tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25780085061862093112024-03-19T14:06:54.456-07:00Obama's American ForeclosureGateThe saga continues...The Bush Legacy in Obama's Court From One Establishment to Another...NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-10906298231117269952016-09-23T16:13:00.003-07:002016-09-23T16:13:51.452-07:00The Violence of Eviction<img alt="Dissent" src="https://www.dissentmagazine.org/wp-content/themes/Dissent-Rumors/images/logo-dissent.png" /><br />
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<a href="https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/the-violence-of-eviction-housing-market-foreclosure-gentrification-finance-capital" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><br /></a>
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<a href="https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/the-violence-of-eviction-housing-market-foreclosure-gentrification-finance-capital" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Violence of Eviction</a></h2>
<aside class="article-meta" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Neutral Regular", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; outline: none;"><a class="author-link" href="https://www.dissentmagazine.org/author/mike-konczal" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; outline: none;">Mike Konczal</a> <img alt="▪" class="emoji" draggable="false" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2/svg/25aa.svg" style="background: none !important; border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important; height: 1em !important; margin: 0px 0.07em !important; max-width: 100%; outline: none; padding: 0px !important; vertical-align: -0.1em !important; width: 1em !important;" /> <a href="https://www.dissentmagazine.org/issue/summer-2016" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; outline: none;">Summer 2016</a></aside><br />
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<header style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Neutral Regular", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 2em; outline: none;"><figure class="article-image" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><figcaption class="article-image-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.85rem; margin-top: 1em; outline: none;">Aftermath of an eviction in Baltimore, 2007 (mireille / Flickr)</figcaption></figure></header><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Neutral Regular", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">
<em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City</em><br style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;" />by Matthew Desmond<br style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;" />Crown Publishers, 2016, 418 pp.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street’s Great Foreclosure Fraud</em><br style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;" />by David Dayen<br style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;" />New Press, 2016, 400 pp.</div>
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<span style="line-height: 22.4px;"><span style="font-size: large;">To understand how the housing market really works, we need to hear the stories of those who have been pushed out. Two essential new books shine a spotlight on those stories, and illuminate much more in the process.</span></span></div>
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Of all the ways market logic has colonized our thinking, the way it has distorted our understanding of the housing market has to be one of the most dangerous. The notion that housing is naturally like any other market has not only informed the way we think about the houses we rent and the mortgages we can take, it’s led us to believe that the city itself wields a kind of economic instrumentalism in how it sorts those who inhabit it. People naturally end up where they are most productive and useful, and any housing problems will be both quickly and smoothly rectified by the market.</div>
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This is a lie. Markets are not natural but created, and this is especially true of housing. It takes the violent disruption of expulsion for this to become clear. Two new books dive deep into housing expulsion to illuminate the social creation of these markets.</div>
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In <i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City</i>, Harvard sociologist Matthew Desmond does more than paint a haunting picture of the poverty and instability created by housing insecurity. He tears past market ideology to show the power of landlords and the way they decide who the city will work for and how. And in <i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street’s Great Foreclosure Fraud</i>, financial writer David Dayen goes beyond documenting the systemic fraud perpetrated by Wall Street. He shows how ordinary people were able to blow the lid off the mortgage machine and document the lack of evidence for finance’s claims they owned the debts that they claimed to own. Those claims, in turn, forced the government to cover up the fraud in order to preserve the myth of the market.</div>
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By listening to the stories of the foreclosed and the evicted, those most vulnerable to the violence of the housing market, we can learn how housing really works—how it fails us as a society, and ultimately, how we can do better.</div>
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In his 2002 essay “Scrutinizing the Street: Poverty, Morality, and the Pitfalls of Urban Ethnography,” the sociologist Loïc Wacquant warned that the latest wave of sociological ethnographies of the urban poor, books that were becoming blockbuster staples among the educated class, didn’t challenge the conditions they described. They instead sanitized their subjects by downplaying certain facts, glamorized their work skills and personal deeds to make them passable by middle-class norms, and divided the poor into good and bad, decent and “street.” They did this to make their subjects morally acceptable to the public policy punditry, and to attempt to find a triangulating role for sociology to push back against the brutality of rising neoliberalism. They failed.</div>
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Matthew Desmond’s masterpiece of sociological ethnography, <i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">Evicted</i>, doesn’t fall into any of these traps. A lot will rightfully be written about his work following the lives of eight families in Milwaukee, split between the black ghetto on the city’s North Side and a white trailer park on the South Side. He tells their stories in a way that is both moving and respectful.</div>
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But the reason the book works is because there’s an additional character, one who is the real star: the eviction process itself. Desmond’s ethnographic technique is designed not to focus on a specific place, or even a specific group of people, but instead on how evictions take place. By telling the story of these families through their relationship to that process of state-sanctioned violence, his book places the suffering of these families in a broader context.</div>
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It certainly makes the abstract data on the sheer volume of evictions more real. But collecting and presenting that data is itself another accomplishment of the book. Desmond’s ethnography is complemented by a large-scale investigation into reams of Milwaukee municipal data. Statistical models are run using large datasets of everything ranging from renter surveys to 911 nuisance calls to building code violations to court judgments.</div>
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The conclusions he draws from these numbers are striking, and the trends he sees in Milwaukee are representative of the country as a whole. The majority of poor families who rent in America spend more than half of their income on housing, with almost a quarter spending 70 percent. Between 2009 and 2011 more than one in eight Milwaukee renters experienced a forced eviction. Across the nation, in rich cities and poor, vacancies in low-cost units have fallen to single digits, to below 6 percent in 2011, while affordable rental stock is disappearing.</div>
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This is particularly true for black women. In Milwaukee’s poorest black neighborhoods, one female renter in seventeen was evicted through courts—that’s twice as many as men in the same neighborhoods, and nine times as many as women in the city’s poorest white areas. Desmond concludes that “if incarceration had come to define the lives of men from impoverished black neighborhoods, eviction was shaping the lives of women. Poor black men were locked up. Poor black women were locked out.”</div>
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The straightforward storytelling of the text belies its theoretical depth, with many of the essential points explained in endnotes. Desmond’s focus on the eviction process helps us understand the world and mindset of evicted households in a way we otherwise wouldn’t. Housing insecurity creates a special kind of exhausting poverty, one that threatens the very security of one’s family. It breeds depression. In addition to their homes, the evicted lose their possessions, their neighborhoods, their official address for interacting with the state and businesses, their very sense of self and liberty.</div>
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We meet Scott, an ex-nurse drug addict whose powerlessness to leave the trailer park and find more secure housing creates the conditions for his consistent relapses, particularly as the trailer park is a ready source of heroin. Vanetta, a single mother, desperate from losing hours at the Old Country Buffet and living on the verge of eviction, is suddenly pushed by her boyfriend into robbing a couple to keep the lights on, and faces a long prison sentence as a result. Women go in and out of piecemeal sex work when housing becomes precarious. Others, looking for some sense of gratification and seeing no future to plan for, overspend. Rather than trying to explain these actions in moral, cultural, or individual terms, Desmond shows how these acts of desperation and despair are responses to the violence of eviction.</div>
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Evictions shred civil society, the building blocks of neighborhoods that in turn are capable of sustaining wider communities. “A single eviction could destabilize multiple city blocks,” Desmond writes, creating “perpetual slums,” as people take temporary homes they have no interest in building around, simply a place to stay until they can get their lives together. The tenants in the trailer park see themselves as “just passing through,” not there to put down roots, meet their neighbors, and build a community.</div>
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Making the eviction process the central ethnographic focus shows the wide constellation of actors the evicted encounter, each exerting different types of power, each capable of helping or harming the tenants. We meet the sheriff who knocks on the door and could give the tenant an extra day. We meet the movers who take the tenants’ stuff out and can store it, in warehouses that act like a “giant stomach, digesting the city,” for a large fee the evicted struggle to pay. We meet the judges in eviction court, too, who can radically change an evicted person’s future by forcing a settlement, or by allowing landlords to attach large, high-interest fees to the records of the evicted that can destroy their future income security. We meet extended families with financial security who face complex choices about how to help those perpetually in need; we encounter the spontaneous, disposable, and volatile ties created among the poor to try and mitigate the risks of eviction.</div>
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A central premise of markets is that people who can afford to pay the price will end up where they belong. According to this assumption, eviction is simply a correction made by the market, one where people simply end up in a cheaper house that’s better suited to their income. But this is not what happens. One important reason is because there are very small rent differences across the poorest and richer parts of the Milwaukee. “A mere $270 separated some of the cheapest units in the city from some of the most expensive,” writes Desmond. In the poorest neighborhoods, median rents for a two-bedroom were only $50 less than in the city overall. Meaning, people who are evicted aren’t automatically reshuffled by the market to cheaper housing, because such housing simply isn’t always available.</div>
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This is because prices don’t determine who ends up where, landlords do. Desmond writes, “landlords were major players in distributing the spoils. They decided who got to live where.” No matter what else the poor have in common, “nearly all of them have a landlord.” Rather than a facile notion that people end up where they best belong, we see that people’s respective power dictates where they end up, and in poor neighborhoods, landlords have the power.</div>
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Landlords make decisions heavily informed by race. White and black families live at opposite ends of Milwaukee, but they might as well live in different galaxies. The black families can’t find any landlords willing to work with them in the white parts of the city, rendering false the idea that they could simply move if they so wished. The white families, for their part, refuse to look in the black ghetto at all, and receive a location dividend based on their race.</div>
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The way landlords choose to screen tenants reshapes the housing market in fundamental ways. Having kids, for instance, usually means an instant rejection. This is particularly tough on single moms, who are often already in difficult economic situations, and the children themselves. Eviction means school connections and deeper community roots, essential for children, are impossible to sustain.</div>
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Landlords also reject prospective tenants based on a combination of poverty—including a record of previous evictions—and criminality, based on previous felonies. Excluding people who have both means that buildings where poor people go are buildings where people engaged in criminal activity go. The choices of landlords do more to intertwine poverty and criminality than any vague “cultural” explanation.</div>
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This is also how gentrification works. <a href="http://citylimits.org/2015/11/20/the-complicated-research-on-how-gentrification-affects-the-poor/" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; outline: none;" target="_blank">According to researchers</a>, gentrification isn’t really about newer, richer residents pushing out established residents. What really causes neighborhoods to change so dramatically is that poorer residents can no longer afford to move into gentrifying areas. Poorer families are cut off from that mobility, with open housing going to richer families. <i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">Evicted</i> shows how this kind of exclusion is vicious for those in desperate need of housing, and how it can thoroughly rework the demographics of neighborhoods.</div>
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The state plays an essential role in this process. It’s not just responsible for the violence deployed by the courts and sheriffs, who create and implement the terms under which people are forced out of their homes and the subsequent penalties they suffer. It’s also not just how the rapid increases in policing and mass incarceration have turned landlords into agents of those trends. “Nuisance property ordinances,” for example, penalize landlords for their tenants’ behavior. So when responding to 911 calls, for instance, police pressure landlords to evict the tenants in question, something that is particularly devastating for households suffering from domestic violence.</div>
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It’s that the state also determines how property itself is structured. The landlords Desmond follows gather at a special, Department of Justice–funded “Landlord Training Program” where, in addition to learning the maximum fees they can charge, they close by chanting “this is my property” over and over again. Yet for many of them, this wasn’t strictly true—each of their properties was safeguarded by a separate corporation that owned itself, a process created by the state to shield landlords from the liability of ownership, so they can maximize profits by driving their properties into the ground.</div>
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For many of the landlords, it is simply cheaper to deal with the costs of an eviction than to try and reduce rents, or even to maintain their properties. For Sherrena, a landlord Desmond follows, her worst properties were the biggest profit centers. As the fines on the properties for lack of upkeep piled up, Sherrena would simply stop paying taxes and let the city take the property in the tax foreclosure. The corporate structure shielding the property ensured her own liability was limited. The city would often just demolish them, in turn reducing the property stock further, and assuring competition for Sherrena’s other properties. Milwaukee has around 1,200 properties go into foreclosure this way each year.</div>
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Experts assume that there’s a simple tradeoff between housing conditions and costs. If the costs of a rental apartment are too high, people simply live in worse conditions. Desmond shows that the logic of slumlords ties these factors together: worse properties, by being driven into foreclosure and then taken off the market, can ultimately drive up, rather than down, housing costs.</div>
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The landlords we meet in <i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">Evicted</i> do bad things to people in the pursuit of profits. Liberal commentators are already peppering their reviews of the book with elaborate hand-wringing over a poor person buying lobster with food stamps. Virtually none have mentioned the main landlord encouraging mentally and physically disabled people whose credit scores she helped rapidly increase to buy her properties through the Federal Housing Administration at the height of the bubble, only to watch them fall into distress later.</div>
