A Miami lawyer's efforts to rectify and bring attention to the city's affordable housing crisis are beginning to be noticed by public officials around the country.

Kelly King, who serves as council chairwoman in Hawaii's County of Maui, has publicly expressed interest in retaining foreclosure defense attorney Bruce Jacobs in her own municipality's efforts to hold banking institutions accountable for issuing predatory loans and causing an upsurge in foreclosures. On Thursday King sent a letter to Miami Commissioner Ken Russell commending Jacobs' work as well as the city of Miami's legal actions against Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

“Your efforts have helped local governments across the United States address issues relating to housing in their communities,” King wrote. She also cited Jacobs and Miami's collaboration in the creation of a public fund dedicated toward affordable housing. As outlined in the city's resolution establishing the Foreclosure Sanctions Affordable Housing Trust Fund, money for the account will be supplied by sanctions and awards granted to Jacobs against money lenders or their attorneys in foreclosure cases.

King's letter referenced Maui County's own legal scuffles with Bank of America and included a draft for a resolution forming a public fund similar to the one engineered by Jacobs and Miami.

“The people of Maui County have also fought to hold Bank of America accountable — for a commitment of $150 million in FHA-247 mortgages on Hawaiian Home Lands that Bank of America made to federal banking regulators 25 years ago,” King said. “On November 2, 2018 the Maui County Council unanimously adopted Resolution 18-178 to support Hawaii Governor David Ige's efforts to reach a fair and final settlement with Bank of America, including an estimated $360 million in late fees that Bank of America owes.”

Read King's letter and proposal: 

Russell welcomed the prospect of local governments collaborating to tackle shared housing problems in a statement to the Daily Business Review.

“Miami is ground zero for the affordability crisis, but this is also an issue hitting cities across the country,” he said. “I'm encouraged that more local governments are taking a look at every option to help not only our most vulnerable populations, but also the middle class, afford to live where they work and their children go to school.”

Jacobs said he was “especially honored” to be included in King's conversations about how to tackle foreclosure fraud and predatory lending practices.

“Local communities across the country are no longer waiting for the federal government to take action on housing,” Jacobs said. “Maui and Miami are taking on the banks directly. Sometimes change has to come from the ground up.”

King said the sort of public accounts built by Jacobs and Miami officials carry significant potential for communities facing the same issues afflicting Miami and Maui.

“This bold action could accelerate Maui County's affordable housing solutions in a significant way,” King said in a statement. “Financial institutions as big as Bank of America — which has more than $2 trillion in assets — need to be held accountable to the rule of law.”

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