The Perfect Storm: An Eyewitness Report From Ground Zero in Cleveland's Neighborhoods

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2008

Publication Title

Journal of Affordable Housing & Community Development Law

Keywords

mortgage, crisis, cleveland, foreclosure, responses, reform

Abstract

This is an eyewitness report from an attorney working with Cleveland neighborhood development corporations, including one in the Slavic Village neighborhood, a place sometimes identified as ground zero in the mortgage disaster. The Urban Development Law Clinic at Cleveland State University, where I am a clinical professor, is legal counsel to the Slavic Village Development Corporation and other Cleveland nonprofit development corporations. We see firsthand at the ground level the devastation of property, lives, and neighborhoods that is being inflicted by a mortgage finance system run amok in inner-city neighborhoods. Observers have compared the man-made devastation in Cleveland neighborhoods to conditions in New Orleans after Katrina. We are starting to call it “Hurricane Wall Street,” and it has not finished wreaking havoc in our neighborhoods.

Volume

17

Issue

3

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