Steven Gluckstern, who’s spent more than a year pushing local governments to seize mortgages from bond trusts to cut balances and help homeowners, is renewing attempts with backing from cities in California and Nevada, Bloomberg reports. 

Gluckstern’s Mortgage Resolution Partners recently sent letters to securities trustees and loan servicers asking them to verify their roles in specific deals and provide information about individual mortgages that could be purchased, he said.

The firm must try to negotiate to buy the loans before municipalities can use powers known as eminent domain to force the sales, he said. They would then lower the principal owed.