PORTLAND- A room full of impassioned arguments and frustrated people was the scene at Tuesday night’s townhall at the St. John’s Community Center.
Focusing on the foreclosure crisis, the townhall was hosted by State Representative Tina Kotek, D-North Portland, and included a guest appearance by Congressman Earl Blumenauer, D-Portland.
Blumenauer explained what Congress has been trying to do to decrease the number of foreclosures and expressed his understanding of the situation. Due to a family emergency, he had to leave the event immediately following his remarks.
embedded by Embedded Video
YouTube Direkthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLadoGzVJ1I
Kotek brought in a number of community organizations to provide assistance to people in the audience. Among those groups were the Hacienda Community Development Corporation, the African American Alliance for Home Ownership, Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives, and Legal Aid, as well as representatives from state agencies dealing with foreclosures.
Following some brief statements from the participating organizations, they took questions from the audience. Many of the questions expressed frustrations with the process and with being in foreclosure when they “did everything right.”
One gentleman in the crowd quoted his wife who said, “Rape would have been easier,” and then added that was a horrible statement for a woman to have to make.
Mike Kaplan, Administrator at Oregon’s Housing and Community Services Department, told the audience, “We don’t have a solution. This program is growing and escalating, so we’re trying something new.”
The new program to which Kaplan referred was the federal Hardest Hit fund, designed to help people get out of foreclosure. These funds will be distributed to each state later this year and then parceled out among all areas of the state.
At the end of the evening, Kotek thanked the crowd, telling them she needed to hear these stories and problems so she could work with other state legislators and with the congressional delegation to come up with some answers.
“This is a new day and age and there is no simple solution,” she said.
I see that Progressive Socialist Earl Blumenauer had to bolt, he didnt want to answer questions due to a “family emergency”…right!
JB
Yes, Earl is getting to be quite the running representative lately. On Saturday he literally ran away from a constituent who dared ask practical questions regarding bills that Earl has voted for.
I chased Earl “on the run” Blumen-scoundrel all the way to his car after he lied about who caused the sub-prime mortgage meltdown. No mention of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac-just LIES and the demonization of lenders. The people, by the end of the night, at least heard some truth. This SOB is the worst.
Greg Halvorson
PS-Vote Delia Lopez in CD-3
Earl left without answering any questions, we were told he has a sick daughter to attend to, but on Tina’s facebook it is noted Earl had another event at 6:30 he had to attend. You draw your own conclusions. Earl would not take any questions from the audience either. All I have to say is “Run Earl Run”.
Delia Lopez in more than willing to talk with you about issues and concern. Go to her website http://www.dlopezforcongress.com/, see where she stands on issues and call her, she gladly have a conversation with you.
Okay, my brain thinks faster than my fingers type. The last paragraph should say:
Delia is more than willing to talk with you about issues and concerns. Go to her website http://www.dlopezforcongress.com/, see where she stands on issues, call her, she will gladly have a conversation with you.
I may not agree with most of the things that Mr. Blumenauer stands for, but I wish him and his family well. Hopefully everyone is alright and/or recovers from whatever emergency he had to tend to.
I can believe the hatefulness behind these 5 statements. Earl Blumenauer outlined the problems causes clearly. He is an honest man.
Could these people be more than carping losers? They could be drawing a red herring across the trail of the real culprits. A simple distraction distracting you from the people stealing you blind.
What do you think?