July 25, 2007 (LPAC)--The Joint Economic Committee, chaired by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), held a hearing today on "A local look at the national foreclosure crisis," focusing on the Cleveland area. The scope of the disaster was laid out by Jim Rokakis, Treasurer of Cuyahoga County (representing Cleveland and 59 cities, villages and townships). The state's largest county is on pace to foreclose on 17,000 properties in 2007 -- five times the 1995 total. This has had a destructive impact on the county's tax base: in 2006 more than 74,000 borrowers filed for a property tax reduction; an estimated 15,000 structures are vacant in the county. In the city of Cleveland, negative equity--where the value of a property is less than the mortgage amount--totals $86 million; in the suburbs, it is $43.5 million. Cleveland Councilman Anthony Brancatelli added that in his district of Slavic Village, there are two foreclosures per day. "It's too late, it's just the beginning of a crash across the country," he warned.

Lyndon LaRouche, in a webcast today in Washington, D.C., insisted that no one be thrown out of her home due to foreclosure. Mortgages should be changed to rent, as a short-term solution, until emergency measures can be implemented.