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But one thing that stands out is the way that Desmond’s landlords seem like low-wage employers, and the case for rent control comes to resemble the new case for the minimum wage. One important reason why minimum wage increases don’t lead to higher unemployment is because low-wage employers have a tiny bit of monopoly power over jobs. Because of the difficulty workers have searching for jobs, and their desperation to find subsistence work, employers are able to set the price of labor rather than simply accept the price determined by the market, which gives them more power. A higher minimum wage pushes against this power.</div>
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The same logic applies to housing. Searching for housing is very difficult; some of the families Desmond followed looked at ninety properties before finding somewhere they could live. Sherrena notes how she can capture part of the value of housing vouchers by charging higher rents when they are used. This is similar to how employers capture part of the Earned Income Tax Credit wage subsidy, something that a minimum wage helps push back against.</div>
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A simple story tells us all we need to know about the power of landlords. Sherrena sees one of her tenants waiting for UPS to deliver a computer for his daughter. The landlord immediately laughs, “I got ’em. The rent’s going up . . . I don’t care. He can move.” Being able to raise rents simply because you think your tenant can pay more and you know they won’t just find another place without additional expense, is what economists call “economic rents.” Or what regular people just call “exploitation.”</div>
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The Great Recession was the result of the crash of a housing bubble, one that came with <a href="https://www.corelogic.com/about-us/news/corelogic-reports-33,000-completed-foreclosures-in-november-2015.aspx" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; outline: none;" target="_blank">6 million foreclosures</a>. One of those foreclosures was initiated against a Florida nurse named Lisa Epstein. Epstein tried to negotiate with her mortgage company, Chase Home Finance, so she could keep paying. They said they couldn’t help without the permission of Wells Fargo, which was odd to Epstein as she had never interacted with them. When the foreclosure summons came, it stated her plaintiff was “U.S. Bank NA as trustee for JPMorgan Mortgage Trust 2007-S2,” two banks she had never had any contact with or even knew much about.</div>
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Thus begins a detective story that almost brought down Wall Street, as recounted in David Dayen’s <i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">Chain of Title</i>. There are well over <a href="http://lfe.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/ReadingAboutFinCrisis2012.pdf" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; outline: none;" target="_blank">twenty books</a> about the financial crisis and the housing bubble that preceded it. There are only a handful of what came next, even though researchers now believe the chaos of foreclosures and the large amount of bad mortgage debt have been the major factor in the weak recovery of the U.S. economy. Dayen’s book, detailing the massive fraud seeping into the mortgage and foreclosure process, is essential documentation of this sordid history.</div>
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It’s also a fascinating way of understanding how the state intercedes to create a private mortgage market. Beginning in the early 1980s, Wall Street pushed its way into the housing market, taking over from locally situated commercial banks through the extensive marketing of mortgage-backed securities. But this couldn’t be done without government action. Congress preempted state restrictions on privately issued mortgage-backed securities. It promoted ratings agencies as private market regulators of the system. The government created special tax laws to produce a “real estate mortgage investment conduit” (REMIC), allowing mortgages to be moved around without having to pay taxes.</div>
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In turn, Wall Street needed to follow careful rules on how to handle mortgages for this to work. For centuries, keeping track of who owned what land was one of the essential administrative tasks of the government, and here that responsibility was handed over to Wall Street. Because of how global and fast capital markets are, it was even more essential that documentation of the mortgages was carefully transferred between complex entities to make legally clear who owns what and on what terms. As Dayen notes, “you can’t skip a link” in this process, and you can’t go back and fix it later. This was designed to ensure protection for both Wall Street investors and ordinary borrowers in case something went wrong.</div>
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Something went wrong. By now we have well-documented history of how fraud dominated the creation of subprime mortgages. Mortgage terms and prices were not set competitively; people were aggressively upsold into dangerous subprime mortgages; instruments designed to fail were sold off to investors. But the handful of citizens-turned-Wall-Street-detectives that populate Dayen’s book found out that there was just as much sloppiness and fraud in the management of these mortgage documents as there was in other industry practices.</div>
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Epstein, the nurse portrayed in Dayen’s book, slowly worked through her mortgage and the mortgages of others. As she followed the complex maze of legal steps necessary to prove ownership of land, she found nothing there. Documents didn’t exist, or were forged. She joined forces with a community of bloggers, journalists, academics, and other citizens, who all parsed through these records, finding them online and elsewhere. Together, they found false documentation in foreclosures across the entire nation. A mysterious “Linda Green” was signing foreclosure documents with multiple signatures across twenty different mortgage companies, implying poorly paid subordinates were using her name to keep foreclosures going. The sleuths found crooked efforts to backdate many of these documents. The activists called it “securitization FAIL.” As Dayen writes, “Three centuries of American land title operations had been outsourced” to Wall Street, and they ruined it so they “could save a buck.”</div>
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It wasn’t just sloppy paperwork that allowed the foreclosure crisis to occur, but sloppy processes as well. Without the legal notes of the mortgage itself, it wasn’t clear who owned what and on what terms, so there was no fair way to settle disputes. Worse, the mortgages were serviced and handled by people with incentives different from those of borrowers and lenders; it was often just as profitable for the middlemen to run mortgages into distress and foreclosure than to make them work well. Wall Street’s way of financing mortgages through complex instruments had never been stressed; when it was, it collapsed spectacularly.</div>
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As a result of these activists’ investigations, the media, courts, and law enforcement started to pay attention. They won a major victory when the foreclosure machine came to a screeching halt in late 2010, when several large banks declared a foreclosure moratorium to look at their procedures, and the government, notably the Obama administration, was forced to investigate it themselves.</div>
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Housing isn’t just a natural market. It requires a large amount of bureaucracy and violence and paperwork to ensure that land is divided up correctly. This is a system that has been around for centuries. Yet Wall Street neglected to care about the details, and as a result, when people pulled back the curtain, they couldn’t prove that they owned anything they believed they did.</div>
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The cognitive dissonance that followed was overwhelming. Should we throw some people in jail? Demand some sort of settlement and a promise this won’t happen again? Should we cancel debts that couldn’t be documented, perhaps paving the way for a radical program of land redistribution? It’s ironic that, left to their own devices, high finance’s control over land leads to the conditions where a bloodless revolution could have taken place. Business media claimed that this was about deadbeats who wanted free homes, as opposed to the deadbeats on Wall Street who didn’t follow the rules.</div>
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The Obama administration was not interested in jailing bankers, much less euthanizing the claims of rentiers over land as a result of finance’s own carelessness. Instead the administration’s investigators, along with regulators and state attorneys generals, made it seem as if Wall Street had followed the process all along, all for the price of a small settlement and a promise to do better. The Federal Reserve shamefully swept a subsequent <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/04/14/can-dodd-frank-fix-mortgage-servicing-if-we-dont-know-what-went-wrong/" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; outline: none;" target="_blank">2013</a> investigation into servicing abuses under the carpet, arguing that illegal activities couldn’t be disclosed because they were “trade secrets.” Maintaining the <i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">illusion</i> of the integrity of the housing market was more important than maintaining its actual integrity. Meanwhile these same problems of abusive processes and improper documentation have emerged across all kinds of consumer debt—from medical bills to student loans.</div>
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Both books struggle with the same overall problems. Political organizing is easy for those with power in these housing relationships, and incredibly difficult for those without. Desmond describes landlords as having a class interest in certain types of exploitation. Dayen focuses less on the creditors—those who owned underwater mortgages—even though their desire to be paid in full on bad collateral plunged communities and the economy into chaos. Efforts to force them to take losses—such as bankruptcy reform or municipal efforts to use eminent domain against their garbage loans—were easily resisted. Meanwhile we haven’t seen mortgage strikes or rent strikes, as we did in earlier eras like the Great Depression. For both the evicted and the foreclosed, a politics of self-loathing and recrimination places a limitation on political power they can express.</div>
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The housing markets covered in these books don’t look like they will merely “self-correct” with time. The mortgage market remains in critical condition, surviving only because government support is compensating for the failures of Wall Street. The housing stock in Milwaukee and other poor cities will continue to deteriorate, and nothing other than a publicly driven campaign can change that.</div>
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But both books point in the right direction. There’s a fundamental need for security and shelter. If the private market won’t provide it, that points to a more active and assertive role for the state itself. But it must start from the premise that no market alone can ensure security for all; these markets are government creations, and they require government solutions.</div>
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NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-56401293471344528442015-07-06T17:53:00.002-07:002015-07-06T17:57:37.312-07:00The OCCUPY Pledge to Move Money Out of Wells Fargo<div class="header_headline">
<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.occupyfightsforeclosures.org/">Occupy Fights Foreclosures </a></span></h2>
</div>
<br />
<div id="headline">
<h2>
<a href="http://www.occupyfightsforeclosures.org/pledge_to_move_money_out_of_wells_fargo" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Pledge to Move Money Out of Wells Fargo</span></a></h2>
</div>
<br />
<br />
For the past year, Occupy Fights Foreclosures has been fighting to
keep many homeowners from being wrongfully foreclosed and evicted by
Wells Fargo Bank, which has been sued, not just by unhappy homeowners,
but by the US Justice Dept., the Federal Reserve, and two large cities
for its predatory and discriminatory lending practices. Many of its
victims have stories similar to these:<br />
<br />
• Read about <b>Harolyn Rhue</b>, a disabled African-American woman whom Wells Fargo wrongfully foreclosed and evicted on May 30th. <a href="http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/cms/story/detail/?id=12177"><i><b>Anatomy of a foreclosure</b>: Institutional mortgage juggling leads to disabled Altadena woman’s eviction: </i>http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/cms/story/detail/?id=12177</a><i>"In
Rhue’s case, the loan was more than inappropriate. It was never
manageable, based on income figures twice her actual earnings. Rhue says
she neither claimed the numbers listed nor did she actually sign the
document, alleging her signature was forged."</i><br />
<br />
• Learn about <b>Richard Castaldo</b>, Columbine shooting survivor, who is fighting to keep his home after Wells Fargo gave his family a predatory loan. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LTKmUBa5lA">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LTKmUBa5lA</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3LTKmUBa5lA?vq=highres" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
• Learn about <b>Larry Delassus</b>, who died of a heart attack in court as he fought to keep Wells Fargo from foreclosing on him. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t13vOIGJATg">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t13vOIGJATg</a><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/t13vOIGJATg?vq=highres" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
Despite pocketing vast bailouts from the Fed and the
U.S. Treasury, and promising to make amends in the settlement with state
attorney generals, Wells Fargo has been rated as among the worst
performers in fixing their predatory mortgages. In other words, Wells
Fargo continues trapping people with the very practices that have helped
tank the U.S. economy and set the global economy spiraling. [reference <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/u-s-sues-wells-fargo-yet-another-bailed-out-bank-accused-of-fraud-20121010" target="_blank" title="2012 RollingStone: U.S. Sues Wells Fargo: Yet Another Bailed-Out Bank Accused of Fraud ">1</a>, <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-4788018.html" target="_blank" title="2009 CBS: Following The Bailout Money To Wells Fargo ">2</a>, <a href="http://www.seiu.org/a/profilewells.php" target="_blank" title="SEIU: Wells Fargo practices in numbers ">3</a>]<br />
<br />
States are willing to settle on empty promises, and legal help often
doesn't happen sooner than eviction. Let's start a DIY fight for justice
by hitting Wells Fargo in the only place it feels the pain: its wallet.
Let’s starve the beast. Let's bring justice closer. And let's regain
control of our economy.<br />
<br />
<b>Move Your Money Out of A Criminal Hand, Wells Fargo</b>.<br />
<h3>
Here are 6 reasons to do it:</h3>
1. End foreclosure abuses by compelling Wells Fargo to work with homeowners.<br />
2. Force Wells Fargo to invest in homeowners by providing more principal reductions.<br />
3. Invest in Main Street, not Wall Street.<a href="http://moveyourmoneyproject.org/why-you-should-move-your-money" target="_blank" title="Why You Should Move Your Money"> </a><br />
4. Lend a Hand to Local Businesses<a href="http://moveyourmoneyproject.org/why-you-should-move-your-money" target="_blank" title="Why You Should Move Your Money"> </a><br />
5. End Too-Big-o-Fail Banks <a href="http://moveyourmoneyproject.org/why-you-should-move-your-money" target="_blank" title="Why You Should Move Your Money"> </a><br />
6. Fewer Fees, More Savings<a href="http://moveyourmoneyproject.org/why-you-should-move-your-money" target="_blank" title="Why You Should Move Your Money"> </a><br />
<br />
<br />
<div id="petition_content">
PLEDGE TO SUPPORT AND MOVE YOUR MONEY OUT OF WELLS FARGO BEGINNING ON SATURDAY, JUNE 22ND<br />
<br />
<div dir="ltr">
And let these Wells Fargo executives know why you support the "Move Your Money" Out of Wells Fargo Campaign:</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br />
515-213-6117 MICHAEL HEID (<b id="docs-internal-guid-08b1f5e7-4c7a-b4de-a0a8-3f5d18e6ffcf">Wells Fargo President of Home Loans</b>)</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br />
415-396-7018 JOHN STUMPF (<b id="docs-internal-guid-08b1f5e7-4c7a-b4de-a0a8-3f5d18e6ffcf">Wells Fargo CEO</b>)</div>
</div>
<br />NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-43302850978940885092015-07-04T17:25:00.000-07:002015-07-04T17:59:14.599-07:00Occupy Fights Foreclosures: Homeowner Resources<h2>
</h2>
<div class="header_headline">
<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.occupyfightsforeclosures.org/">Occupy Fights Foreclosures </a></span></h2>
</div>
<div class="header_headline">
</div>
<div class="header_headline">
<br />
<div id="headline">
<h2>
<a href="http://www.occupyfightsforeclosures.org/homeowner_resources" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Homeowner Resources</span></a></h2>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></h2>
</div>
Follow these steps to take action to stop illegal foreclosure.<br />
<br />
<h3>
1. Find Legitimate Legal Assistance & Avoid Scams</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
<div style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.2em;">
Many homeowners go to <b>foreclosure-rescue scammers, only to drain their time and money</b> without a result. Please take advantage of our handpicked list of legitimate agencies that can actually help you.</div>
</div>
<div class="header_headline">
</div>
<div class="header_headline">
</div>
<div class="header_headline">
