I just want to get the word out that the Sturbridge Democratic Town Committee now has a Facebook page.

Take a look at the page, decide if you like it or not. Comment on the page with suggestions of things you would like to see on the page.

Worcester Magazine has the story Vacant affair: How Worcester has learned to deal with the foreclosure crisis. This quote from the article mentions a few of the methods that Worcester employs.

Receivership and expanded enforcement power haven’t been the only changes. In 2009 with the help of anti-foreclosure activists, Worcester drafted and passed the Vacant and Foreclosed Properties ordinance, which forced lenders to register each foreclosure with the city and put down a $5,000 bond. When the house is sold, minus a 10 percent administrative fee and any compensation for work that the city had to do to upkeep the outside of the property, the lender receives the balance of the bond.

I have been waiting to hear of sensible and creative programs like this one.   The programs that Worcester put in place serve two important purposes. Of course one purpose is to find a way to fund the extra services the city ends up providing to neighborhoods with foreclosed (abandoned) homes.  The other equally important purpose is to impose upon the banks some costs for foreclosing on a home.

You would think that the idea of losing all income from even partial payments on the mortgage plus the complete decay and loss of value of the property that they foreclose might be enough incentive to make a bank look for other solutions to foreclosing.  Apparently not.  So rather than attempt to sue the banks for costs incurred by the city to police foreclosed properties, the city requires a bond up front to cover the costs of easily anticipated expenditures.  Using the Supreme Court’s logic that a bank corporation is a person, with all the rights and responsibilities of a natural person, this puts the burden on the people who deserve it.  If the mortgage agreement with the borrower says that if the borrower fails to pay, the lender takes ownership of the property, then the new owners of said property have all the responsibilities associated with property ownership.