DETROIT - During tomorrow’s legislative session, Sen. Hansen Clarke (D-Detroit) will reaffirm his commitment to Michigan residents facing foreclosure by introducing bills that will provide relief to homeowners and tenants in crisis. The first bill calls for a two year moratorium on foreclosures, which will allow homeowners to stay in their homes while making reduced mortgage payments, giving them time to get back on their feet. The second set of bills will protect tenants from being evicted without notice when a landlord goes into foreclosure.

“Foreclosure is one of the biggest problems affecting Michigan residents right now, and evicting people from their homes until our neighborhoods turn into ghost towns is not the solution,” said Clarke. “We need to keep people in their homes, allow them to negotiate reduced payments and stabilize property values until we can turn Michigan’s economy around.”

All of these bills were introduced by Sen. Clarke during the last legislative session. SB 1306, the moratorium bill, was introduced in May and was sent to the Senate Committee on Banking and Financial Institutions, where the committee chair left it without a hearing until the session ended in December. SB 1644 and SB 1645, bills that require 90 days notice to a tenant if a landlord goes into foreclosure and require the new owner to hold to the terms of the tenant’s lease, respectively, were introduced in November. All of these bills will be assigned new bill numbers for the current session.

Sen. Clarke is committed to addressing Michigan’s foreclosure crisis and will work with the new Senate Democratic Leader and the rest of the caucus to push for relief for residents losing their homes.

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