by Juliana Birnbaum Fox
Members of the community group San Mateo County ACORN attended the San Mateo County Board meeting this week to pressure the Supervisors to pass a resolution that would stay the foreclosure crisis. The resolution calls on local subprime lenders to voluntarily enact a 3 month moratorium on foreclosures and put delinquent or at risk borrowers, who are in unaffordable loans, into modified loans that are 30 year, fixed rate, and affordable based on the borrowers income.
Property owners, local governments, lenders and investors alike stand to lose billions of dollars; estimated losses for the San Francisco-San Mateo metropolitan area alone exceed $210 million– $25 billion nationally.
“ACORN is working with our elected officials to protect homeowners and neighborhoods from the crime and diminished property values brought on by too many foreclosures,” said Estela Baldovinos, a resident of South San Francisco and member of ACORN who is fighting to save her home from foreclosure. “Lenders and investors need to do their part to protect our communities.”
San Francisco moves foreclosuresto allow greater access to renewable fuels
Tom Ammiano
Following several months of research, Supervisor Ammiano introduced the “Fair Retail Pricing” and “Alternative Fuels Access” ordinances at the Board of Supervisors meeting this week. Together, these ordinances make it easier for station owners to procure and stock alternative fuels, freeing independent operators from franchise agreements that limit their ability to procure alternative fuels.
“Independent operators are being squeezed out of the market and consumers are feeling the pinch like never before,” Ammiano said. “Assuring small business owners maintain ownership of gas stations in the City is the only way we can ensure healthy price competition, benefiting both our small business community as well as consumers.”
Lawsuit aims to bring Medi-Cal benefits to youth in custody
Dennis Herreragrafo
City Attorney Dennis Herrera has filed suit against the State of California for illegally preventing disadvantaged youth from receiving Medi-Cal benefits while they are in the custody of a public institution. Because a high percentage of minors in custody suffer from medical conditions such as substance abuse and severe mental illnesses, he claimed, their access to Medi-Cal benefits is crucial to their health. Herrera’s lawsuit seeks to stop state administrators from denying Medi-Cal benefits for inpatient psychiatric hospital care needed by detained youth, and requiring the restoration of benefits for all covered medical services upon their release.
“The state has been illegally denying Medi-Cal benefits to thousands of children for years,” said Kimberly Lewis from the Western Center on Law and Poverty. “Most of these children have serious emotional and psychiatric disabilities that are left untreated when their Medi-Cal is cut off and it can take months to get coverage again after they are forced to reapply.”
