Transcripts

JESS MADOR: After helping to repair the home of an elderly widow in East St. Paul, former President Carter took a seat outside under a tent. With former Vice President Walter Mondale by his side, Carter offered a sober assessment of the crisis that brings him to town this week.

JIMMY CARTER: The banks got to depend, I would say, on the rapid escalation in home prices, particularly in areas that were rapidly increasing in population, like in some areas of South and Texas and in Nevada, I would say California, where homes had reached an extremely high level, and the banks and many others just assumed they're going to keep on going up in value, and the prospective owners did the same thing.

And I think it was a great temptation for a family that in the past couldn't get a loan, to now have the banks come and knocking on the door, and say, please take one of our loans. And you don't have to prove that you can repay it because we'll just determine that the house increasing in value will cover your deficit in your own personal income.

JESS MADOR: Carter is in the Twin Cities with the 27th Annual Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project. This year, the project is building or rehabbing a dozen homes in North Minneapolis, and 14 on St. Paul's East Side. Both neighborhoods were chosen because they've been especially hard hit by the housing crisis. Carter was strongly critical of lenders that made loans they knew would go unpaid, and of the bundling of risky loans into securities that were sold to investors around the world.

But Carter is an optimist. He made clear he believes the American dream of home ownership is not lost forever. Despite the terrible setback the country suffered, Carter says, he's hopeful with continued federal help, the housing market will rebound. Minnesota has so far received about $40 million in federal funds for foreclosure recovery. Cities around the state have used that money to acquire, demolish, and rehab properties that could be saved, and to help build new homes. Carter praised the federal government's foreclosure recovery strategy.

JIMMY CARTER: Well, I think that this stimulation here is going to refurbish these communities. And it makes every home owner here that look around and see a really fine house going up next door, say, OK, I think I'll repair my house because this is a good investment for the future. So I think that what is being done under Obama's Administration to let federal money go into stimulating rehabilitation of homes, is a very wise investment. And I hope it will continue for the next five years, and not be abandoned.

[APPLAUSE]

JESS MADOR: After the discussion, President Carter and Vice President Mondale then posed for photos with Habitat for Humanity volunteers and homeowners, including 76-year-old Dannie Mae McKibben's. The retired nurse and military wife says she's been overwhelmed by the kindness of Carter and the volunteers who've been working on her home.

DANNIE MAE MCKIBBEN: I lost my husband three years ago, and it has just been terrible trying to keep the bushes trimmed, trying to keep everything done.

JESS MADOR: As she rested in a chair, workers in blue T-shirts were busy painting. McKibben's held a Bible on her lap and beamed with pride after saying goodbye to President Carter, whom she knew many years ago in Georgia.

DANNIE MAE MCKIBBEN: I think it helped a lot of us, and not only in Saint Paul, everywhere he's been. I mean, he won't let anybody not have a nice house. He won't let anybody be hungry. He's that type of person. He and his wife, both.

JESS MADOR: McKibben says she's honored to have been chosen for the program, and she says she'll always be grateful for the humanitarian work Carter has done. Jess Mador, Minnesota Public Radio News, East St. Paul.