Last month, the Seattle Office of Housing asked me to spread the word about this video, which they co-produced with the Seattle University School of Law. It's a four minute animated guide, to be screened on Seattle Channel, on how to cope if a bank is trying to foreclose on your home. "Your ability to avoid foreclosure depends on how soon you seek help," the professionally gentle narrator intones.

In a press release, the Office of Housing also encouraged "homeowners facing foreclosure contact the Washington Homeownership Resource Center at 1.877.894.4663 or www.homeownership-wa.org to find a free housing counselor in their area. Free legal help may also be available to some households through the Northwest Justice Project at 1.800.606.4819."

I asked Washington CAN organizer Chris Genese for his reaction to the video. "I'm glad the city is taking steps to reach out to homeowners," he said. "But these outreach efforts funnel homeowners towards the same programs that have had limited success."

Anti-foreclosure activists have long pushed for the city to go beyond housing counseling, which is the strongest form of recourse the video offers. Instead, they say, the city needs to fundamentally change the landscape for thousands of homeowners going up against corporate behemoth banks—the same banks that crashed the economy through reckless and predatory lending.

The video claims that only 10 percent of at-risk homeowners seek out free resources to help them handle foreclosures, citing Washington state data. But Genese says every single homeowner he's worked with in Seattle has sought out the counseling resources the video suggests—often to no avail, because the programs can't compel banks to act compassionately, much less ethically.

The Seattle City Council has been talking about doing something about foreclosures for the better part of two years. It has done nothing but allocate a measly $150,000 for yet more outreach to homeowners.

"We won't stop foreclosures," Genese argues, "until we create a path towards principal reduction." He's talking about a city-wide plan—introduced to the City Council back in September for consideration, on which there's been no visible movement since—to purchase foreclosed homes and re-sell them back to homeowners with downsized, affordable mortgages. Such a program has already seen success in Oregon.