Lawmaker wants TARP money expanded to Ohio
Chillicothe Gazette – MANSFIELD — U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown last week called on President Barack Obama to expand his recently announced foreclosure assistance program to Ohio.
The state was excluded from the Obama administration's $1.5 billion foreclosure relief plan. The president announced that Troubled Asset Relief Program money would be used to help five states hit the hardest by foreclosures: Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada.
Those states saw delinquency rates reach higher than 12.5 percent. According to a report by the Mortgage Bankers Association, Ohio's fourth quarter delinquency rate from 2009 was 11.5 percent.
To support his point, Brown pointed to Ohio's record number of foreclosure filings in 2009 and the statistics showing foreclosures have increased steadily for 14 consecutive years.
"But if Ohio doesn't meet the criteria in the president's plan, the criteria are wrong," Brown said in a statement Tuesday. "Decline in home prices should not be a deciding factor, as that seems to tilt relief to the states with the most speculation. I'm far more concerned about middle-class homeowners than people who gambled on unsustainable growth in real estate prices."
