For like a year, folks who don't get listened to have been talking about the subprime lending disaster. Last week in little-watched testimony, we got a look into the future and it was ugly:

Defaults on mortgages given to financially strapped homeowners at high interest rates have pushed neighborhoods in cities like Cleveland past the "tipping point" of urban blight, Cuyahoga County Treasurer James Rokakis told the House Government Oversight subcommittee on domestic policy.

[...]

Rokakis said the number of mortgage foreclosures in Cuyahoga County soared from 3,500 in 1995 to 7,500 in 2000 to 13,000 in 2006, "with no end in sight." Problems are particularly severe in Slavic Village, where 900 homes were abandoned in the past several years, he said.

While Rokakis stressed there's a legitimate role for responsible subprime lending, he said lax underwriting standards and bonuses for brokers who sell mortgages that generate higher interest rates and excessive fees contributed to the "foreclosure tsunami."

Inez Killingsworth of the East Side Organizing Project faulted "all levels of government" for ignoring problems before they got out of hand, and the banking industry for consigning many Cleveland neighborhoods to predatory subprime lenders. She said Ohio's foreclosure rate is three times the national average.

"Our neighborhoods are becoming ghost towns," she said. "You can't get out. You can't sell your property. The value keeps decreasing."