That’s according to CA-based RealtyTrac, which tracks foreclosure filings nationwide. In Illinois, more than 63,500 foreclosures were filed in the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet metropolitan area from January through June, 30 percent higher than the same period last year.

The mortgage crisis is about abuses and exploitation by Walls Street and lenders. They try to blame the homeowners by claiming that homeowners made bad personal decisions. This is an outrageous statement given that over ten million homeowners are at risk losing their homes. It is not possible that this many people individually made a bad decision. In fact the responsibility lies with Wall Street and the lenders who created and profited from them.

A year ago, Boston-based United for a Fair Economy warned the public about the impending danger of the subprime mortgage crisis in their annual State of the Dream report. According to the UFE report, the subprime mortgage crisis is considered as “one the greatest loss of wealth to people of color in modern US history.”

The crisis has ruined many economic lives and many communities. It has cost the financial institutions that underwrote massive numbers of shaky subprime loans hundreds of billions of dollars. There is talk of a government bail-out. These losses in turn triggered an ongoing global economic crisis, the end of which we have not yet seen. And the next chapter in the subprime crisis could well be a deep US economic recession.

The mushrooming foreclosure crisis has affected more than 1.5 million homes in the first six months of the year. The Center for Responsible Lending, a nonpartisan research and policy organization, projects at least 2.4 million additional foreclosure starts this year, causing nearly 70 million surrounding households to lose a combined $500 billion in property value.

Minority communities have been hit the hardest in the economic downturn that plagues many American families. In a collaborative effort by the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the National Urban League (NUL), and the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (National CAPACD) and with the support of Bank of America, the Alliance for Stabilizing our Communities (ASC) held one of its scheduled 34 home retention fairs during NCLR’s Annual Conference in Chicago, IL.

The purpose of the alliance is to direct new resources to a nationwide network of local housing counseling entities in communities throughout the US with numbers of multicultural homeowners at risk of foreclosure above the national average. Bank of America’s role is to provide home retention associates that will work with the nonprofits at these fairs to review loans and determine refinancing, modification or other options.

NCLR is considered to be the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the US, with a network of nearly 300 affiliated community-based organizations (CBOs). As one of the leading Latino organizations in the country, NCLR has received its fair share of criticism within the Latino community. I am no exception.

When it comes to the Latino community, organizers are faced with a number of challenges in how best to engage and meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population; and to do so in a manner that satisfies all sides. One wrong move in trying to decide which cultural values should be fostered in this society could possibly serve to hamper a positive working relationship. For all the criticism, I have written about NCLR; that should not take away all the good the organization has done for the community and should be applauded for trying to navigate through these complexities.

Soon after my confrontation with the Chicago and IL Minutemen, Kety Esquivel of National Council of La Raza’s We Can Stop the Hate had asked me if I wouldn’t mind helping her interview some of the families who received information at the Home Rescue Fair.

It was not surprising there were many families seeking relief. It would be a serious shortcoming to only view the Latino community from a limited social and economic lens. The purchasing power of this community permeates virtually all sectors of this nation’s economy and can be found among those who are citizens, documented, and undocumented. The Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity has found that Latinos start companies at a higher rate than their white counterpart. As for immigrants, the rate of entrepreneurial activity has “increased sharply from 0.37 percent in 2006 to 0.46 percent in 2007,” according to the latest Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity.

I bring this up because the circumstances that affected family I interviewed were no different than what is happening to native born small business owners in this slumping economy. Because I promised I would withhold her from being published, for this post, I will use the name Esperanza.

During the height of the real estate market, Esperanza, along with two other business partners decided to enter an agreement to purchase office space to open their own cleaning service company. Not long after they purchased their office space, tension between two of the business began to arise. To settle the matter, Esperanza along with one of her business partners decided to buy out the third persons contract – it was either that or lose her business entirely. Several months later, her partner skipped town and left her with the full cost of the office building. Her profits were quickly eaten up.

As the economy began slumping, she was beginning to lose clients. Trying to make enough money to contribute to the house payment that her husband bought, but even that became impossible because as her husband was laid off. Relying on one job, Esperanza became overwhelmed and quickly fell behind on her payments. Not able to make the payments, she had to swallow the bitter pill and dissolve her business. The financial stress was beginning to take its toll; Esperanza said she was starting to fall into depression. Luckily, she found a buyer and was not forced to go into foreclosure.

