Bondi listed a variety of problems that banks were accused of that would allow foreclosed home owners to have a legitimate complaint: false affidavits, lost paperwork, long delays and "robo-signings."
"We all know those were rampant doing those years," Bondi said.
Bondi also said that those homeowners who are current on their mortgage but have an interest rate of 5.25 percent or higher and are underwater in their payments, are also eligible for financial redress.
Foster said foreclosures plague cities like his as well as Tampa.
"This is your money. You have been victimized. You must apply for it," he told reporters.
Earlier this week, Tampa officials announced a new plan to demolish more than 50 dilapidated and abandoned homes in the Sulphur Springs section of Tampa, a vestige of the foreclosure crisis. Buckhorn said that the state settlement money is another way to improve neighborhoods.
"Cities have felt it worse that anybody. I think at one point we have had over 4,000 houses in the city in some state of foreclosure or mortgage distress," he said. "What the attorney general is doing here today is important."
Last week, Bondi and state legislative leaders Will Weatherford and Don Gaetz announced that the Florida Attorney General's office would spend $60 million of the settlement: $35 million for down payment assistance, $10 million for housing counseling, $5 million to state courts to help with foreclosure-related issues, $5 million to fund legal aid programs, and $5 million to reimburse the attorney general's office.
The remaining $200 million will be appropriated during next month's legislative session for housing-related purposes.
Today Bondi said that approximately 55 percent of those eligible for such relief funds have applied. The deadline is Feb. 15.
Distressed Florida homeowners can apply by going to nationalmortagesettlement,com, or myfloridalegal.com. Or they can call 1-866-430-8358.
