UPDATED! Help Daniel’s mom keep her home
Posted June 30th, 2009 by Katie Bethell
Irene in Los Angeles
UPDATE: Thanks for sending letters! MomsRising members sent in over 36,000 letters yesterday to the top 4 biggest banks who haven’t signed on to Obama’s “Making Homes Affordable Program” yesterday—and 1 of the 4 banks just announced they’re signing on! Public pressure works! Let’s keep the letters coming and get the last 3 banks on board too!
Also… for those of you who participated in our Twitter petition yesterday, We just learned that Goldman Sachs isn’t the official sponsor of the GS_News Twitter account, and are thus stopping petition. We are printing and delivering all petition signatures that came in through that effort so all voices can be heard by Goldman Sachs that we want them to sign on with Obama’s Making Homes Affordable program.
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On Friday, we heard a story that we felt we had to share with you. It’s about Daniel’s 84 year-old mom, Irene. Her bank is selling the house she has lived in for 34 years.
Daniel explains: “The unbelievable part of it is that OneWest — her bank — doesn’t even have to talk with my mom before selling her house right out from under her. That’s because OneWest is among four big mortgage service companies that haven’t signed sign on to President Obama’s program to help stop foreclosures. It’s the ‘Making Home Affordable’ plan, and even though OneWest is the recipient of federal bailout money, they are still taking my mom’s home away.”
Will you send a letter to the CEO of OneWest urging them to get on board with the ‘Making Home Affordable’ plan?
It’s time for banks like OneWest to stop sucking up government money while running over taxpayers like Daniel’s mom, Irene.
There are too many people in this same boat. In fact, Irene isn’t the only mom who is facing foreclosure: One out of fifty children are now homeless and these numbers are only expected to worsen as 2.4 million families are projected to lose their homes this year. Women, and particularly, women of color, are disproportionately affected by the sub-prime and housing crisis. The Consumer Federation of America found that women were 32 percent more likely to receive sub-prime loans than men, even though they had roughly the same credit scores. And this disparity rose with income level. Among high income earners, African American women were as much as five times more likely to receive sub-prime mortgages than white men.
Today, right now in fact, members of our partner organization, ACORN, are sitting-in at the offices of OneWest and the other three banks whose mortgage servicing companies won’t sign on to Obama’s Making Home Affordable plan (The other three are: Litton of Goldman Sachs, HomEq of Barclays, and American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc.). They are doing this to put a spotlight on this issue because Daniel’s mom isn’t the only one who needs help right now. In fact, these four mortgage companies are responsible for the mortgages of 2 million American families.
Don’t forget to make sure these companies get the point by emailing their CEOs today.
It might be surprising that a woman who has lived in her home for 34 years would be at risk of foreclosure — but Irene explains a situation that anyone could have encountered here:
“My husband was receiving dialysis three times a week and suffering from chronic, congestive heart failure. He was vulnerable and realized he was on the verge of passing. He was worried that he’d leave me with $30,000 to $40,000 in credit card debt. With those concerns, we sought advice.
IndyMac advised us we would qualify for a loan based on our credit scores and the loan would “solve our problems.” They definitely preyed upon our vulnerability.
He died a month after we received the loan. Our fixed income was $2388.81 per month. With his passing, the income dropped to $1600.00 per month. I continued to make payments, but they kept going up and up. They went up so much that even if my husband was still alive, we would not have made them.”
We know that many of the people at risk of foreclosure are those bad situations because they were advised to take on loans that weren’t all they appeared to be. The Making Home Affordable program will help to right this wrong — so thousands of people can stay in their homes. All the plan requires is that banks talk to homeowners to find a mutually agreeable solution — one that allows homeowners to keep their homes and make their monthly payments, and ensures that investors’ bottom lines are protected.
13 Comments
You can get a free Homeowner’s Guide on President Obama’s “Making Home Affordable” plan at http://MortgageCreditTrauma.com.
This plan outlines the rules and eligibility guidelines for 1st & 2nd loan modifications as well as giving a Loan Comparison Chart for Countrywide/BofA, CitiGroup/CitiMortgage, IndyMac Fed Bank and JP Morgan who is also accepting Washington Mutual and EMC Mortgage Corp customers.
Hope this helps!
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Katie Bethell Reply:
July 1st, 2009 at 1:54 pm
@Taylor McKenzie, Thank you! This is great.
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It’s good to see that many of the people commenting understand that Daniel’s Mom is responsible for her mortgage. The American taxpayer is not. Perhaps people are finally starting to wake up and pay attention to what our government is doing.
It was also good to learn that ACORN is your parent organization. FWIW, I feel completely cheated that my tax dollars go to fund such rediculous partisan politics. Pulling at Mom’s heartstrings with situations like this is no longer working. Yeah!