Based on several months of underemployment resulting from lack of employment, she and her husband moved back to Mexico to open a family owned restaurant, so they can pay their mortgage. However, the poor economy in Mexico forced to close down. Again with a little luck on their side, they found a buyer to take the property off their hands. However, they were unable to to make their house payments and were forced to foreclose on their home.

Coming back to the US, their daughter took them in. Complicating matters further, their daughter real estate business was beginning to dry up. Esperanza’s daughter home is now close to going into foreclosure. However, she did not attend the Home Rescue Fair just for her, but for her clients because she felt responsible for them losing their home.

As I asked how she is holding up, her eyes began swelling red just seconds before tears rolled down her checks. She wipes away the tears with her fingertips. Esperanza’s daughter explained how the real estate market in Chicago had dried up. The events of the past year have been difficult for her kids, Esperanza’s daughter said, and her main priority now is helping them cope.

The American economy is in shambles today, and it doesn’t seem to be getting better anytime soon. Esperanza and her daughter are at a lost and are trying to figure out where to go from here. I choose to use the name Esperanza because when translated into English, it means “hope.” Throughout the interview, both kept mentioning how they are hanging on to hope while economy is in shambles.

Their story is snapshot of the challenges that face thousands of Americans after they lose their homes. It was hard to keep from crying. All I can do was to tell them they are not alone. But that really does not make it any easier, and the feelings of helplessness are so great at times it is hard to bear!

While the Latino population in the US is increasing, Latinos continue to be portrayed as “problem people” in the media and anti-immigration groups like the Chicago and IL Minutemen. Latinos are objects of news stories, not subjects and are generally portrayed as causing trouble in our society. Television has the power to dispel myths and combat stereotypes. The problem of the generally negative images of Latinos in the media, especially the news, people are beginning to accept what they see and hear as real.

The view of the impact of the Latino community must never be narrowed to social problems without losing sight of the incredible contributions this community makes and the challenges it faces. At the height of the real estate market, people claimed that subprime loans at high interest rates provide homeownership opportunities to people who have not had such an opportunity due to credit issues or lack of savings. The result is the financial and personal devastation of hundreds of thousands of hard-working people.

While I may have criticized NCLR for aggressively marketing homeownership, NCLR is doing the right thing by helping families modify their high interest rates to rates that borrowers can afford before they lose their homes.

In 2008, more than 2.3 million American homeowners who thought they had attained the “American Dream,” saw it shatter into a nightmare once they began defaulting on their loans. In American society, home ownership has always symbolized the triumph of moving up the economic and social ladder from the lower rungs of renting. It has always been associated with security and stability and is often thought to be an essential ingredient of the “American Dream.” That was all true until now. Owning one’s own home has now become nightmare for a growing number of American families.

Last month, fellow blogamiga, Adriana of Latino Politics Blog, blogged about the latest article by the Wall Street Journal on how CA Rep. Joe Baca and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) “launched a housing initiative … to increase mortgage lending to Latinos.”

The Wall Street Journal ties a portion of the mortgage meltdown to a Hispanic first-time home buyers program, HOGAR, because they enabled people to get home mortgages without good credit, down payments or reliable evidence they could repay the loans. The article also states that the program was pushed by a coalition of mortgage industry professionals and Hispanic lawmakers. According to the Wall Street Journal:

An examination of that borrowing spree by The Wall Street Journal reveals that it wasn’t simply the mortgage market at work. It was fueled by a campaign by low-income housing groups, Hispanic lawmakers, a congressional Hispanic housing initiative, mortgage lenders and brokers, who all were pushing to increase homeownership among Latinos.

The network included [California Rep. Joe] Baca, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus [Institute Inc], whose district is 58% Hispanic and ranks No. 5 among all congressional districts in percentage of home loans not tailored for prime borrowers. The caucus launched a housing initiative called Hogar — Spanish for home — to work with industry and community groups to increase mortgage lending to Latinos. Mortgage companies provided funding to that group, and to the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, which fielded an army to make the loans.

It is not surprising that both Baca and CHCI refute the accusation that they aided the foreclosure crisis. So, what exactly was Rep. Baca and Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s role in the housing collapse?

Pay-to-play
The fact a pay-to-play system exists in our political system simply is not only bad business, but it taints the political process. The first thing that comes to mind when some mentions pay-to-play is the impeachment Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich for his “play for pay” scandal relating to Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat. However, there are different forms when it comes to this practice. “Pay-to-play” is the practice of a business entity making some type of contributions with the hope of in hopes of getting in return.

