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Changes Sought In Foreclosure Ordinance To Settle Banks' Suit

WAMC

To settle a lawsuit by several banks, the city of Springfield Massachusetts may change an ordinance hailed as a national model for addressing the foreclosure crisis. 

   The city is considering exempting banks from a requirement to pay a $10,000  bond  with each foreclosure. Banks would have to meet other conditions, such as hiring a local property manager. Former Springfield City Councilor Amaad Rivera, who was lead sponsor of the ordinance said the change is a loophole  for the banks that does nothing to help neighborhoods blighted by foreclosures.

   A mandatory mediation program to help people save their homes from foreclosure would be left intact under the proposed settlement.  The program has not been implemented because of the lawsuit filed after the ordinances passed nearly two years ago.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.