Brockton, Massachusetts, Considers Eminent Domain To Address Foreclosures

In a move that's pitting grassroots housing activists against Wall Street interests, the City Council of Brockton, Mass., decided this week to commission a study into the feasibility of using eminent domain powers to seize the mortgages of local residents struggling to pay off their loans. The plan being studied would essentially use municipal government's prerogative of eminent domain to take possession of foreclosed residential mortgage notes, selling them back to residents, as the City Counci...