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McDaniel gets A-minus for response to foreclosure crisis Wednesday, Jun 11, 2008 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - A community group gave the state attorney generals office a high mark Tuesday in responding to the national home foreclosure crisis. The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now gave Attorney General Dustin McDaniel's office an A-minus in the advocacy group's national scorecard on attorneys general and their responses to crisis. In its report, "Attorneys General Take Action: Real Leadership in Fighting Foreclosure," ACORN gave A grades to 18 attorneys general, including six who received an A-plus. Twelve received an F. "I appreciate this recognition for our efforts, and I accept it not on behalf of myself, but on behalf of all the people who work in the attorney general's office," McDaniel said at a news conference in his office. The attorney general's office cannot represent individuals in foreclosure cases, but McDaniel said it does work to help people avoid reaching the point of foreclosure. "There are a number of programs where we try to assist a homeowner with ... opening lines of communication with their creditors and helping to find agreeable terms that would be livable," he said. Deputy Attorney General Jim DePriest said Arkansas also has participated with other states in litigation over some lenders' predatory practices, such as falsely representing adjustable-rate mortgages as fixed-rate mortgages or providing adjustable-rate mortgages at low initial interest rates, knowing the rates would increase beyond the borrowers' ability to pay. Lawsuits against Ameriquest and Household Finance, both resulting in multimillion-dollar settlements, were among "lawsuits that we think set a new standard of practice in the industry in the origination of loans that will help consumers down the road," DePriest said. Arkansas ACORN board member Johnnie Pugh of Little Rock commended McDaniel for his efforts and criticized the federal government's response to the crisis. She said an ACORN delegation met with Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke in June 2007 to ask for protections for homeowners, but the Reserve declined to take significant action. "They were kind of nonchalant - you know, 'Nothing is happening.' But then all of a sudden it hit, and with this state and all other states, it's devastating now, the economic (impact)," Pugh said. |
