Housing Crisis Hits The House

Guess one could say Rep. Laura Richardson is in touch with people.

Yup, that's right, Richardson definitely feels the pain of the common man--especially when it comes to the recent housing crunch.

That's becaused Richardson, (D-Calif.) finds herself dealing with her own foreclosure these days after she couldn't make the payments on her $535,000 Sacramento home, according to Capitol Weekly, a California newspaper.

The house was purchased by Richardson in January of 2007 and inevitably lost equity as the housing market softened. But in the end, as the congresswoman fell behind on payments, she owed more than $600,000 in loans and late fees, the newspaper reported.

So what happened?

Richardson apparently let her house (and arguably, her priorities) slip into foreclosure after she loaned her campaign more than $60,000 during an especially-tight special election in 2007 to replace departing congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald, the paper explained.

Since then, Richardson has started to slowly pay herself back, campaign records show.

But how has the congresswoman voted on the legislation pertaining to foreclosure? She didn't.

Richardson did not vote on legislation that would pour more than $2.7 billion in government funds to help homeowners who are on the brink of foreclosure. She also skipped out on another vote that would give local governments $15 billion to purchase foreclosed homes and then resell them.

(Since you asked.)