Jesse Jackson on Mich. foreclosures: ‘You cannot resolve this crisis house by house’

DETROIT — Rev. Jesse Jackson this week called for “mass action” to address the state’s foreclosure crisis and said that his civil rights non-profit organization, the Rainbow Push Coalition, is pressuring major mortgage lenders including Wells Fargo, Citibank and Bank of America to restructure homeowner’s loans to help avert foreclosures.

Jackson said the government’s efforts to curb the foreclosure crisis are poorly enforced and limited. The federal Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan geared at loan modification for those facing foreclosure is “not broad enough” according to Jackson. “You cannot resolve this crisis house by house,” he said Thursday evening.

Jackson’s appearance attracted about 50 people to the rally, which took place outside of the home of Andre and Lenore Hudson, a couple who are facing foreclosure in the middle-class community of Sherwood Forest, near the city’s border with Oakland County. Many of the attendees were people from the neighborhood, reporters and members of the Moratorium Now Coalition, a grassroots group pushing for a two-year moratorium on home foreclosures in Michigan.

Jesse Jackson speaks about foreclosure crisis. (Photo by Minehaha Forman/Michigan Messenger)

Although Jackson called for mass action at the rally, turnout wasn’t the focus of the gathering according to Rev. David Bullock, who leads the Detroit Branch of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.

“He wasn’t trying to get a whole lot of people,” Bullock told Michigan Messenger. “He wanted to get a human interest story out there.”

Bullock said Jackson used the rally as a way of letting the community know that he will be a “voice at the table” of negotiations between lenders and those affected by foreclosure.

“I don’t think corporate America should be painted as the enemy but to have a guy like Rev. Jackson at the table is big,” Bullock said. The Detroit branch of Rainbow PUSH has been meeting with Wells Fargo for six weeks to discuss community need according to Bullock. “Wells Fargo gets to hear what really is going on the ground and learn what the company needs to do and change.”

After nearly two months of meetings with Wells Fargo Bullock said it’s too early to say what influence the the Rainbow PUSH Coalition has had. “I don’t know what the progress is. I’m sure there is some.”