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.homeloanlearningcenter.com/ConsumerHelpDesk/BorrowersBillofRights.htm">Borrowers Bill Of Rights</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.foreclosureprose.com/">Fight Your Own Case, Pro-Se</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.lsc.gov/map/index.php">Find Free Legal Assistance/By State</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.foreclosurelaw.org/">Foreclosure Law by State</a></li>
<li><a href="http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD/topics/avoiding_foreclosure/foreclosureprocess">Foreclosure Process</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.foreclosurelegalassistance.org/">Institute For Legal Assistance</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.contingencycase.com/index.php">Lawyers On Contingency</a></li>
<li><a href="http://halt.org/about_halt/">Legal Books, Brochures, Pamphlets</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.ptla.org/legal-services-links">Legal Services Links</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.nclc.org/">National Consumer Law Center</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.nhlp.org/help">National Housing Law Project</a></li>
<li><a href="http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/Real_estate_transactions">Real Estate Transactions</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.uscourts.gov/RulesAndPolicies/CodesOfConduct/CodeConductUnitedStatesJudges/CodeOfConduct.aspx">United States Judges Code of Conduct</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.uslegalforms.com/realestate/">US Real Estate Forms 50 States</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.uscourts.gov/Home.aspx" title="United States Courts">US Courts</a> </li>
</ul>
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
2. Report Frauds & File Complaints</h3>
It is important to <b>file as many complaints and reports as possible</b>
so that your case will be noticed by many institutions and agencies as
well as build a collective pressure to legal bodies to bring justice.<br />
<h4>
National</h4>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://www.occupyfightsforeclosures.org/how_to_file_a_title_iii_complaint">How to File a Title III Complaint</a><br /><br />
</li>
<li><a href="http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/governments.php">Consumer Fraud Reporting Agencies</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.ripoffreport.com/">File Ripoff Report, By Consumers For Consumers</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.preventloanscams.org/states">Report A Scam</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/stateattorneygenerallist.php">Report Consumer Fraud, Attorney’s General Contact Info</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.herofoundation.net/pdf/Beware.pdf">Rescue Scams, Info/Complaints</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/stateconsumeragencieslist.php">Consumer Protection Agencies</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/hcc/hcs.cfm">HUD Approved Housing Counseling Agencies</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.ncsl.org/?tabid=19477#AL">National Conferance of State Legiltators/Foreclosure 2010 Legislation</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.preventloanscams.org/states">Report Loan Scam</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/stateattorneygenerallist.php">State Attorneys Contact List</a></li>
</ul>
<h4>
Local</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.occupyfightsforeclosures.org/resources_california" target="_self">California</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.occupyfightsforeclosures.org/resources_by_state" target="_self">Other States</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
3. Get Educated with Facts & Details</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
The key is to get correct and solid knoledge of the problem:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.occupyfightsforeclosures.org/fraudclosure_101_mortgage_foreclosure_fraud">Fraudclosure 101: Mortgage & Foreclosure Fraud</a></b><br />
and destigmatize the homeowners:<b><br /><b><a href="http://www.occupyfightsforeclosures.org/foreclosure_101_change_the_conversation">Foreclosure 101: Change the Conversation</a></b></b><br />
Both in one brochure:<b> <a href="http://occupyfightsforeclosures.org/assets/pages/160/fraudclosure101-brochure-LTR-3fold.pdf" target="_blank" title="PDF 90KB">Download as PDF</a></b> (90 KB)<br />
<br />
<b>Foreclosure Defense Workshop by CJ Holmes </b><br />
Viewable at: <a href="http://new.livestream.com/accounts/2292674/events/1892985" target="_blank">http://new.livestream.com/accounts/2292674/events/1892985</a><br />
<ul>
<li>Loan Modification Workshop</li>
<li>Notary Complaints Workshop</li>
<li>Attorney General Presentation of Recontrust Document Violations</li>
<li>Owner Statement of Suspicious Documents Workshop</li>
<li>Analyzing Recorded Docs 2</li>
<li>Analysis Recorded Documents</li>
<li>OCC Complaint Workshop</li>
<li>QWR Letter Workshop</li>
<li>Workshop: Eleven Foreclosure Defense Considerations</li>
</ul>
Learn more:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/housing/sfh/nsc/faqlm">Loan Modification Frequently Asked Questions</a></li>
<li><a href="http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/housing/sfh/buying/glossary">Mortgage Glossary, HUD</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.fdic.gov/about/comein/files/foreclosure_statistics.pdf">Statistics/National Neighbor Works</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.subprimeshakeout.com/securitization">What Is Securitization?</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.subprimeshakeout.com/subprime-shakeout">What Is Subprime?</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
4. Contact U.S. Government Agencies</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments" target="_blank">U.S. White House / Write Your President</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments" target="_blank">U.S. Senate/ Write Your Senater</a></li>
<li><a href="https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml" target="_blank">U.S House of Representatives/Write Your Representative</a></li>
<li><a href="https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml" target="_blank">Congressional Oversight Panel</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/white_collar">Federal Bureu Of Investigation</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.justice.gov/usao/">U.S. Attorney’s Office/Dept. Of Justice</a></li>
<li><a href="http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD">U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development/HUD</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.sec.gov/">Securities and Exchange Commission</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.ftc.gov/">Federal Trade Commission/Consumer Complains</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.naag.org/current-attorneys-general">National Association of Attorneys General/Contact Info.</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.ncsl.org/?tabid=17173">National Conference of State Legislatures</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.federalregister.gov/agencies" title="Federal Register/Agency List">Federal Register/Agency List</a></li>
<li><a href="http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/resources" title="HUD/Resources">HUD/Resources</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.occ.treas.gov/" title="Office of the Comptroller of the Currency">OCC</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
5. Kick Out Bad Banks Before They Kick You Out</h3>
To break up with your bank by transferring all of your balances from a bad bank to a good bank is an effective method to bring <i>justice to the economic injustice</i>.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://moveyourmoneyproject.org/why-you-should-move-your-money" target="_blank" title="Why You Should Move Your Money ">Why Should You Move Your Money →</a></b><b><br /></b><br />
<ol>
<li>End foreclosure abuses by compelling banks to work with homeowners</li>
<li>Force banks to invest in homeowners by providing more principal reductions</li>
<li>Invest in Main Street, not Wall Street</li>
<li>Lend a Hand to Local Businesses</li>
<li>End Too Big to Fail Banks</li>
<li>Fewer Fees, More Savings</li>
</ol>
<a href="http://moveyourmoneyproject.org/how-move-your-money" target="_blank" title="7 SIMPLE STEPS TO MOVE YOUR CHECKING ACCOUNT "><b>How to Move Your Money →</b></a><br />
<ol>
<li><b><a href="http://moveyourmoneyproject.org/find-bankcredit-union" target="_blank" title="Find a Better Banks & Credit Unions ">Find a Local Community Banks & Credit Unions →</a></b></li>
<li>Open your new account</li>
<li>Order checks and a debit card</li>
<li>Ask your employer to reroute your direct deposit</li>
<li>Activate your new account</li>
<li>Contact companies that enroll you in auto-pay</li>
<li>Close your old account</li>
<li>Enjoy Your New Local Banking Relationship!</li>
</ol>
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
6. Contact Us</h3>
<a href="http://www.occupyfightsforeclosures.org/contact" target="_self">Click here to contact Occupy Fights Foreclosures</a><br />
<div id="page_tags">
<div class="padbottom">
<div class="page_tag_background">
<span class="page_tag"><a href="http://www.occupyfightsforeclosures.org/tags/resources">resources</a></span>
<span class="page_tag"><a href="http://www.occupyfightsforeclosures.org/tags/brochure">brochure</a></span>
<span class="page_tag"><a href="http://www.occupyfightsforeclosures.org/tags/links">links</a></span>
<span class="page_tag"><a href="http://www.occupyfightsforeclosures.org/tags/attorney">attorney</a></span>
<span class="page_tag"><a href="http://www.occupyfightsforeclosures.org/tags/legal">legal</a></span>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="header_headline">
</div>
NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-39529212002145905222014-01-04T15:19:00.000-08:002016-05-10T10:02:22.525-07:00The 1% Are Still Stealing Our Homes <img src="http://occupywallst.org/media/img/fist.png" height="94" id="fist" width="59" />
<br />
<div id="brand">
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://occupywallst.org/"><span class="red">Occupy</span>WallStreet</a></span></h2>
</div>
<div id="slogan">
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
You are working for capitalism. </span></h2>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Is capitalism working for you?
</span></h2>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<h1>
<a href="http://occupywallst.org/article/1-are-still-stealing-our-homes/">
The 1% Are Still Stealing Our Homes
</a></h1>
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Posted 2 weeks ago on Dec. 20, 2013, 8:57 a.m. EST by <a class="user" href="http://occupywallst.org/users/OccupyWallSt/" title="View OccupyWallSt's profile">OccupyWallSt</a>
<br />
Tags:
<a href="http://occupywallst.org/tag/hedge%20funds/">hedge funds</a>,
<a href="http://occupywallst.org/tag/occupy%20our%20homes/">occupy our homes</a>,
<a href="http://occupywallst.org/tag/housing/">housing</a></div>
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<em>Laura Schlegel, a mother and active community member in Portage Park, Chicago, is facing eviction by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Cogsville#Investment_professional">Cogsville Group, a private equity firm in New York City</a>.
The family is one of thousands of families now renting homes owned by
massive private equity firms and hedge funds. Capitalizing on the
foreclosure crisis, these <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/11/wall-street-buying-foreclosed-homes">Wall Street investors have purchased 200,000 homes across the country</a> -- mostly in cities hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis.</em><br />
<br />
<em>Laura is struggling with chronic pain due to nerve damage and needs to be close to her doctors in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portage_Park,_Chicago">Portage Park</a>. She could be evicted any day, and she has nowhere for her, her son and her dogs to go.</em><br />
<br />
<em>Instead of putting them out on the street, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/10/realestate/commercial/the-30-minute-interview-donald-p-cogsville.html?_r=0">the Cogsville Group</a> should at least offer her and her family a new lease that allows them to stay in the home they previously owned.</em><br />
<br />
<strong>Why this is important:</strong><br />
<br />
As the banks enjoy <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/halahtouryalai/2013/08/09/wall-street-profits-hit-record-levels-so-why-are-banks-still-killing-jobs/">record-breaking profits</a> and the <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/12/05/u-s-income-inequality-on-rise-for-decades-is-now-highest-since-1928/">1% steal a bigger share of annual income than ever</a>, the 99% have learned that this so-called economic recovery is nothing more than a big fat lie.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://inequality.org/income-inequality/"><img alt="" src="http://i.imgur.com/jJnGHlvl.png" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
Tens of thousands of people are still being evicted each month
through foreclosure, and now private equity firms and hedge funds are
executing a massive land grab in cities across the country.
In some cities, like Phoenix, there are already <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/101276543">Wall Street-owned homes on every single block</a> by the hedge fund <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blackstone_Group">Blackstone</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
<img alt="" src="http://i.imgur.com/sxBXIgal.png" /><br />
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<br />
These Wall Street hedge funds and private equity firms are pretending
to help by renting out these vacant houses -- but we know that they are
just trying to make more money off the banks of the 99%. One of these
private equity firms has even released a new risky security backed by <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324170004578638093802889384">rental payments</a> -- which is just like the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subprime_mortgage_crisis">mortgage-backed securities that destroyed the economy in 2008</a>.<br />
<br />
The story of Laura and her family show how we must stop this land
grab and demand that housing be enshrined as a human right, not a means
to make a short-term profit.<br />
<br />
<br />
<img alt="" src="http://i.imgur.com/wUpXz4jl.png" /><br />
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Laura, her son and 3 small dogs have lived in their Portage Park home
for the last seven years. With the help of a partner, she bought the
home in 2006 for nearly $400,000. After the market crashed, they
attempted to refinance the mortgage. Following the bank’s instructions,
Laura and her partner missed three months of their mortgage payments to
qualify for a loan modification. But instead of working with the family,
Bank of America put the home in foreclosure, <a href="http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/02/new-whistleblower-describes-how-bank-of-america-flagrantly-violates-dual-tracking-single-point-of-contact-requirements-in-statefederal-mortgage-settlement.html">using the highly controversial process of “dual tracking”</a>
in which banks simultaneously put families in the process of modifying
their loans and put the loan in the foreclosure pipeline.<br />
<br />
In Laura’s case -- as with so many other homeowners across the country -- the foreclosure process won.<br />
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Her home was sold at an auction and bought back by the
government-owned mortgage giant Fannie Mae -- which then allowed a
private equity firm, The Cogsville Group, to buy the right to manage her
house and collect rent from the family. But when her home flooded this
past spring, the company did not help her with clean up, mold
remediation or repairs.<br />
<br />
In efforts to pressure Cogsville to assume responsibility for its
property management, Laura’s partner stopped paying the rent. But
instead of negotiating under the circumstances, the family received an
eviction notice.<br />
<br />
Laura and her family are asking that the eviction be dropped, and
that the Cogsville Group offer Laura a new lease with an option to buy.<br />
Help us stop Laura’s eviction -- and send a message to Wall Street
that they can no longer exploit our human needs for their short term
profits!<br />
<br />
<a href="http://start2.occupyourhomes.org/petitions/cogsville-group-keep-the-schlegel-s-in-their-home">Sign this petition to demand that Laura and her family are allowed in their home.</a><br />
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<img alt="" src="http://i.imgur.com/4JsLhhj.png" /><br />
<em>This article originally appeared on <a href="http://occupywallst.org/article/1-are-still-stealing-our-homes/occupyourhomes.org">Occupy Our Homes</a></em></div>
NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-60256485006844952972013-09-23T14:59:00.000-07:002013-09-23T14:59:12.943-07:00Buy a House, Make Your Payments, Then Discover You've Been Foreclosed On Without Your Knowledge<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This should never happen, but it did, thanks to the sordid mortgage servicing industry.</span></h3>
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<em><span class="field field-name-field-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"><span class="field-items"><span class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single" content="2013-09-20T12:49:00-07:00" datatype="xsd:dateTime" property="dc:date">September 20, 2013</span></span></span></span> </em> | </div>
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<!-- BODY --> <!--smart_paging_filter--><!--smart_paging_autop_filter-->A few months ago, Ceith and Louise Sinclair of Altadena, California, were told that their home had been sold. It was the first time they’d heard that it was for sale.<br />
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Their mortgage servicer, Nationstar, foreclosed on them without their knowledge, and sold the house to an investment company. If it wasn’t for the Sinclairs going to a <a href="http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=9246636">local ABC affiliate</a> and describing their horror story, they would have been thrown out on the street, despite never missing a mortgage payment. It’s impossible to know how many homeowners who didn’t get the media to pick up their tale have dealt with a similar catastrophe, and eventually lost their home.<br />
