fed, clothed, housed, and granted the rights of the firstborn, or they will punish us at the voting booth. It is an inebriated premise of power by racists against Americans, who believe they will eventually lord over us.
The doormat of altruism as expected, bilingual means Spanish and a plus if seeking employment, contempt, vociferous arrogance, unabashed chauvanism and irredentism. These are people born to illegal aliens, go to school on our dime, then side with their parents against the U.S. They will always remain loyal to Mexico. What does it say to us, even through our animus, disrespectful people can come here illegally, disparage American citizens and U.S. laws -- with applause from traitors who have tossed our constitution aside, attacked us, promoted sanctuary cities and policies, entitlement and lawlessness?
The U.S. government pays La Raza to lobby the U.S. government for money. Funding La Raza is not our responsibility. This wholesale theft has created a perverse inducement to break U.S. law, the unprecedented declination of moral etiquette, and has established itself to be the making of a nation killing cataclysm we may never recover from. The Si Se Puede Caucus of the Clark County Dems who want their own congressional district is mobilizing Latinos for redistricting.
Why should we reform laws to give preferences to illegal aliens who do not share our values, speak our language -- demand we speak theirs, and refuse to assimilate? More illegal aliens have poured into this country than all legal immigrants who came through Ellis Island. All subversives loyal to lawlessness, think Mexico first must stop the meretricious them against us way of thinking, especially when it is they who are them...
Rather than make a racial comparison, how about looking at age & education levels? Latinos are, on average, younger and less well educated -- and it doesn't matter what race you are, the young and less educated will be more vulnerable in an economic downturn. Economic & educational reforms that create & support private sector jobs for all Americans are the key, and playing to racial & ethnic divisiveness by the left or right isn't going to get us there.