Illinois AG Channels $20 Million to Legal Services Providers for Housing Assistance
By: Steve Grumm
Always happy to pass along the rare bit of good legal-services funding news. From the office of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan:
Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced that $20 million in funding from the national foreclosure settlement reached this year will be given to legal assistance programs in Illinois to address the current foreclosure crisis and to provide access to the justice system for homeowners and renters.
“The one sector of our economy that has shown limited signs of recovery is the housing market,” Madigan said. “Providing critical resources for legal assistance programs will create a domino effect in the marketplace. Helping a family stay in their home benefits not just that family but the surrounding community, as well as local and state governments, all of which must happen to stabilize the housing market and revitalize the economy.”
Madigan’s announcement stems from her role in securing a $25 billion national settlement in February with the nation’s five largest bank mortgage servicers – Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Ally Bank, formerly GMAC. The settlement addressed allegations of widespread “robo-signing” of foreclosure documents and other fraudulent practices while servicing loans of struggling homeowners.
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