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As finance writer Barry Ritholtz <a href="http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/10/why-foreclosure-fraud-is-so-dangerous-to-property-rights/">has explained</a>, home purchases involve a series of precise safeguards, designed to protect property rights and prevent situations where borrowers who are perfect on their payments get evicted. “In a nation of laws, contract and property rights, there is no room for errors,” Ritholtz writes. “The only way these errors could have occurred is if several people involved in the process committed criminal fraud.”<br />
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Any observer of the mortgage industry since 2009 is no stranger to foreclosure fraud, and the fact that virtually nobody has paid the price for this crime. But the case of the Sinclairs involves a new player in that rotten game: Nationstar. Unheralded just a few years ago, the firm, owned by a private equity behemoth, has been buying up the rights to service mortgages, accepting monthly payments and distributing the proceeds to the owners of the loan, taking a little off the top for itself.<br />
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Nationstar has racked up an impressively horrible customer service record in its short life, failing to honor prior agreements with borrowers and pursuing illegal foreclosures. The fact that Nationstar and other corrupt companies like it are beginning to corner the market for mortgage servicing should trouble not only homeowners, but the regulators tasked with looking out for them. It didn’t seem possible that a broken mortgage servicing industry could get worse, but it has.<br />
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Nationstar is at the forefront of a massive shift in mortgage servicing. In the past few years, the largest servicers were arms of major banks, like JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citi and Ally Bank. Those were the “big five” servicers sanctioned for an array of fraudulent conduct in the National Mortgage Settlement, which mandated specific standards for servicers to follow, like providing a single point of contact for customers and an end to “dual tracking,” when a servicer offers a trial modification to a borrower and pursues foreclosure at the same time.<br />
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The banks realized that they could sell the servicing rights and evade these standards, along with the higher labor costs associated with implementing them. What’s more, they would avoid new, higher capital requirements associated with holding servicing assets, allowing them to give bigger dividends to shareholders and bigger bonuses to executives.<br />
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So the big banks started selling off their servicing rights, not to other banks, but to specialty financial services firms like Green Tree, Nationstar, Walter Investment Management and Ocwen, all of whom are in kind of <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-24/nationstar-fights-ocwen-for-servicer-supremacy-mortgages.html">an arms race</a> to become the biggest servicer.<br />
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Last October, Ocwen purchased the <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ocwen-buy-ally-banks-msrs-170833293.html">entire servicing portfolio of Ally Bank</a>, covering about $329 billion in loans. Ocwen has also purchased part of JPMorgan Chase’s servicing, as well as a slice from <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-13/ocwen-to-buy-rights-to-service-78-billion-of-mortgages.html">OneWest Bank</a>; it is attempting to <a href="http://www.insidemortgagefinance.com/imfnews/1_105/daily/ocwen-has-huge-subprime-market-share-1000023102-1.html">dominate the market</a>.<br />
Nationstar acquired business from Bank of America and Aurora Bank in 2012, and more in 2013. Wells Fargo is <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-12/wells-fargo-said-to-be-selling-mortgage-servicing-rights.html">poised to sell</a> some servicing rights as well, and Nationstar will surely bid for those rights. As of June 30 of this year, Nationstar has the right to collect on $318 billion worth of home loans—growing three-fold in under two years—and it will seek to add even more in the future. The company, majority owned by the private equity firm Fortress Investment Group, recently <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-17/gso-drawn-to-mortgage-servicing-as-banks-retreating.html">raised $1.1 billion</a> in capital to buy up more servicing rights from banks around the country.<br />
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This means that homeowners victimized by big-bank servicers, who were supposed to get a commitment to honest treatment as part of the National Mortgage Settlement, instead got their servicing rights sold to companies no longer bound by the terms of that settlement. So homeowners lose all of their protections, and often have to start back at square one with their new servicer. For example, if a borrower was in process on a loan modification with their old servicer, the new servicer can choose to simply not recognize that modification, and demand the full monthly payment under threat of foreclosure. This is a <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/techflash/2013/05/two-years-and-counting-how-our.html?page=all">very</a> <a href="http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/02/09/portrait-of-hamp-failure-the-mother-of-all-hamp-nightmares/">common</a> practice.<br />
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What’s more, this new breed of non-bank servicers scooping up all these servicing rights has proven themselves as a bunch of cheats profiting off their customers. Green Tree Servicing has a <a href="http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Green-Tree-Servicing/internet/Green-Tree-Servicing-I-guess-they-dont-want-my-money-Internet-688679">terrible record</a> of <a href="http://greentree-servicing.pissedconsumer.com/">ripoffs</a>. Ocwen has been <a href="http://www2.kyeb.uscourts.gov/opin/wiseopin/09-2076%20Tolliver%20v.%20Bank%20of%20America%20and%20Ocwen.pdf">sued in state court</a> over its practices, including an <a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/sending%2520homeowners%2520a%2520check%2520for%2520$3.50,%2520and%2520claiming%2520that%2520cashing%2520the%2520check%2520automatically%2520enrolls%2520the%2520customer%2520in%2520an%2520appliance%2520insurance%2520plan,%2520which%2520costs%2520$54.95%2520a%2520month.">innovative scam</a> involving sending homeowners a check for $3.50, and claiming that cashing the check automatically enrolls the customer in an <a href="https://www.residentialmd.com/FAQs.27.34.lasso">appliance insurance plan</a>, which costs $54.95 a month.<br />
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Fitch, the credit rating agency, wrote in a <a href="http://www.fitchratings.com/gws/en/fitchwire/fitchwirearticle/U.S.-Banks-Give?pr_id=794879">research note</a> in June that the growth of non-bank servicers “may pose challenges to a potential orderly transfer of servicing,” and that the involvement of private equity firms “raises questions” about the ultimate endgame for these servicers. In effect, servicing has shifted from big banks to private equity and hedge funds, and neither really have the customer’s needs in mind.<br />
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Nationstar is no different in the non-bank servicer space. While the company <a href="http://californiamonitor.org/nationstar-to-honor-bank-of-americas-settlement-obligations-after-transfers/">promised California</a> that it would adhere to all settlement obligations on the servicing rights it purchases, the Sinclairs were subjected to familiar abuse. The family paid their mortgage on time since purchasing their home in 2003. Last year, they received a loan modification. But their servicer sold the rights to Nationstar, and Nationstar didn’t honor the modification. In June, the Sinclairs sent in their mortgage payment, and Nationstar sent it back in full. Then it sold the home. When questioned, Nationstar claimed the Sinclairs didn’t notarize one page of their modification, which turned out to be untrue.<br />
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It was a clear attempt to find an excuse to deny the modification and push the Sinclairs into foreclosure. Mortgage servicers actually make more money with foreclosures than with loan modifications, because of how their compensation structure works. Servicers load up various foreclosure fees on homeowners that they get to keep, and they get paid off first in a foreclosure sale. A loan modification simply cuts their percentage balance on the loan.<br />
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This is not Nationstar’s only scam. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which recently <a href="http://www.consumerfinance.gov/blog/the-cfpb-launches-its-nonbank-supervision-program/">started examining non-bank servicers</a>, put out a <a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/v">report this summer</a> on the illicit practices of these firms. CFPB found that servicers like Nationstar often failed to inform homeowners about the change in servicing rights when they are transferred, meaning that the homeowner kept paying the wrong servicer. This is a clever way to facilitate late fees; just don’t tell the customer where to send their money.<br />
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Servicers also delayed property taxes paid out of escrow accounts, making borrowers late on those taxes and triggering more delinquency fees; failed to refund insurance premiums and other fees due back to borrowers; did not communicate properly with borrowers in need of a loan modification; lost documents solicited from borrowers for that process and made it impossible to complete the applications; failed to even properly file documents associated with the transfer of servicing rights; and charged customers default fees “without adequately documenting the reasons for and amounts of the fees,” and neglected to waive certain fees or interest charges.<br />
<br />
CFPB also found that non-bank servicers like Nationstar had no comprehensive compliance management system in place to ensure that they followed all applicable consumer protection laws. Many didn’t even have formal, written policies or independent auditors. They hadn’t been subject to any examination prior to CFPB, so this stands to reason.<br />
<br />
Nationstar is <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-07/nationstar-mortgage-sued-in-new-york-by-investor-over-loan-sale.html">being sued</a> in New York’s Supreme Court for auctioning off non-performing loans that it would rather not service at a severe discount, shortchanging investors in the process. The company’s auction sales, made with an online auction company that its private equity parent firm has a “business affiliation” with, end up allowing Nationstar to recoup its take, with all the losses falling on the underlying loan owners. So Nationstar has managed to infuriate both sides of the mortgage deal, the lenders and the borrowers, with its unscrupulous practices.<br />
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Getting examiners inside these “specialty” companies is a start, and new servicer <a href="http://www.consumerfinance.gov/regulations/2013-real-estate-settlement-procedures-act-regulation-x-and-truth-in-lending-act-regulation-z-mortgage-servicing-final-rules/">rules coming from CFPB</a> in January would cover non-bank servicers as well. But no regulator has the resources to deal with such flagrant abuses. Mortgage servicing is a sewer, and it needs to be completely overhauled from the ground up. If Nationstar represents the future, then until it faces real penalties or an expulsion from the industry for its conduct, private property rights in America will have to be seen as theoretical. Just ask the Sinclairs.<br />
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<!--smart_paging_filter--><!--smart_paging_autop_filter--> <em>David Dayen is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, CA. Follow him on Twitter at @ddayen.</em></div>
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NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-76142999851013413252013-09-20T07:33:00.002-07:002013-09-20T07:33:50.593-07:00Homeowners vs. Big Bad Banks<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">THE AMERICAN PROSPECT</span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://prospect.org/article/homeowners-vs-big-bad-banks" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Homeowners vs. Big Bad Banks</a></span></h2>
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<a href="http://prospect.org/authors/david-dayen">David Dayen</a> </div>
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September 17, 2013</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Those defrauded by Bank of America aren’t allowed to file a collective complaint, thanks to a 2011 Supreme Court ruling.</span></h3>
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<span class="dropcap"><span>I</span></span>n<span style="font-family: inherit;"> June, six former employees of <span style="line-height: 1.53em;">Bank of America's</span><span style="line-height: 1.53em;"> loan-modification department </span></span><a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/06/18/bank_of_america_whistleblowers_bombshell_we_were_told_to_lie/" style="line-height: 1.53em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">testified in court</span></a><span style="line-height: 1.53em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> that since 2009, they had been instructed to lie to struggling homeowners, hide their financial documents, and push them into foreclosure. In the most egregious example, the employees said they were offered Target gift cards as a bonus for more foreclosures, which generated lucrative fees for the bank. The employees, who were in charge of implementing the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) at the bank, described the same deceptive practices across the country.</span></span><br />
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Two weeks ago, U.S. District Court Judge Rya Zobel <a href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCOURTS-mad-1_10-md-02193/pdf/USCOURTS-mad-1_10-md-02193-3.pdf">dismissed the case</a>, denying class-action certification to 43 homeowners in 26 states who suffered because of similar conduct. “Plaintiffs have plausibly alleged that Bank of America utterly failed to administer its HAMP modifications in a timely and efficient way,” Zobel agreed, adding that vulnerable homeowners had to wade through a “Kafkaesque bureaucracy,” and that the legal claims of missing documents, arbitrary denials, and deliberate misinformation “may well be meritorious.” But she would not grant class-action status because of differences in the individual cases. Homeowners are now free to pursue cases on their own, but the advantage of class-action suits is that they put expensive and burdensome litigation within reach for victims; if these homeowners had the money to sue powerful banks, they probably wouldn’t have needed a loan modification in the first place.<br />
<br />
A decade ago, homeowners may not have faced the same hurdles in litigation. But a more stringent test for class-action certification, formed by precedents reaching all the way to the Supreme Court, has become another tool for large corporations to resist accountability. Class-action suits can have a societal benefit, exposing systemic wrongdoing and bringing an end to it. But if nobody can acquire class-action status, the courthouse doors have been effectively shut to a large number of Americans.<br />
<br />
Without class actions, individuals face the hurdle of asymmetrical legal warfare, pitting a resource-constrained victim against a deep-pocketed corporation. And because individual damages are far lower than in a case affecting thousands or millions of people, it becomes difficult to find a lawyer willing to take the case. “Low-value claims mean a lot to individuals living paycheck to paycheck,” said Michelle Schwartz, an attorney at the Alliance for Justice, a progressive organization focused on the judiciary. “But banding together is the only way to get into court. A personal lawyer on a mission might take the case, but they would have to bankrupt themselves in order to do it.”<br />
<br />
The most dramatic example of how courts have restricted class-action suits is the 2011 Supreme Court ruling, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wal-Mart_v._Dukes"><em>Wal-Mart v. Dukes</em></a>. Led by former store-greeter Betty Dukes, 1.5 million women banded together to argue gender discrimination in pay and promotion policies at the world’s largest retailer. They pursued class-action status to sanction Wal-Mart because they could better show the reduced pay and fewer opportunities for advancement for women as a pattern and practice. “Standing on their own, you might not see the pattern, but when you see this has happened to hundreds or thousands—or in the case of Wal-Mart, 1.5 million people—you can make the case that it’s not an isolated incident,” says Schwartz.<br />
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<noscript>&amp;amp;lt;iframe id="4ea03cc6b7f8a" name="4ea03cc6b7f8a" src="http://ox-d.prospect.org/w/1.0/afr?auid=98717&amp;amp;amp;cb=INSERT_RANDOM_NUMBER_HERE" frameBorder="0" frameSpacing="0" scrolling="no" width="300" height="250"&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://ox-d.prospect.org/w/1.0/rc?cs=4ea03cc6b7f8a&amp;amp;amp;cb=INSERT_RANDOM_NUMBER_HERE"&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;img src="http://ox-d.prospect.org/w/1.0/ai?auid=98717&amp;amp;amp;cs=4ea03cc6b7f8a&amp;amp;amp;cb=INSERT_RANDOM_NUMBER_HERE" border="0" alt=""&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/iframe&amp;amp;gt;</noscript>But the Supreme Court reversed three lower-court rulings and <a href="http://www.salon.com/2011/06/20/supreme_court_sides_with_wal_mart/">denied class-action status</a> in <em>Wal-Mart v. Dukes</em>, essentially arguing that the retailer had discriminated against so many women that they couldn’t possibly have all faced the exact same type of marginalization. Moreover, the Court set a precedent that limits class-action certification. Whereas before, class-action certification mainly hinged on whether the claims boiled down to a common question—whether gender discrimination had occurred, for example—in the <em>Wal-Mart v. Dukes </em>ruling, the Court said plaintiffs must prove whether the commonality of those claims was the most important factor in the case. That required law firms to obtain evidence, previously confined to the discovery phase, showing that the similar nature of the claims was the most relevant factor in the case. This adds to the expense of the class action at the outset, and heightens the burden on the plaintiffs in order to get certification for a class-action suit.</div>
