by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
City Council member Kevin Hyde hopes Tuesday’s foreclosure summit at the Main Library is the last. While Hyde doesn’t think the foreclosure problem currently plaguing the nation, especially Jacksonville, is going to go away anytime soon, he wants to take the information gleaned from this summit, combine it with what was learned in the first summit and start creating real-time answers.
“We want to put pen to paper and decide specifically what to do,” said Hyde, who is also an attorney at Foley & Lardner. “We have a list of things we learned and took from the first summit.”
Hyde said that list consists of 5-10 items that must be addressed through a combination of government assistance, legal help, funding from the private sector and cooperation from the banking industry.
The first summit was Nov. 18 and included area elected officials and others with a stake in the foreclosure dilemma. Tuesday’s summit, Hyde said, should include many who participated in the first and it’s open to the public. Individual foreclosure issues won’t be addressed, but Hyde said general help — and those who can provide it — will be available. The summit is from 3-5 p.m. in the library’s multipurpose room.
Hyde said it’s possible Council can help through legislation. He also said a certain percentage of neighborhood stabilization money could be used to help those facing foreclosure.
“Those kinds of things are the goal. We want to be very specific,” he said. “But, there are a lot of constraints on local government. We can’t trump state or federal laws, but we can encourage them.”
In addition to Hyde and other elected officials, representatives from Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, the City’s Neighborhoods Department and members of the federal judiciary are expected to attend the summit.
“I hope this is it. We know what the problems are and we know what to do,” said Hyde, adding future summits could be held, but on an as-needed basis.
Hyde did say as more and more jobs losses are announced that he expects the foreclosure issue to become a bigger problem through at least the third quarter of this year. Earlier this month, over 75,000 people lost their jobs in one day. Hyde understands not all of them are homeowners, but those kinds of layoffs will translate into more foreclosures.
“Not all of them will lose their homes, but it does indicate that 75,000 more people are at risk,” he said.
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