According to the WSJ, HOGAR was financed some of the nation’s top subprime lenders that are either now defunct or now taken over because they ran into trouble in mortgage markets. HOGAR’s backers included: Countrywide Financial Corp, Washington Mutual Inc, New Century Financial Corp, and Ameriquest Mortgage Corp. Two of their largest sponsors are mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both now under federal control.

The article also revealed that companies that donated $150,000 a year got the right to place a research fellow who would conduct HOGAR’s studies to be used later by industry lobbyists. Those who donated over $100,000 a year, HOGAR would highlight the lender’s commercial products intended for the Latino market in their news releases.

The Players
It was reported that HOGAR and Freddie Mac had partnered with each other on a two-year study identifying the state of Latinos homeownership in 63 Congressional Districts in 11 states, including Puerto Rico. The study in question is HOGAR’s The Potential of Hispanic Homeownership: Challenges and Opportunities, authored by HOGAR Fellow and former U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) insider, Alejandro Becerra.

After a closer look, XicanoPwr.com discovered that Freddie Mac was not the influential play that took part in the HOGAR study. As noted in the WSJ report, the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) sponsored the study, however, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary and CityView Executive Chairman, a national housing investor, Henry Cisneros also had input into the study. Other influential people in the housing industry included Moises Loza, President and CEO of Housing Assistance Council (HAC) and Ron Jauregui of Hispanic National Mortgage Association (HNMA).

Mr. Jauregui currently serves as Vice President for Community Alliances for the HNMA and has one of the most interesting backgrounds out of HOGAR’s fellows. According to Mr. Jauregui’s bio on Hispanic National Mortgage Association, Mr. Jauregui was not only a Fellow; he also served as HOGAR’s Director. Prior to working for CHCI, he worked for Bank of America, where he worked on processing and underwriting mortgages Bank’s Spanish Language pilot Fulfillment Team.

While subprime loan products can sound relatively simple and attractive, some people have benefited from their use. As more details of the industry’s activities begin to surface, it is evident Jauregui was at the forefront pushing lenders different subprime loan products to increase homeownership among Latinos, such as ITIN mortgages. American Prospect defines subprime lending as:

Sub-prime lending is a fancy financial term for high-interest loans to people who would otherwise be considered too risky for a conventional loan.These include middle-class families who have accumulated too much debt and low-income working families who want to buy a home in the inflated housing market. To cover their risk, lenders charge such borrowers higher-than-conventional interest rates. Or they make ‘adjustable rate’ loans, which offer low initial interest rates that jump sharply after a few years.

Real estate blogger, Pam MacKenzie, explain that in 2007, a Texas-based national consulting firm, the Gonzalez Group, advised a group of Realtor on how to effectively market themselves to minority groups. One particular group she was concerned was the push to lend money to undocumented immigrants. She wrote that Wells Fargo and Deutche Bank (two of HOGAR’s backers) and some other bankers were “lending money to people who didn’t have Social Security numbers” by using ‘ITINs’ – Individual Tax Identification Numbers – to process their applications.

After Ms. MacKenzie wrote her post about this questionable practice, Ron Jauregui replied. Jauregui defended this practice because he felt that “ITIN loans perform better than the rest of the market.” However, if one were to look closer at his statement, the purpose of this practice is to exploit the “underground economy.”

It is undeniable the issue of immigration became one of the most significant economic themes during the housing boom. Under the guise of immigration reform, a 2004 study was conduct by The Immigration Policy Center of the American Immigration Law Foundation for NAHREP. Rob Paral & Associates performed the study. Paral was a research fellow with the Immigration Policy Center, though the report was performed outside his duties at the center. The report asserted that nearly a quarter of a million undocumented immigrant households in the US could become homeowners if barriers such as identification, legalization, traditional credit requirements and language were no longer an issue.

Presenting the study, Tim Sandos, president of the NAHREP – a group made up of Latino and non-Latino representatives of banks, real estate firms, developers, homebuilders and real estate service providers – advocated that if the mortgage companies made greater use of ITIN, $44 billion in new mortgages – primarily to first-time buyers – could be originated.