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This has led to predictable consequences. Circuit Courts of Appeal have <a href="http://afjjusticewatch.blogspot.com/2012/07/one-year-later-consequences-of-wal-mart.html">followed the <em>Wal-Mart</em> precedent</a>, denying class-action status in multiple cases. Class actions involving securities law <a href="http://www.law360.com/classaction/articles/425243/securities-class-action-settlements-hit-14-year-low-in-2012">hit a 14-year low</a> in 2012, and accounting class actions last year were <a href="http://www.law360.com/classaction/articles/431264/accounting-class-actions-plummeted-in-2012-report-finds">nearly cut in half</a>. In 2012, employers settled <a href="http://www.seyfarth.com/news/2129">fewer class-action discrimination suits</a> than at any time over the past decade, and the top ten settlements of the year totaled $48.65 million, compared with $346.4 million in 2010, before <em>Wal-Mart</em>. Meanwhile, the Wal-Mart women started pursuing claims 12 years ago, and none of them have had their day in court yet.<br />
<br />
In the <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-bankofamerica-mortgages-lawsuit-20130905,0,1654566.story">Bank of America case</a>, Judge Zobel determined that individual borrowers had to jump through so many hoops in the loan-modification process—certifying they lived in the residence and could not afford their monthly payments, documenting their income, making required trial payments, and potentially seeking credit counseling—that no two cases were similar enough to grant certification as a class. In other words, the very convoluted nature of the process at Bank of America <em>protected</em> the company from the suit. Additionally, Judge Zobel cited discrepancies on whether certain members of the class actually made their trial payments on time, turned in the correct documents, or lived in the homes being foreclosed upon, arguing that these inconsistencies would have to be litigated individually. But that grants tremendous discretion to the bank to simply muddy up the records (which they are in fact accused of doing) and evade class action on the larger question of denying eligible borrowers a loan modification. In a tragicomic example, Bank of America claimed that one plaintiff, Aissatou Balde, did not seek credit counseling when required; Balde claims that she never obtained credit counseling because the phone number Bank of America gave to her for their credit counselor was faulty.<br />
<br />
While the judge cited the proliferation of mortgage-related cases working through courts to argue that “individual plaintiffs are normally well-motivated to bring any claims they might have in order to save their homes,” the reality is that almost all of these plaintiffs don’t have the funds to pursue a case against Bank of America on their own.<br />
<br />
Zobel cited the <em>Wal-Mart</em> case near the end of her ruling to bolster her argument that “there is no commonality where plaintiffs did not suffer the same injury from the same practice.” But <em>Wal-Mart</em> is far from the only example of the Supreme Court limiting class-action cases. The 2011 ruling in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_Mobility_v._Concepcion"><em>AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion</em></a> allowed companies to make their customers sign contracts forcing any complaints to go through a “mandatory arbitration” process, taking away an individual’s right to sue whether alone or in a class action. <a href="http://classactionblawg.com/2013/06/20/supreme-court-says-arbitration-trumps-class-actions-once-again-in-amex-iii/">Numerous</a> other <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/comcast-v-behrend/">cases</a> have constrained class actions in recent years. “They’re creating an impenetrable fortress around corporations and the Supreme Court is helping them do it,” said Schwartz. As Elizabeth Warren noted in a speech last week at the AFL-CIO convention, a <a href="http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/EpsteinLanderPosner_MLR.pdf">recent study</a> found that the five conservative Justices are among the top ten most pro-corporate in the past 50 years, and that Justices Samuel Alito and John Roberts are numbers one and two. “Sooner or later, <span style="line-height: 1.53em;">you’ll end up with a Supreme Court that functions as a wholly owned subsidiary of big business,</span><span style="line-height: 1.53em;">” Warren said.</span><br />
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Class-action suits are an imperfect way to get restitution for a group of individuals. The real remedy to stop homeowners from being snookered by banks is for law enforcement to start throwing executives in jail. But class actions can bring to light systematic illegal activities and can lead to legitimate changes in corporate behavior. Reforms to the tobacco industry and auto safety have come from class actions. “They’re really acting as a private Attorneys General, bringing cases on behalf of the public, and it’s often a way you can bring an end to wrongdoing,” says Schwartz of the Alliance for Justice.<br />
<br />
Sadly, the actual attorney general has walked off the playing field when it comes to prosecuting financial fraud. In the Bank of America case, the ex-employees delivered a road map for what the company did and how they did it, even naming specific executives who directed the conduct and citing documentary evidence in the form of email communications. But it took victims attempting to certify a class-action suit, not a federal investigation, to bring these misdeeds to light. And because of the way in which big business has pushed the courts to their side, even that class action will amount to nothing.</div>
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NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-34502887070649078812013-08-06T21:38:00.000-07:002013-08-06T21:38:03.798-07:00Banks Continue To Flout Foreclosure Laws In Massachusetts<br />
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<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/08/05/2410861/banks-flout-foreclosure-law-massachusetts/">Banks Continue To Flout Foreclosure Laws In Massachusetts</a></h1>
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By <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/author/apyke/">Alan Pyke</a> on </span>
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Massachusetts homeowners continue to face wrongful foreclosures based
on improper documents, despite various multi-billion-dollar legal
settlements meant to end lender abuses nationwide. Housing attorneys in
the state<a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/08/04/despite-years-scrutiny-some-say-lender-still-routinely-violate-foreclosure-rules/zPlKV8NZQhNpXeh2QDp5mM/story.html"> say banks and lenders are flouting a state law</a>
providing struggling homeowners five months to get their repayments
back on track before the lender can initiate a foreclosure, as well as
frequently basing their foreclosure actions on faulty documents.<br />
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Massachusetts is one of <a href="http://www.mbaa.org/files/ResourceCenter/ForeclosureProcess/JudicialVersusNon-JudicialForeclosure.pdf">28 states</a> where foreclosures do not need final approval from a judge. State law requires banks to send something called a “<a href="http://www.mass.gov/ocabr/docs/dob/proposed209cmr56.pdf">right-to-cure notice</a>”
when a homeowner goes into default. The document includes information
on who actually owns the borrower’s mortgage, who the borrower should
contact, and what steps he or she must take to “cure” the default and
avoid foreclosure proceedings. But attorneys have found dozens of
examples of erroneous or missing information in the notices, the Boston
Globe reported on Sunday.<br />
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The Massachusetts Alliance Against Predatory Lending’s Grace Ross
said the organization’s review of a sampling of the notices showed “an
ongoing issue that the banks continue to disregard our laws.” Because
judges don’t need to sign off before authorities take a defaulted
borrower’s home in Massachusetts, errors in the legal notices don’t
always keep people in their homes.<br />
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A $25 billion settlement with the country’s largest banks in 2012 and a <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/01/07/1407351/banks-reach-85-billion-settlement-with-regulators-over-foreclosure-abuses/">subsequent $8.5 billion settlement</a>
from January were supposed to curb widespread wrongful foreclosures
based on erroneous documents. Investigators estimate roughly <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/09/foreclosure-review-errors_n_3045941.html">a quarter-million homeowners lost their houses thanks to improper foreclosures</a>
and that another 1.2 million had faced foreclosure proceedings based on
insufficient or incorrect documentation. But the independent auditor of
the national mortgage settlement <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/06/21/2193571/banks-are-failing-to-comply-with-the-terms-of-the-foreclosure-settlement/">says the banks continue to violate the terms of the deal</a> and received 60,000 separate borrower complaints in just six months from late 2012 to early 2013.<br />
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<li><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/tag/foreclosures/">Foreclosures</a></li>
<li><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/tag/massachusetts/">Massachusetts</a></li>
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<br />NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-66005906821272381272013-08-01T19:37:00.000-07:002013-08-01T19:40:16.232-07:00UPDATE: Occupy Homes Celebrates Fending Off Eviction<div class="logo">
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<a href="http://www.mintpressnews.com/with-banks-unwilling-to-help-victims-of-foreclosure-turn-to-unconventional-tactics/165734/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-large;">UPDATE: Occupy Homes Celebrates Fending Off Eviction</span></a></h2>
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<b>By <a href="http://www.mintpressnews.com/author/martin-michaels/" rel="author" title="Posts by Martin Michaels">Martin Michaels</a></b> | <span class="meta-prep meta-prep-author"></span> <a href="http://www.mintpressnews.com/with-banks-unwilling-to-help-victims-of-foreclosure-turn-to-unconventional-tactics/165734/" rel="bookmark" title="10:10 am"><span class="entry-date">July 31, 2013</span></a></div>
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<img alt="Supporters gather at the Occupy Homes event celebrating their fending off the first eviction attempt against the Ceballos home last week. (Photo/Mark R. Brown via Occupy Homes)" class="size-large wp-image-166255" height="386" src="http://mnpprodpublic.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/073113_OccupyHOmes1_16x9-690x386.jpg" width="690" /><br />
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Supporters
gather at the Occupy Homes event celebrating their fending off the
first eviction attempt against the Ceballos home last week. (Photo/Mark
R. Brown via Occupy Homes)</div>
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UPDATE: After successfully fending off the first eviction
attempt against the Ceballos home last week, Occupy Homes celebrated
Monday night with a concert and community gathering attended by 250
people.</div>
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<img alt="Brother Ali performs a set at the Occupy Homes event. (Photo/Mark R. Brown via Occupy Homes)" class="size-medium wp-image-166256" height="216" src="http://mnpprodpublic.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/073113_BrotherAli_-300x216.jpg" width="300" /><br />
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Brother Ali performs a set at the event. (Photo/Mark R. Brown via Occupy Homes)</div>
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Hip-hop artists<a href="http://brotherali.com/"> Brother Ali </a>and
Haphduzn performed at the celebration as participants geared up for the
ongoing defense of the property. The Ceballos family seeks a loan
modification from JPMorgan Chase, which the family says violated key
provisions of the national mortgage settlement.</div>
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The celebration follows a report from Occupy Homes that <a href="http://www.occupyhomesmn.org/">30 police officers</a>
attempted to evict occupants during an unannounced raid on the
property. Two were arrested, but the Ceballos family was able to retake
their home with the help of 75 community members who removed boards
after the officers left.</div>
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<b>Original article, “With Banks Unwilling To Help, Victims Of Foreclosure Turn To Unconventional Tactics,” from July 22:</b></h3>
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Last week, housing rights advocates in 15 U.S. cities delivered <a href="http://start2.occupyourhomes.org/petitions/mi-casa-es-tu-casa-my-home-is-your-home">10,000 petition signatures</a>
to Chase Bank branches demanding justice for Sergio Ceballos, a
Minneapolis resident who faces what advocates believe is an unjust
foreclosure proceeding.</div>
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Despite being one of five major banks to agree to the <a href="http://www.nationalmortgagesettlement.com/">$25 billion</a>
National Mortgage settlement last year, Chase continues to practice
“dual tracking,” a process in which the bank negotiates a loan
modification while carrying out foreclosure and eviction proceedings
against a homeowner. It’s one of many practices explicitly banned by the
settlement.</div>
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As the summer weather heats up across the U.S., so do the
actions in defense of besieged homeowners like Sergio, a father of
three.</div>
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Internationally recognized hip-hop artist <a href="http://brotherali.com/">Brother Ali</a> joined dozens in demonstrations this week both to defend the Ceballos home and to demand a change to Chase policies.</div>
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“We all know that something is very very wrong. We read in
the news about people losing their homes, we hear about people losing
their jobs, we hear about the common people getting more and more poor,
having less and less while the people at the top enjoy more — record
profits, record bonuses and all these things,” said Ali in a statement
to Mint Press News.</div>
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<b>Occupations heat up</b></h3>
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Ali has lent more than just his name to helping defend
homes in the Twin Cities. When he isn’t touring, Ali often speaks at
events, attends demonstrations and even got <a href="http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2012/06/22/local-rapper-brother-ali-arrested-at-occupy-protest/">arrested last year</a> while peacefully defending a home against foreclosure.</div>
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“When people open up their lives so that we can come and be
activists it’s something that does make a difference. We’ve seen a lot
of families fight and win,” Ali said. “There has been the Homeowners’
Bill of Rights. The legislators that passed that let us know that this
work was a huge motivation and helped a lot. If everyone knows that
there is a group of activists in the streets going to jail forcing the
issue, forcing banks to renegotiate it makes it easier to pass
legislation.”</div>
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Minneapolis passed a <a href="http://www.startribune.com/business/208756141.html">Homeowners’ Bill of Rights</a>
earlier this year joining California among just a handful of states and
cities to have laws protecting homeowners from predatory foreclosure
practices. The results have been dramatic in California, where
foreclosure proceedings have <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/home-front/2013/02/22/california-foreclosure-drop-too-good-to-be-true">dropped 75 percent</a> between January 2012 and February 2013, according to statistics from RealtyTrac.</div>
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Jonathan Ceballos, Sergio’s son, tells Mint Press News that
the ongoing battle dates back to 2010, when his father struggled to
obtain a loan modification after a divorce made it more difficult for
him to make payments.</div>
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“This battle has been going on since 2010, before we found
Occupy,” he said. “Once my parents got divorced, it was a little harder
for my dad to make payments. Right away we tried to get on board with
Chase and let them know that we needed a loan modification.”</div>
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Since then, the family has received the runaround, filing paperwork only to be told that the bank lost or misplaced papers.</div>
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“We’ve had to resend over and over,” Jonathan Ceballos
said. “We would speak to one person and every time it would be someone
else. This went on until now. At this point we are waiting for another
modification.”</div>
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This violates a key point of the national foreclosure
settlement, which stipulated that banks must maintain a single point of
contact for those who are trying to obtain a loan modification.</div>
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Things became more complicated when Sergio would request to speak to someone in Spanish, his native language.</div>
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“When my dad would call and I wasn’t around he would need
translation or something in Spanish, that wasn’t involved either, they
couldn’t help him out with that,” Jonathan Ceballos said.</div>
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Now, there is a round-the-clock presence in the home, with
sometimes 10 or more people who have barricaded themselves inside,
waiting for the police to arrive at any time to carry out an eviction.
