US civil rights leaders urge aid for housing crisis
By Lewis Krauskopf
NEW YORK, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Rev. Jesse Jackson and other U.S. civil rights leaders converged on Wall Street on Monday to demand the government and the financial community step up aid to stem a home-loan foreclosure crisis.
At a rally in lower Manhattan, activists said homeowners needed more help to restructure their loans and avoid losing their houses.
"We're standing to stop an economic tsunami," Jackson told a crowd of more than 200 people. "Our government has an obligation, not only to borrowers but to the economy itself."
U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday unveiled a plan to slow a wave of foreclosures that has threatened to knock the U.S. economy into recession and rattled investors worldwide.
Speakers at the rally -- peppered with chants such as "Save our homes! Restructure loans!" -- said Bush's plan failed to provide a full solution.
"We want the president and the Congress to recognize that a small step is not enough," said Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League. "We need a giant leap."
The foreclosure crisis stems partly from subprime lenders giving out mortgages with ballooning adjustable interest rates. There have already been about 1.7 million foreclosures with another 2 million expected in the coming years, according to the National Urban League.
Morial said the leaders wanted "to restructure these predatory, exploitative loans."
"We know that disproportionately people of color have been steered into these subprime loans," Morial said.
Leaders at the rally also urged stronger legislation to prevent predatory lending.
"To the subprime lenders, your days of secrecy and self monitoring are over," said Dennis Courtland Hayes, the NAACP's interim president and chief executive. "We will place persistent focus on your lending practices going forward." (Editing by Michelle Nichols and Mohammad Zargham)
