Bruce Hahn

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American Homeowners Grassroots Alliance The energy crisis will drive rapid increases in Internet commerce and teleworking. Instead of driving to and from malls, people will increasingly order off the net, and let the UPS or FedEx trucks bring the products to their door. Under increased pressure from employees and increased costs to heat and air condition, build, rent and maintain office space, more employers will support telecommuting. More newly created small businesses will be home-based for the same reasons. All of this will help the energy crisis and help reduce global warming.

American Homeowners Grassroots Alliance Many of the proposals mirror components of the recently passed housing rescue package, and it may be that the Obama campaign hasn't yet considered whether to modify their position as a result of that passage. That may be a good thing, as the package just signed into law may prove insufficient and might well need additional funding, reinforcing, and/or tweaking. We especially like the change in the federal bankruptcy code that would allow bankruptcy courts to modify the terms of residential mortgages, because there is no reason to make homes owned by individuals the only property not subject to that option, and it would also help bring a large number of lenders still in denial to the bargaining table. The change in the federal bankruptcy code is an idea that's not only supported by bankruptcy attorneys and judges, but also universally by consumer advocacy organizations.

American Homeowners Grassroots Alliance We are delighted that HUD has finally decided to stand up to these legislators, who have been duped into fronting for segments of the mortgage lending and other real estate services sectors whose practices have created the current housing crisis. It is time to stop bowing to the efforts of these businesses to preserve as many of those unethical practices as possible. If Congress and the various regulators who have oversight responsibilities for mortgage lending and other real estate services sectors had done their job in the first place, millions of American homeowners would not be victims or future victims of foreclosure. While many of the 70 million+ U.S. homeowners have lost their homes to foreclosure or are risk of losing them, they have not yet lost their right to vote. Let's hope the media as well as the candidates opposing the 244 members of Congress who signed this letter make sure that all homeowners and other voters in those 244 districts are aware of the incumbent's bad judgement in cosigning this letter.