Using non-violent resistance, supporters have moved a 1,500-pound barrel
filled with debris into the living room. They plan to lock themselves
to the barrel — slowing down any eviction or deterring it altogether.</div>
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<h3 dir="ltr">
<b>Occupy Homes rolls on reclaiming properties</b></h3>
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As the Ceballos family continues its battle with Chase, another home defense is occurring just down the street.</div>
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The home originally belonged to Michael McDowell’s
grandmother, who lost it when she lapsed into financial trouble. She and
her husband lived in the house for 10 years. McDowell is now one of
four people who have reclaimed the home.</div>
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“I just don’t want to see it go to waste. That’s why I have
people here occupying it, that’s why I’m moving in,” said McDowell to
Mint Press News.</div>
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Lawrence Lee, one of McDowell’s new roommates, was
connected with the house by Occupy Homes, which helped him find a decent
place to live after weeks on the street.</div>
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“I was sleeping outside in the streets for two weeks
straight. It was a little family dispute so I chose to sleep outside and
then my sister’s boyfriend hooked me up with the people to talk to and
from that I have been on my feet and going,” said Lee to Mint Press
News.</div>
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Moving poor and homeless into vacant or abandoned homes
sounds like a simple concept that would help solve an epidemic across
the U.S. With <a href="http://www.expressionoftruth.com/2013/05/35-million-homeless-and-185-million.html">18.5 million vacant homes</a>
across the U.S. and more than 3.5 million homeless, the solution to the
housing crisis appears self-evident, but it remains out of reach
because of current property laws.</div>
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McDowell and his fellow occupants say they are fixing up the property and pay utilities.</div>
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“We pay the utilities. I have the light bill in my name and
we have the water bill about to come in my name. We plan to pay taxes
on the house,” Lee said.</div>
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“We’re fixing up the house. We’ve done a lot of repairs on
the piping. We’ve got the water back on and the electricity because all
of that was turned off. We’ve done a lot so far,” said McDowell, a cafe
manager and an employee at his uncle’s catering business.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
A vacant home can be a blight to any neighborhood. Without
regular occupants, a property can fall into disrepair or become an area
that attracts crime. By moving into vacant homes, McDowell and his
friends appear to be killing two birds with one stone — reducing
homelessness while making good use of a property that would otherwise
have a negative presence in the community.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
“I think the neighborhood is loving it. The neighbors don’t want an abandoned house in the area,” Lee said.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
But instead of encouraging this type of positive community action, Lee reports that the police responded with hostility.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
“They dragged me out of the house starting being
disrespectful. The sergeant came up and told me that he wanted to kick
my butt and take me in the alley and beat me up and all this,” he said.
“I thank everyone for helping me out. If it wasn’t for them I don’t know
where I would be. I could be dead, in the hospital, or whatever. I have
three kids to live for so I’m just trying to do it for my kids.”</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
Minneapolis police arrived and issued two trespassing
citations Wednesday. Minutes later, a local elected official had the
citations thrown out, according to Nick Espinosa, an Occupy Homes
spokesperson.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
A study by the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless found more than <a href="http://www.mnhomelesscoalition.org/homes-for-al/history/">13,000 homeless people</a> across the state in 2009.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_165735" style="width: 700px;">
<img alt="Protesters marched for International Workers Day on May Day in Minneapolis, Minn. (Photo/Fibonacci Blue via Flickr)" class="size-large wp-image-165735" height="387" src="http://mnpprodpublic.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/072013_OccupyHOmes_16x9-690x387.jpg" width="690" /><br />
<div class="wp-caption-text">
Protesters marched for International Workers Day on May Day in Minneapolis, Minn. (Photo/Fibonacci Blue via Flickr)</div>
</div>
NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-71038197274416194062013-08-01T11:04:00.002-07:002013-08-01T11:04:46.124-07:00 10 Million Americans Have Had Their Homes Taken Away by the Banks -- Often at the Point of a Gun<br />
<br />
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<h3>
<span class="white">Investigations </span>
</h3>
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<div class="region region-content">
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<h3>
<span class="field field-name-field-sources field-type-node-reference field-label-hidden"><span class="field-items"><span class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/">TomDispatch</a></span></span></span> / <em>By</em> <em><a href="http://www.alternet.org/authors/laura-gottesdeiner">Laura Gottesdeiner</a></em></h3>
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</span><h2>
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<h2 class="node-title">
<a href="http://www.alternet.org/investigations/10-million-americans-foreclosed-neighborhoods-devastated?paging=off" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-large;">10 Million Americans Have Had Their Homes Taken Away by the Banks -- Often at the Point of a Gun</span></a></h2>
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<div class="teaser">
<div class="field field-name-field-teaser field-type-text-long field-label-hidden">
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<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Against
all odds, and continued predatory Wall Street behavior, community
activists are working to reclaim devastated neighborhoods.</span></h3>
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<cite>Photo Credit: Frontpage/Shutterstock.com</cite></div>
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<div class="story-date">
<em><span class="field field-name-field-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"><span class="field-items"><span class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single" content="2013-08-01T08:01:00-07:00">August 1, 2013</span></span></span></span>
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<br />
<div>
We
cautiously ascend the staircase, the pitch black of the boarded-up
house pierced only by my companion’s tiny circle of light. At the top of
the landing, the flashlight beam dances in a corner as Quafin, who
offered only her first name, points out the furnace. She is giddy; this
house -- unlike most of the other bank-owned buildings on the block --
isn’t completely uninhabitable.</div>
<div>
</div>
It had been vacated, sealed, and
winterized in June 2010, according to a notice on the wall posted by
BAC Field Services Corporation, a division of Bank of America. It
warned: “entry by unauthorized persons is strictly prohibited.” But Bank
of America has clearly forgotten about the house and its requirement to
provide the “<a href="http://www.occ.treas.gov/news-issuances/bulletins/2011/bulletin-2011-49.html" target="_blank">maintenance and security</a>”
that would ensure the property could soon be reoccupied. The basement
door is ajar, the plumbing has been torn out of the walls, and the
carpet is stained with water. The last family to live here bought the
home for $175,000 in 2002; eight years later, the bank claimed an
improbable $286,100 in past-due balances and repossessed it.<br />
<br />
It’s
May 2012 and we’re in Woodlawn, a largely African American neighborhood
on the South Side of Chicago. The crew Quafin is a part of dubbed
themselves the HIT Squad, short for Housing Identification and Target.
Their goal is to map blighted, bank-owned homes with overdue property
taxes and neighbors angry enough about the destruction of their
neighborhood to consider supporting a plan to repossess on the
repossessors.<br />
<br />
“Anything I can do,” one woman tells the group after
being briefed on its plan to rehab bank-owned homes and move in
families without houses. She points across the street to a sagging,
boarded-up place adorned with a worn banner -- “Grandma’s House Child
Care: Register Now!” -- and a disconnected number. There are 20
banked-owned homes like it in a five-block radius. Records showed that
at least five of them were years past due on their property taxes.<br />
<br />
Where
exterior walls once were, some houses sport charred holes from fires
lit by people trying to stay warm. In 2011, two Chicago firefighters
died trying to extinguish such a fire at a vacant foreclosed building.
Now, houses across the South Side are <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/magazine/how-chicagos-housing-crisis-ignited-a-new-form-of-activism.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank">pockmarked with red Xs</a>, indicating places the fire department believes to be structurally unsound. In other states -- <a href="http://fox6now.com/2013/07/18/kenosha-firefighters-police-respond-to-60th-ave-14th-st/" target="_blank">Wisconsin</a>, <a href="http://www.startribune.com/local/east/111685209.html" target="_blank">Minnesota</a>, and <a href="http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/02/27/house-explodes-in-hempstead-long-island/" target="_blank">New York,</a> to name recent examples -- foreclosed houses have taken to exploding after bank contractors forgot to turn off the gas.<br />
<br />
Most
of the occupied homes in the neighborhood we’re visiting display small
signs: “Don’t shoot,” they read in lettering superimposed on a child’s
face, “I want to grow up.” On the bank-owned houses, such signs have
been replaced by heavy-duty steel window guards. (“We work with all
types of servicers, receivers, property management, and bank asset
managers, enabling you to quickly and easily secure your building so you
can move on,” <a href="http://www.dawgsinc.com/markets/reoforeclosure/" target="_blank">boasts</a> Door and Window Guard Systems, a leading company in the burgeoning “building security industry.”)<br />
<br />
The
dangerous houses are the ones left unsecured, littered with trash and
empty Cobra vodka bottles. We approach one that reeks of rancid tuna
fish and attempt to push open the basement door, held closed only by a
flimsy wire. The next-door neighbor, returning home, asks: “Did you know
they killed someone in that backyard just this morning?”<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>The Equivalent of the Population of Michigan Foreclosed</strong></span></h3>
<br />
Since
2007, the foreclosure crisis has displaced at least 10 million people
from more than four million homes across the country. Families have been
evicted from colonials and bungalows, A-frames and two-family
brownstones, trailers and ranches, apartment buildings and the
prefabricated cookie-cutters that sprang up after World War II. The
displaced are young and old, rich and poor, and of every race,
ethnicity, and religion. They add up to approximately the entire
population of Michigan.<br />
<br />
However, African American neighborhoods
were targeted more aggressively than others for the sort of predatory
loans that led to mass evictions after the economic meltdown of
2007-2008. At the height of the rapacious lending boom, <a href="http://www.responsiblelending.org/mortgage-lending/research-analysis/Lost-Ground-2011.pdf">nearly 50%</a> of all loans given to African American families were deemed “subprime.” The New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/business/19credit.html">described</a> these contracts as “a financial time-bomb.”<br />
<br />
Over
the last year and a half, I traveled through many of these
neighborhoods, reporting on the grassroots movements of resistance to
foreclosure and displacement that have been springing up in the wake of
the explosion. These community efforts have proven creative, inspiring,
and often effective -- but in too many cities and towns, the landscape
that forms the backdrop to such a movement of hope is one of almost
overwhelming destruction. Lots filled with “Cheap Bank-Owned!” trailers
line highways. Cities hire contractors dubbed “Blackwater Bailiffs” to
keep pace with the dizzying eviction rate.<br />
<br />
In recent years, the
foreclosure crisis has been turning many African American communities
into conflict zones, torn between a market hell-bent on commodifying
life itself and communities organizing to protect their neighborhoods.
The more I ventured into such areas, the more I came to realize that the
clash of values going on isn’t just theoretical or metaphorical.<br />
“Internal
displacement causes conflict,” explained J.R. Fleming, the chairman of
the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign. “And there’s no other country in the
world that would force so much internal displacement and pretend that
it’s something else.”<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Evictions at Gunpoint </strong></span></h3>
<br />
It was three in the morning when at least a dozen police cruisers <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/155292/dozens_of_police_evict_georgia_family_at_gunpoint_at_3am" target="_blank">pulled up</a> to
the single-story, green-shuttered house in the African American Atlanta
suburb where Christine Frazer and her family lived. The precise number
of sheriffs and deputies who arrived is disputed; the local radio
station reported 25, while Frazer recalled seeing between 40 and 50.<br />
<br />
A locksmith drilled off the home’s locks and dozens of officers burst into the house with flashlights and handguns.<br />
<br />
“Who’s
in the house?” they shouted. Aside from Frazer, a widow with a vocal
devotion to the Man Above, there were three other residents: her
85-year-old mother, her adult daughter, and her four-year-old grandson.
Things began to happen fast. Animal control rounded up the pets.
Officers told the women to get dressed. Could she take a shower? Frazer
asked. Imagine there’s a fire in your house, the officer replied.<br />
<br />
“They came to my home like I was a drug dealer,” she <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/155292/dozens_of_police_evict_georgia_family_at_gunpoint_at_3am" target="_blank">told reporters later</a>.
Over the next seven hours, the officers hauled out the entire contents
of her home and cordoned off the street to prevent friends from helping
her retrieve her things.<br />
<br />
“I have no idea where some of my jewelry
is, stuff I bought when I was 30 years old,” said Frazer. “I am
sixty-three. They just threw everything everywhere, helter-skelter on
the front lawn in the dark.”<br />
<br />
The eviction-turned-raid sparked
controversy across Atlanta when it occurred in the spring of 2012, in
part because Frazer had a motion pending in federal court that should
have stayed the eviction, and in part because she was an active
participant of Occupy Homes Atlanta. But this type of militarized
reaction is often the outcome when communities -- especially those of
color -- organize to resist eviction.<br />
<br />
When Nicole Shelton
attempted to move back into her repossessed home in a picket-fence
subdivision in North Carolina, the Raleigh police department <a href="http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/organizing-against-bank-of-america-in-enemy-territory-2/" target="_blank">sent</a> in
more than a dozen police officers and an eight-person SWAT team.
Officers were equipped with M5 submachine guns. A helicopter roared
overhead. In Boston, one organizer with the community group City
Life/Vida Urbana remembers the police acting so aggressively at an
eviction blockade in a Haitian neighborhood that the grandmother of the
family <a href="http://www.alternet.org/activism/boston-rapper-takes-his-most-violent-enemy-yet-wall-street" target="_blank">had a heart attack</a> right in the driveway.<br />
<br />
And
sometimes it doesn’t require resistance at all. On the South Side of
Chicago, explained Toussaint Losier, a community organizer completing
his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, “They bust in the door, and it’s
at the point of a gun that you get evicted.”<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Exiles in America</strong></span></h3>
<br />
There
have been widespread foreclosures -- and some organized resistance --
in predominately white communities, too. Kevin Kirkman, captain of the
civil division of the Lee County sheriff’s office, explained, “I get so
many [eviction] papers in here, it’s unbelievable.”<br />
<br />
<a href="http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/37/37105.html" target="_blank">More than 75%</a> of
the residents in North Carolina’s Lee County are whites. But Kirkman
still sees the ripple effects of mass foreclosure here. “You’re talking
about a mudslide where a lot of things are affected. You’re talking
about taxes, about retail sales if people move, about food services,
about gasoline. You see what I’m talking about? When you lose a family
in the community? Some people leave the community. I have seen people
leave the state of North Carolina.”<br />
<br />
He added, “I’m going be honest with you, my feeling is that I would not do these evictions.”<br />
<br />
Still,
the difficulties white America has faced during the foreclosure crisis
don’t compare with what Wall Street and the banks have inflicted,
physically and psychologically, on African American neighborhoods. As
countless leaked documents, <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/gmac-mortgage-whistleblower-foreclosure" target="_blank">insider dispositions</a>, and Department of Justice filings <a href="http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/December/11-ag-1694.html" target="_blank">demonstrate</a>,
those neighborhoods were systematically and illegally targeted for the
worst of the worst mortgages. As one former Wells Fargo mortgage broker <a href="http://www.nclc.org/images/pdf/unreported/paschal-decl-balt.pdf" target="_blank">explained</a> in
a sworn affidavit, “The company put ‘bounties’ on minority borrowers.
