In 2013, Illinois received its share of a $25 billion national settlement with the country’s five largest bank mortgage servicers — Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Ally Bank (formerly GMAC). They had been accused of improperly signing real estate documents and other practices that helped provoke the foreclosure crisis four years before, according to the Illinois attorney general’s office.
The state earmarked $70 million to help communities ravaged by the predatory tactics of those banks. Part of that money is going into a pilot program for the south suburban communities of Park Forest, South Chicago Heights, Richton Park and Chicago Heights, who have been hit hard by the calamitous decline in the housing market that resulted from foreclosures…Please click here to read Jerry Shnay’s column in the Tribune/Daily Southtown.
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