Leaders from the corporate arena applauded the findings of the study, particularly those in the industries that are challenged with developing initiatives for the under-served market. Making matters worse, they interest in immigration reform was never out of altruism but out greed. Once in the hands of the mortgage lending industry, subprime loans became predatory loans – a faulty product that was ruthlessly hawked even though financial institutions were aware of its defects. The spillover effect from theses wholesale bad loans, communities have been torn apart, with one house after another in a neighborhood becoming vacant and property values deteriorating by thousands of dollars.

It is unfortunate civil rights organization like Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, National Council of La Raza and Immigration Policy Center of the American Immigration Law Foundation pushed for these lending practices, which has made a mockery of the American dream and has ruined many economic lives and many communities. What was supposed to be a financial product intended for limited use by a limited number of people has been parlayed into another ill-fated bubble by mortgage lenders lacking the integrity, foresight, and any vestige of civic concern.

The subprime crisis continues to threaten US society by deepening the already existing wealth divide. The foreclosure of the dream must be prevented. Millions of Americans still live in communities that are separate and unequal. Empowering the Latino community means helping Latinos make informed financial decisions; not using them as a vehicle to reap huge profits by ignoring their ability to repay a loan and/or neglect to document the homeowner’s income. We must hold those who engaged in predatory lending practices accountable.

With a new Administration in place, we must that this moment to recognize the failures of existing government policies and address predatory lending through vigorous enforcement of safety and soundness standards, consumer protection, financial education programs, credit counseling, and a new legislative solution.

By a 7-0 vote, City Council voted unanimously for a plan which will demolish the four largest public housing developments in New Orleans, completely getting rid of the low-income housing there. The ruling by the City Council was that the damage to them from Hurricane Katrina was simply too much to allow people to move back in.

Demonstrators charged that the demolition is racist because those who would mostly be affected are African Americans. Hundreds of protesters showed up right outside of the City Council meeting as they booed members of the council and screamed at them.

In the desperation the group outside began shaking the large metal gates locking them out. The gate was easily broken open. Police moved in with pepper spray and batons, quickly beating back anyone near the entrance. Chants of “housing is a human right,” and “justice!” filled the air along with the putrid smell of the chemical weapons used by the NOPD. The gate was re-secured with handcuffs this time. Again the protesters chanted and demanded entrance. Some called into question the legitimacy of a “public” meeting in which the public was excluded.

As they pushed against the gates it suddenly became clear that something was happening inside the chambers. Dozens of police quickly sprinted into the building with their hands on their weapons. Outside this sparked concern among those gathered who began to slam against the gate once more. An ambulance arrived in the compound and a stretcher was taken into the building. Police would not communicate with those outside as to what was happening in the chambers. Protesters in the building began calling their allies and reporting that the police were forcefully clearing the room. It is confirmed by housing advocate Jay Arena that he, Malcolm Suber, Sess 4-5, and Endesha Jukali were arrested along with others. It is reported but not yet confirmed that Sess was tazered.

Outside the protesters again managed to break through the gates and pulled one side of it away from the officers. The police moved in and attempted to pull the gate back. Then came the pepper spray and tazers, this time much more forceful. At least two women were struck with tazers. On of them was simultaneously hit with spray and tazer and then smashed between the pavement and metal gate. She was rushed away from the scene by friends who treated her nearby until an ambulance could be found. Here medical condition is unknown at this time. Another woman, Bork, the same activists who yesterday chained herself to a building at BW Cooper was tazered and taken away in an ambulance. The police fanned chemical weapons out over the entire crowd hitting dozens in the face and eyes.

For more information visit Oread Daily on the latest development taking place in New Orleans.

In more housing news, across the country, hundreds of thousands of homeowners are facing foreclosure. Many of them are Latino – foreclosures in the community are estimated to reach $24.8 billion this year, according to the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals. The social costs of this collapse are adding up in the form of higher rates of homelessness, crime and even disease.

A total of 2,335,566 properties across the country are/were in foreclosure proceedings, according to RealtyTrac. Texas, California and Florida, which have large Latino populations, are among the top five states for foreclosures.

In California, tent cities are starting to pop up.

The noisy, dusty camp sprang up in July with 20 residents and now numbers 200 people, including several children, growing as this region east of Los Angeles has been hit by the U.S. housing crisis.

Kenya West was correct when he said, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people!” However, he might as well add Brown people to that list.

We have become deaf and blind to the truth. Now is time to wake up. Go outside, bang those pots, make it know, we no longer will take it any more. Demand accountability. Create debate even if it make us uncomfortable. Now is the time to resist the economic, political, and legal systems that keep stepping on the backs of the poor and the oppressed!