Over the past three months, as our nation entered one of its most turbulent economic periods in 70 years, clergy and faith leaders from PICO National Network have been working to address the root cause of the financial crisis – the millions of preventable foreclosures that continue to push down housing values across the country.

In October, when the Treasury Department began giving hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money to the nation's largest financial institutions, PICO began pressing Secretary Paulson to use powers granted to him under the bailout legislation to implement a broad-based, systematic home loan modification program to keep millions of people from losing their homes.

Later that month, PICO produced a report entitled "Too Big to Fail," which argued that the current case-by-case approach to loan modification was woefully inadequate to deal with the millions of families who are losing their homes, and held up examples of how a broad-based systematic approach would help keep families in their homes and put a floor on falling housing values.

Since October, PICO affiliates across the country have held town hall meetings with bank representatives, Members of Congress, and state and local officials:

And this week, People and Congregations Together in Stockton, CA – a city at the epicenter of the foreclosure crisis – will be meeting with bank representatives, Members of Congress, and state and local officials to press for help for homeowners who are facing foreclosure, and to help those who have already lost their home to repair their credit.