By this I mean that loan officers received cash incentives to
aggressively market subprime loans in minority communities.”<br />
<br />
This
pushing of predatory loans was all the more insidious because these same
communities had been starved of mortgages for decades as a result of
the Federal Housing Authority’s refusal to guarantee loans in
communities of color. As Mike Fannon, development associate for the
Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit,
explained, “The same banks that denied capital now injected too much
toxic capital and decimated the local economy.”<br />
The effect, according to a 2012 National Fair Housing Alliance <a href="http://www.nationalfairhousing.org/Portals/33/the_banks_are_back_web.pdf" target="_blank">report</a>,
has been “the largest loss of wealth for these communities in modern
history.” Between 2009 and 2012 African Americans lost just under $200
billion in wealth, bringing the gap between white and black wealth to a <a href="http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/07/26/wealth-gaps-rise-to-record-highs-between-whites-blacks-hispanics/" target="_blank">staggering 20:1 ratio</a>.<br />
There
is also a longer trajectory of racial exclusion at play here, a history
that makes the foreclosure crisis yet another chapter in an epic and
enduring quest for home. From enslavement to sharecropping, redlining to
restrictive covenants, the United States has too often been an
inhospitable land for people of color. Fifty years ago, Martin Luther
King echoed W.E.B. Dubois in declaring that the African American still
"finds himself in exile in his own land.” Today, it’s hard not to see
that reality painted across the 2010 census data, where the maps
measuring the concentration of vacant houses and the maps measuring the
concentration of African Americans, while not exactly the same, are
uncomfortably close to a match.<br />
<br />
As Ben Austen <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/magazine/how-chicagos-housing-crisis-ignited-a-new-form-of-activism.html" target="_blank">wrote</a> in
the New York Times Magazine, “The U.S. Postal Service, which tracks
these numbers, reported that 62,000 properties in Chicago were vacant at
the end of last year, with two-thirds of them clustered as if to form a
sinkhole in just a few black neighborhoods on the South and West
Sides.” The same phenomenon holds true in cities across the country. And
once a house is empty in such neighborhoods, all too often, no one is
moving back in.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Crime Starts at the Top</strong></span></h3>
<br />
“There
were feces in the basement, urine, rolled-up carpet,” said Thomas
Turner, a housing activist in Chicago describing the inside of a
foreclosed home, once owned, according to neighbors, by an 80-year-old
man. Under the ownership of the Pittsburgh-based bank PNC, Turner
explained, “It was abandoned for six years, so squatters and strippers
had punched holes in the walls. There was no toilet, no tub, all the
kitchen cabinets were torn out. The bedroom looked like someone had
taken a sledgehammer and just started swinging… I still see gang members
on the front porch or rolling up real slow in the car.”<br />
<br />
Another
Chicago resident, Erica Johnson, described a vacant home similarly.
“There were clothes, books, broken dressers, little white drug bags,
used condoms,” she said. “It was a little drug house, and they were
probably bringing their girls up in here.”<br />
<br />
Some foreclosed homes become brothels, such as a Deutsche Bank-owned house in South Los Angeles where the girls’ <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/155734/banks_booting_families_and_leaving_homes_to_rot:_a_tour_of_blighted_homes_in_los_angeles?paging=off" target="_blank">names and prices </a>were scrawled in blue marker across the upstairs walls. Others become meth labs or gang hideouts.<br />
<br />
These
bank-owned vacant houses help spread crime and poverty in already
distressed communities -- a reality that became obvious to me when I
accompanied Dorian Morris, a certified building inspector, on one of his
surveys of the vacant homes on the north side of Minneapolis. Signs on
nearly every home advertised the severity of the housing crisis in this
area: neon green “no trespassing” stickers on boarded-up foreclosed
homes and red “stand together, stop foreclosure” posters on places
supporting Occupy Homes Minneapolis. On more than a dozen lots, the only
indication that a family once lived there was a skinny red metal rod
marking the spot where a razed house once stood.<br />
<br />
As in other
hard-hit African American neighborhoods across the country, residents
here had organized to stop bank-pursued evictions from stripping the
value from the community. Neighborhood support had, for instance, helped
a mother named Monique White beat her eviction in a <a href="http://www.startribune.com/business/150109495.html" target="_blank">highly publicized six-month</a> battle
against US Bank only weeks before I arrived. Still, the never-ending
evictions were eating away at the stability of the neighborhood.<br />
“That’s
a known crack house,” said Morris, as he pointed at a brick structure
less than 100 meters away from a neighborhood park. More than half the
homes within sight were boarded up with plywood. Within five minutes, we
had passed two former residences he identified as current drug houses
and a handful more that he said had already been raided by the police
-- all foreclosed homes where families used to live.<br />
<br />
As we drove,
we discussed the illegal chain of events that transformed these homes
into drug dens. The crimes started at the top. Banks peddled toxic
mortgages like crack, paying employees cash incentives to push them in
African American neighborhoods. The loans <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/us/07baltimore.html" target="_blank">exploded</a>, so they <a href="http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/gmacs-robo-signers-draw-concerns-about-faulty-process-mistaken-foreclosures" target="_blank">forged</a> millions of foreclosure affidavits to speed state-enforced evictions.<br />
<br />
Once
homes are vacant, bank contractors insufficiently seal and maintain
them, allowing intruders to strip the houses of their copper wiring,
plumbing, and sometimes even the furnace. The copper alone sells for
anywhere from 50 cents to a dollar per pound. Finally, people dealing
drugs begin to use the houses at night as distribution centers. The
street-level crime drags down neighboring property values, spurring more
foreclosures and evictions. And so the cycle continues.<br />
<br />
Banks are
legally obligated to maintain and market their foreclosed properties,
but they often shirk those responsibilities -- especially in communities
of color. In an investigation of more than 1,000 homes across the
country, the National Fair Housing Alliance <a href="http://www.nationalfairhousing.org/Portals/33/the_banks_are_back_web.pdf" target="_blank">found</a> that
bank-owned homes in communities of color were more likely than homes in
white neighborhoods to have graffiti and peeling paint on the exterior,
trash and dead leaves strewn across the sidewalk, unsecured locks on
the doors, and be missing “for sale” signs on their front lawns.<br />
<br />
Foreclosed
houses in such neighborhoods were also 80% more likely to have a broken
or boarded-up window, and 30% more likely to have trash on the front
lawn. After a lawsuit, Wells Fargo <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/wells-fargo-settles-complaint-on-foreclosed-homes/2013/06/06/18e55954-ce24-11e2-9f1a-1a7cdee20287_story.html?hpid=z9" target="_blank">paid $42 million</a> to
settle charges of racially discriminatory maintenance; there’s scant
evidence to suggest the practice has changed since. Cities have
increased fines levied against banks that don’t maintain their houses,
but not a single bank has been held accountable for drug dealing,
murders, and rapes that occur on their unmaintained or poorly maintained
properties. The only “crime” they appear concerned about is when
community activists try to fix up such homes and move families in --
doing the job the bank was supposed to do in the first place. Then banks
call the police to arrest the “trespassers.”<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Sacrifice Zones</strong></span></h3>
<br />
The
double standards in property maintenance lead to an “extremely
troubling” trend in home sales: these uninviting neglected houses,
disproportionately located in communities of color, are most often being
snapped up by investors rather than families. Overwhelmingly, the
investor of choice is the Blackstone Group, one of the world’s largest
private equity firms and now the nation’s largest owner of single-family
homes. Since April 2012, Blackstone has <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/100701436" target="_blank">spent more than $4.5 billion</a> buying
at least 30,000 houses concentrated in cities hard-hit by foreclosure,
including Atlanta, Jacksonville, Orlando, Chicago, Charlotte, Phoenix,
and urban areas across California. <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/05/02/uk-vegas-housing-specialreport-idUKBRE9410IS20130502" target="_blank">According to</a> local real estate brokers, the company often makes its purchases in cash.<br />
<br />
The
idea is that there’s big money to be made in rental properties these
days, given that there are millions of displaced, former homeowners with
wrecked credit scores looking for places to stay. It’s like a
pay-to-play game of musical chairs -- except Wall Street owns the
stereo, the speakers, the chairs, and the roof, and somehow when the
music stops you’re always out.<br />
<br />
Vacant houses, whether owned by
banks or Blackstone, create foreclosure spirals, each vacant house
dragging down the property values of neighbors, which, in turn,
decreases a city’s property tax revenue and the capacity of local
government to provide essential services. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/education/despite-protests-chicago-closing-schools.html%5D" target="_blank">Shuttered schools</a> in Philadelphia and Chicago. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/07/health/07care.html" target="_blank">Closed hospitals</a> in Cleveland. <a href="http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1991-11-27/news/9113012532_1_nursing-home-services-to-seniors-transportation-funding" target="_blank">Slashed senior programs</a> in
Baltimore. All of these essential services, eliminated far more often
in communities of color, are the collateral damage of the foreclosure
crisis.<br />
<br />
A <a href="http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d1234.pdf" target="_blank">2011 report</a> by
the U.S. Government Accountability Office, submitted to the House
Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, cited nearly a dozen examples of how
such declines in tax revenues caused by vacancies have led cities to
cut funding for public works, libraries, parks, recreation programs, and
school districts. One city even cut a program intended to address
vacant foreclosed properties, thanks to a tax revenue shortfall.<br />
<br />
The final dystopian outcome of this spiral is what journalist Naomi Klein<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0312427999/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" target="_blank">famously termed</a> the
shock doctrine: a crisis is pushed so far that it finally justifies
dramatic outside intervention (read: privatization). It’s the type of
outcome we’re currently seeing in Michigan, where, according to a <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175731/tomgram%3A_laura_gottesdiener%2C_the_backyard_shock_doctrine/%5Bhttp://www.aclu.org/files/assets/adkins_v__morgan_stanley_mtd_op_2.pdf">court ruling</a>last
week, "Detroit’s recent bankruptcy filing only emphasizes the broader
consequences of predatory lending and the foreclosures that inevitably
result." That city may be undergoing the largest municipal bankruptcy
in U.S. history, but unlike when the big banks and giant financial
outfits teetered at the edge of collapse, President Obama has <a href="http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/07/11/white-house-obama-aware-of-detroits-financial-crisis/" target="_blank">made it clear</a> that this time there will be no billion-dollar federal bailout.<br />
<br />
“With
the mass displacement, it ends up being a situation where people are
just like, ‘Well, we’ll just have to bulldoze those homes,’” Chicago
organizer Toussaint Losier told me. “They become sacrifice zones rather
than places where people bring imaginative solutions.”<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Shield and the Sword</span></h3>
<br />
Small
groups of community organizers are shouldering the Herculean task of
protecting such neighborhoods abandoned by the federal government.<br />
<br />
“Look,
if you want to take our home, it’s an act of war,” explains Losier, so
his group’s response is, metaphorically, “the sword and the shield.”
It’s a strategy he learned from the Boston anti-foreclosure group City
Life/Vida Urbana. The shield represents the exceedingly modest legal
protection afforded to people under a judicial system that assigns more
rights to the banks than them -- and allows <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/25/business/neither-admit-nor-deny-settlements-draw-judges-scrutiny.html?_r=0" target="_blank">no-guilt settlements</a> for the powerful caught flagrantly breaking the law. (In the case of foreclosure crimes, see for example the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/business/us-settlement-reported-on-countrywide-lending.html" target="_blank">$335 million </a>Bank of America discrimination settlement in 2011, the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/business/states-negotiate-25-billion-deal-for-homeowners.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank">$26 billion</a> robo-signing settlement in 2012, and the <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/government_programs/jan-june13/housing_01-07.html" target="_blank">$8.5 billion</a> settlement over wrongful foreclosures in 2013.)<br />
<br />
The
sword represents actions -- from petitions to eviction blockades --
aimed at stopping evictions and repairing neighborhoods. And yes, there
is a life-size, fabricated sword-and-shield set at the City Life office
in Boston. First-time attendees of the group’s weekly meetings must
hoist the sword over their heads and assert that they are willing to
fight for their homes. “Then we will fight with you!” the rest of the
group cheers.<br />
<br />
Across the country, communities of color deploy
these two strategies, and a third that could be called “the paintbrush”:
creative tactics aimed at building something new amid the devastation.
In Detroit and Philadelphia, neighborhoods are seeding community gardens
in hundreds of vacant lots. In Boston, one set of community activists
cleaned up their block and dumped the trash -- gathered from the front
lawn of a foreclosed Bank of America-owned home -- on the doorstep of
the regional bank president’s brownstone.<br />
<br />
In Minnesota and
California, grassroots political organizing pressured state legislatures
to adopt the nation’s first two homeowner bills of rights. A Barclays <a href="http://www.dsnews.com/articles/impact-of-california-homeowner-bill-rights-on-foreclosures-2013-04-15" target="_blank">report later complained</a> that
“servicers have become significantly more cautious when carrying out
foreclosure sales” as a result of the legislation. In Chicago, home
liberation groups are rehabbing and occupying vacant properties, while
anti-violence groups are intervening in the conflicts caused by poverty
and mass displacement.<br />
<br />
Both of the foreclosed Chicago houses that
Thomas Turner and Erica Johnson described as being filled with feces,
used condoms, and drugs are now clean, painted, and occupied. Turner
even stenciled small purple birds on the walls of the one he worked on.
