The folks at Brave New Foundation have an excellent campaign underway to amplify the voices of those affected by the housing crisis. And I don’t mean affected like, “Oh man, my salary gets capped at only $500,000 dollars.” I mean affected like losing homes, jobs, families and entire neighborhoods. In all the heat around the stimulus, the message has been lost that the explosion of easy (and often illegal, predatory) lending helped fuel the current market conflagration.

Almost exactly one year ago, I attended a rally on Wall Street that Rev. Jackson organized. There were many speakers present, but the fact I walked away with was that these subprime loans were often illegally foisted upon qualified borrowers. Rutgers’s Center for Race and Ethnicity had a enlightening panel on the subject. It’s worth reading that summary.

It’s also watching one of the 24 videos the Fighting For Our Homes campaign has up:

More from Fighting For Our Homes:

Eight million people are at risk of losing their homes because Wall Street abandoned responsible lending practices to gain short-term profits. The housing crisis is not just a problem for families facing foreclosure – it’s a problem for every homeowner in America. As long as foreclosures persist, home values will keep going down, and everyone loses. No Wall Street bailout will fix that problem.

We’re collecting stories from people all over the country who have been hit by the housing crisis so we can show what’s really happening on Main Street: while Wall Street takes hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money to pay for lavish executive bonuses and luxurious office furniture, homeowners at risk of foreclosure still aren’t getting any relief.

We need your help. Have you been affected by the housing meltdown? Foreclosed on? Underwater? Trapped in a predatory loan? Do you know anyone else whose life has been turned upside down by the collapse of the real estate market? Record your story, or the story of a friend, family member, co-worker, or neighbor, and send it to us. If you have a video camera or webcam, then please send us your video. You can also add your written story along with a photo we can post on our interactive map.

Check out the site, and share your story or the stories of those you know.

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