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Katie Bethell Reply:
July 1st, 2009 at 12:45 pm
@Beth, Thanks for your comment. To clarify, we are an independent organization advocating on behalf of our 1.2 million members on issues that impact women and families.
We have partnered with ACORN to do this important work to help people through the foreclosure crisis, where an estimated 2.4 million people are expected to lose their homes this year. 80% of the loan servicing industry has signed on to the Making Home Affordable program, and it has already been shown that re-negotiating loans, rather than foreclosing, actually saves everyone money.
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Jeffrey Olson Reply:
July 1st, 2009 at 11:50 pm
@Katie Bethell, ACORN is a corrupt organization that is sucking up tax dollars promoting mortgages for people that cant afford them. I am a Real Estate Appraiser that has seen first hand many instances of this. They should open up there books for examination along with all there tax dollar hiding affiliates. Open the books then we will talk
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I am so sorry for Daniels mom. I wish I could help. But I totally disagree with your position on this one. NO ONE should be forced to take government bail out money from the Government.
I generally disagree with my president on most all of his bail out plans including forcing Corporate CEO’s out and placing privatly owned companies in the controle of the federal government.
While I feel for Daniel’s mom. Having the US bail everyone out is not the answer.
I have requested to be removed from your list. This is obviously a very left wing group and I am for personal responsibility, not government expansion.
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Katie Bethell Reply:
July 1st, 2009 at 12:46 pm
@Lawson, Thanks for your comment. The Making Home Affordable program merely requires that banks who sign on talk to people before foreclosing on their homes. It is an optional program that 80% of the loan servicing industry has signed on to, and it has already been shown that re-negotiating loans, rather than foreclosing, actually saves everyone money.
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I generally agree with gov’t activities to help the poor, but this idea that people who don’t pay their mortgage should just keep living in their house is crazy. You have got to be alienating just about everyone except for those who don’t believe in private property.
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June 30, 2009 at 4:06 pm by ELaina McGuireI know Anna Donahue Ministries is reaching out to widows…
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June 30, 2009 at 3:27 pm by JackieUnfortunately I am with IndyMac and OneWest, and I too have submitted papers for a Loan Modification…and I was told that they did NOT take bailout money Can you check this? You say in the article that they took bailout money. They claim they did NOT. I am a Senior citizen and do NOT want to lose my home…I applied for Obama’s Program too, and I am awaiting their response. While waiting tho…I am sending them half of my mortgage every month. And it will slow down any foreclosure process and when a whole mortgage is accumulated…they apply it to the last unpaid mortage. It shows good faith, and NOT like you are trying to avoid your responsibility. Also, that woman can file Bankruptcy(Chapter 7)and then pull the house out of the Bankruptcy or file a Chapter 13…that will slow it down also. Lastly, she can ask for them to produce the Original Loan papers…which they do NOT have since it has been sold sooo many times. And they cannot foreclose Legally unless they have it. Most people don’t know this…so they lose their home without asking for it…and if you don’t know the laws…they can do anything to us and get away with it. I have done a LOT of homework and I am a Credit/Debt/Tax advisor for over 20 years.
Jackie
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June 30, 2009 at 3:14 pm by Lynette HeimsPersonally, I think that Daniel’s mom should have paid her mortgage just like the rest of us, or face the consequences. Where is Daniel? Why doesn’t he help out his mom? She raised him for how many years? Maybe it is time to get responsible in this economy instead of thinking that someone else will always bail you out. What, do you think that the money tree is out back to bail everyone out. Where do you think that this money comes from? Us tax payers !!!!! Keep going and us tax payers won’t have anything left to give and then I wonder where everyone will be bailed out from. What money fund is that? I would like a slice of that !!
Take some responsibiliy,
Lynette Heims
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June 30, 2009 at 2:47 pm by Jennifer LittletonI do not know the particulars of her foreclosure problem. My case is in GA. Poor laws along with unchallenged corrupt practices allowed federally chartered banks to steal homes and equity from GA citizens. My mortgage bank was National City…now a non-entity. I did contact the OCC as well as the state banking and finance committee. Though they were no direct help…shortly thereafter National City was dissolved. I have a case pending in Fulton County Superior Court. I hope she has better legal advise that I did and can stop her home foreclosure so she will not be fighting for restitution afterwards like I am. The judge said the law allows them to appeal for 7 years and the bank is never in a hurry to give back what rightfully belongs to the homeowners. It is a long wait between the time they take and the time they return what was taken. I will be praying for you.
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June 30, 2009 at 11:01 am by BernettaHello, This is something I heard on the news a year ago. They said to ask this simple question to the bank. “Please provide me with the original loan” It should buy her sometime until this law is passed with there bank or someone raises the money for her. I hope this helps.
God Bless
Bernetta Sowels
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