*Well fellow citizens, it’s that time again when politicians running in various election races come out to meet, greet, make promises, and shake hands with voters. It’s no different now, except this year a delegation running either for the California State Senate or the Los Angeles County Supervisor seats came to our unincorporated Willowbrook community, located just west of Compton.
The panel discussion organized and hosted by John Davis and the staff at Magic Johnson Park, took place on Wednesday, February 21, 2024. The moderator was Kevin Gatewood. The first panel consisting of those running for the senate – Lamar Lyons, Michelle Chambers, Jennifer Trichelle-Marie Williams, James Spencer, Albert Robles, Laura Richardson, and Alex Monteiro – fielded questions from the moderator for a little over 90 minutes; which left no time for the audience (about 130 attendees) to ask questions.
As they were exiting the stage, Laura Richardson graciously answered a few questions I had. Since there was so much talk from the panel about homelessness and affordable housing I asked if she knew whether or not banks and mortgage companies were being held accountable to help mitigate the homelessness crisis. She replied “No, because of the Godfrey Law” then went on to explain it to me.
She also agreed with me that inadequate impact studies were affecting communities across the city where low-income rental housing properties are getting a pass (thanks to California’s Assembly Bill 2097) on the required number of parking spaces per unit, causing the residents and/or their visitors to park on surrounding streets, taking up space for homeowners who in most cases have more than one vehicle. More and more, people are parking illegally in alleyways and disrupting trash pick-up services, as well as making it hazardous for residents to get in and out of their garages as their view is impaired while watching for speeding vehicles coming from either direction.
The second panel running for the county supervisor seat – Daphne Bradford, Katrina Williams, and Holly Mitchell – discussed more of the same, which indicated to me that they all know the topics of homelessness and affordable housing are big concerns in our communities.
Homelessness has been an issue for generations. However, with a downturn in the booming mortgage industry, the year 2008 began an unprecedented homeless crisis in city after city across America due to predatory lending. It seems to me that those responsible for predatory lending, and the U.S. government that benefitted from it should be held accountable, but as Richardson inferred, the Godfrey Law lets them off the hook.
Mortgage companies were making housing more affordable by offering subprime mortgage products and services that hid high costs, fees, and penalties to make the borrower believe it was affordable. Unfortunately, the practice of predatory lending led to thousands of foreclosures that disproportionately impacted minority families throughout the country. Today, reports show there is a surge in minorities acquiring home ownership, but the data shows that ownership by Blacks is still lagging behind other ethnic groups.
Ironically, as I was researching the Godfrey Law, I came across something else about the law firm that won the case, Susman Godfrey LLP – they were also instrumental in defending a moratorium during the COVID pandemic that kept some 800,000 residents who were unable to pay rent, from being evicted. I wonder if that was their way of atoning for the safeguard (Godfrey Law) they have in place for those entities who participated in the predatory lending scheme. Our elected officials should diligently pursue modification of the Godfrey Law to tap into other vital resources to help mitigate the homelessness crisis that’s affecting us all. What will happen when the voting is done?
Larry Buford is a contributing writer. Author of “Things Are Gettin’ Outta Hand” and “Book To The Future” (Amazon). Email: LBuford8101@hotmail.com
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