But the continued scale of the crisis -- forgotten by a media more
interested in <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/us-home-prices-rise-122-percent-best-years-19813376" target="_blank">rising home values</a> than
eviction notices -- requires more than community rehab and tepid
financial regulation. It demands that we question, and reimagine, a
system of property ownership that has prevented large segments of the
population from making real decisions about the communities in which
they live. And in case you’re thinking that this is a problem only for
Black America, think again. As the<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/business/banks-revive-risky-loans-and-mortgages.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0" target="_blank"> New York Times warned</a>in
April, “The alchemists of Wall Street are at it again… reviving the
same types of investments that many thought were gone for good.”<br />
<br />
The
question is whether, this time around, we’ll see their potion for what
it is: poison that threatens to turn each of us, as W.E.B. Dubois wrote,
into “an outcast and a stranger in my own house.”<br />
<blockquote>
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<em style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', helvetica, arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">Laura Gottesdiener is a journalist, social justice activist, and author of </em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1884519210/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" style="color: #9b3921; font-family: 'Times New Roman', helvetica, arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">A Dream Foreclosed: Black America and the Fight for a Place to Call Home</a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', helvetica, arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">,</span><em style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', helvetica, arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">published this month by </em><em style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', helvetica, arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">Zuccotti Park Press. She is an associate editor for Waging Nonviolence, and she has written for </em><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', helvetica, arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">Rolling Stone</span><em style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', helvetica, arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">, </em><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', helvetica, arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">Ms.</span><em style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', helvetica, arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"> magazine, the</em><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', helvetica, arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">Arizona Republic</span><em style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', helvetica, arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">, AlterNet, and other publications. This is her first</em><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" style="color: #9b3921; font-family: 'Times New Roman', helvetica, arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><em>TomDispatch</em></a><em style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', helvetica, arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"> piece. She lived and worked in the People’s Kitchen during the occupation of Zuccotti Park.</em><br />
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NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-79034861260387731512013-07-02T14:49:00.002-07:002013-07-02T20:34:37.557-07:00Murky Language Puts Homes Underwater<h2>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://prospect.org/article/murky-language-puts-homes-underwater" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Murky Language Puts Homes Underwater</a></span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Banks around the country are exploiting a loophole to foreclose on homes that shouldn't be in the crosshairs.</span> </h3>
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Revelations from Bank of America whistleblowers show <a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/06/18/bank_of_america_whistleblowers_bombshell_we_were_told_to_lie/">widespread and ongoing abuse of homeowners</a> seeking loan modifications to avoid foreclosure. Customer service representatives were told to lie about pending modifications and were given bonuses for pushing homeowners into default. The allegations mirror continued complaints about “dual tracking,” a practice where mortgage servicers pursue foreclosure while deciding whether or not to grant a loan modification. Servicers at the five biggest banks were required to pay $25 billion in fines and agree to dozens of new guidelines to curb these abuses as part of last year’s National Mortgage Settlement. While the banks argue that they have fixed any outstanding problems, a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/business/economy/monitor-finds-lenders-failing-terms-of-settlement.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0">recent report</a> from the settlement’s oversight monitor, Joseph Smith, showed continuing violations in several key areas, though not to the degree that <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/19/national-mortgage-settlement-monitor_n_3463180.html">housing advocates claim</a>.<br />
<br />
This discrepancy between homeowner complaints and bank pleas of innocence can perhaps be explained by a gap in the settlement’s dual-tracking language, which mirrors other state and federal rules for servicers. The restrictions state that servicers cannot pursue foreclosure once a homeowner turns in a “completed” application for a loan modification. However, the rules do not meaningfully define “completed.” Does this mean the initial delivery of forms and financial documents? Do all documents have to be authorized by the bank? What if documents are lost? What if servicers are missing just one piece of information? It sounds wonky, but banks have exploited these ambiguities for financial gain, and it has led to people losing their homes.<br />
<br />
Katherine Porter, a law professor at UC-Irvine and the monitor chosen by California’s Attorney General to oversee the mortgage settlement in the Golden State, has written a <a href="http://californiamonitor.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/FINAL-June-19-Complete-App-Monitor-Report.pdf">white paper</a> on the problem. “The path to becoming ‘complete’ often requires dozens of back-and-forth communications between homeowners and banks,” Porter writes. “It drags on for months, creating uncertainty and frustration and putting families at risk of foreclosure.”<br />
<br />
A typical loan-modification application includes a standard form, authorization for the release of tax returns, and documents showing evidence of income, like recent pay stubs or a profit-loss statement. Banks require financial documents from homeowners to determine what would make an affordable modified mortgage payment. If a homeowner has a straightforward financial situation, with a single employer and relatively few outside sources of income, collecting financial documents is relatively easy. But lots of people have complex income situations—second jobs, income from renters on their properties, small businesses. The more multifaceted the income sources, the more information a bank will require.<br />
<br />
Porter’s report tells the story of “Peggy B.,” who lost her home to foreclosure last November. Peggy was in the process of collecting documents when her home was sold. The bank told her that the sale would be postponed while she complied with requests for documents, but they sold the home anyway. Porter’s office contacted the bank, and “it informed us that Peggy’s application was missing documents at the time of the sale … because her application was not complete, the bank had not violated the dual-tracking protections in the settlement.”<br />
<br />
This is not just a problem with the mortgage-settlement standards, but virtually all dual-tracking rules on mortgage servicers. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) servicing rules define a “completed” application as “when a bank receives all the information that the bank requires.” This puts the discretion in the hands of the bank to decide when an application is completed. CFPB states the bank must use “reasonable diligence” to obtain the documents it needs, another term with significant wiggle room.<br />
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California enacted a new “Homeowner’s Bill of Rights” this year, which bans dual tracking when an application is completed, defining that as “when the homeowner sends in all the documents required by the bank within a reasonable amount of time.” But that doesn’t fully define “reasonable,” and doesn’t account for back-and-forth on documents with missing information, or lost documents. The legislative analysis from the Homeowner’s Bill of Rights does say it would be unreasonable for banks to file a notice of foreclosure in California during the timeframe it takes for the homeowner to collect documents. But that’s not in the statutory language that banks are required to follow, and courts have not yet ruled on the matter<strong>. </strong>Additionally, banks have been accused of deliberately misplacing documents to delay the modification process. It’s unclear whether that would even violate CFPB or California dual-tracking rules.<br />
<br />
Game-playing like this allows banks to ignore modification timelines, while technically staying within the law. Plus, continuing to pursue foreclosure means servicers can increase their profits—by endlessly delaying modifications, servicers can keep their staffs lean, reducing labor costs. And <a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ten-miles-square/2013/02/new_rules_against_mortgage_ser042915.php">servicer compensation provides an incentive to foreclose</a> over modifying a loan, because they can add on foreclosure fees, and because in a foreclosure sale, losses flow to the owners of the homes, rather than the servicers.<br />
<br />
Porter has an elegant solution for this problem, which she describes as a “gap” rather than a loophole. Her proposal would provide protection from foreclosure for any homeowner who turns in the three standard documents—the application for modification, authorization to release tax returns, and “evidence of income"—as long as they respond to this request within 30 days. Servicers would have to pause their foreclosure process as they collect and verify the documents they need, and make a decision on whether to offer a modification. This would especially help homeowners with complex incomes or language barriers, who might need more time to examine and understand all the document components involved. And Porter would include restrictions on homeowners making serial modification requests and never completing the documents, just to stay out of foreclosure.<br />
<br />
“This would give incentive to the bank to make people complete,” Porter said in an interview. If servicers could not pursue foreclosure while processing a modification request, she believes, they would act diligently to acquire all necessary documents and make a decision. That’s not currently the case; bank communications with borrowers are often sloppy and confusing, with homeowners unable to decipher the bank’s requests. Porter thinks this change in incentives would go far to clean up the process. “When banks are motivated to get people to respond to their requests, they’re really good at it. Their refinance requests are very streamlined. If the incentives were better aligned, banks would bring their expertise to the problem.” Porter includes in the white paper sample document request letters from banks to homeowners that would make things easier for understand. Banks don’t tell homeowners in a timely manner when specific documents are received and complete, or what is wrong with documents already submitted, and Porter would add a recordkeeping worksheet to the process as well.<br />
<br />
Since California enacted the Homeowner’s Bill of Rights this January, servicers in the state, initially wary of testing the law, are pausing their foreclosure pursuits upon initiation of the modification process<strong>, </strong>and keeping them paused as homeowners complete their applications. Despite protests from banks that they could not reasonably stop foreclosures around the country for that long a period, “they’re doing it in California and the world has not ended,” Porter said. Referring to other states like Florida, where the law requires banks to start the foreclosure process over from scratch rather than “pausing,” Porter replied, “We should not let one state’s struggle with the foreclosure system define substantive protections.”<br />
<br />
Porter believes that state and federal regulators could reopen servicing standards to define “completed” and realign incentives for banks. Officials overseeing the National Mortgage Settlement are <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/19/national-mortgage-settlement-dual-tracking_n_3468307.html">in discussion with banks</a> over making these changes, though because it’s a settlement rather than a court order, they must negotiate with the banks to get sign-off on the proposed new rules. The CFPB could do a technical amendment to their servicing rules to revisit the definition; they would have to go through a public comment phase and would take several months to adopt. Finally, other states could follow California’s lead, and go further, by more rigidly defining a “completed” application. Minnesota had the first chance to do this with their own Homeowner’s Bill of Rights, but they left the “completed” definition vague as well<strong>. </strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
Without changes, banks are likely to continue to string along borrowers with relative impunity. As long as they never complete the application, the foreclosure protections for homeowners never have to kick in. This serves as a lesson for financial regulators—every word in a rule matters. Even “completed.”</div>
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NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-38613083889949602102013-05-28T07:05:00.000-07:002013-05-28T07:05:09.050-07:00Critics say Michigan foreclosure bills seek to 'get people out of their homes quicker'<br />
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LANSING,
MI -- Michigan homeowners could have more time to avoid foreclosure but
less time to reverse it under legislation moving quickly through the
state legislature.<br />
<br />
The Senate Banking and Financial Institutions
Committee on Thursday approved a four-bill package, introduced one day
earlier by a group of Republican lawmakers, that would extend a
pre-foreclosure negotiation period allowing residents to seek loan
modifications but shorten a post-foreclosure redemption window allowing
them to retain or short sell their homes.<br />
<br />
The bills now head to the full Senate for consideration.<br />
<br />
Supporters
say a quick fix is needed because the state's mandated negotiation
period is set to expire at the end of June, but critics believe reducing
the redemption period could result in more Michigan residents losing
their homes and damaging their credit as the state continues to emerge
from a prolonged foreclosure crisis.<br />
<br />
"This is so inconsistent and
going in the wrong direction of federal policies, where the concern is
to do everything you can to keep homeowners in their homes," Lorray
Brown, a statewide foreclosure specialist with the Michigan Advocacy
Project, said in testimony before the committee on Thursday. "And here
we are in Michigan, trying to get people out of their homes quicker." <br />
Senate Bills <a href="http://legislature.mi.gov/doc.aspx?2013-SB-0380">380-382</a>,
sponsored by Sens. Randy Richardville of Monroe, Mike Nofs of Battle
Creek and Jim Marleau of Lake Orion, would extend the state's 90-day
negotiation period, which is set to expire at the end of June, through
January 10. That's when new federal regulations kick in mandating a
120-day period, which would allow additional time for homeowners to seek
loan modifications or other agreements with their lender in an attempt
to avoid foreclosure.<br />
<br />
Senate Bill <a href="http://legislature.mi.gov/doc.aspx?2013-SB-0383">383</a>,
sponsored by Sen. Darwin Booher of Evart, would shorten Michigan's
post-foreclosure redemption period by 120 days -- from six months to two
months -- providing residents with less time to pursue a short sale or
reclaim their home by paying off outstanding fees after it is placed in
foreclosure and sold at a sheriff's auction.<br />
<br />
While the foreclosure crisis hit Michigan early and hard, numbers are now trending in the right direction. The state saw <a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130411/BIZ/304110334">fewer than half</a> as many foreclosures in March of 2013 than it did in March of 2012. Still, Michigan totaled roughly <a href="http://www.corelogic.com/about-us/news/corelogic-reports-55,000-completed-foreclosures-in-march.aspx">70,000 foreclosures</a> during that 12-month period, more than all but two other states.<br />
<br />
Booher,
who chairs the committee and worked in Michigan banks before entering
politics, said the proposal is appropriate because the state's
foreclosure rate is slowing, and with federal regulations mandating a
longer negotiation period, it makes sense to shorten the redemption
period. All told, he pointed out the entire process -- from a missed
mortgage payment to loss of a home -- could still take more than 200
days to complete.<br />
<br />
"I believe this is the right time and the right
policy for Michigan," Booher said. "I believe that this really isn't a
shortening of the foreclosure process, but rather a shift in our time
frame."<br />
<br />
The bills are tie-barred together, meaning that none will
take effect unless all four are approved by the legislature and signed
by the governor, frustrating some who would support the pre-foreclosure
provisions but strongly oppose the shortened redemption period.<br />
<br />
"This
is really a sad situation," Neeta Delaney, head of the Michigan
Foreclosure Task Force, told MLive earlier Thursday. "It was a very
political, strategic move on the part of the legislators who are pushing
it. It's frustrating to tie those three bills to something else that is
so drastic."<br />
<br />
Booher said it is important to move quickly on the
bills because state law mandating the 90-day negotiation period expires
in June but the federal regulations do not take effect until early
January. Michigan lawmakers are expected to begin their summer break on
June 13, he said, meaning the bills would have to move through both
chambers in the next few weeks.<br />
Michigan banks and credit unions
widely support the package, pointing to the wide scope of pending
federal regulations and their own pro-active efforts to work with
borrowers.<br />
<br />
"We have little to no redemptions during the redemption
period," said Kieran Marion, vice president of governmental affairs for
the Michigan Credit Union League. "We have very little people taking
advantage of the 90-day process on the front end. We do a lot of work
with our borrowers to try to keep them in their homes, and that's
probably a result of that."<br />
<br />
Local lenders aren't the problem,
according to Democratic Sen. Jim Ananich of Flint, who said that
Michigan banks and credit unions are generally willing to work with
owners to keep them in their homes.<br />
<br />
"My problem is with the
bigger folks that it's impossible to get on the phone," said Ananich,
who cast the lone "no" vote against SB 383. "When I had a Bank of
America loan -- I was trying to pay if off, I wasn't even in the
foreclosure process -- it took me three weeks to get someone on the
phone.<br />
<br />
"I feel like we're dealing with folks that are doing the
right thing, and we're letting off the folks that are hurting a lot of
citizens across the state and across the country."<br />
<br />
Booher,
pointing to his own experience in the profession, said banks that do
everything right during the pre-foreclosure negotiation period, which
would be extended to 120 days, should not be "penalized" by having to
wait another six months to take possession of a property after they have
foreclosed. During that window, he argued, some residents neglect or
damage homes they are not intending to fight for.<br />
<br />
"People tear up
those homes," he said. "They destroy it, or somebody does. Whether or
not they've left the home, those buildings are being destroyed and
causing the value of my property to go down. So that additional 120
days, I've got to be convinced is worth having on the end of this during
the foreclosure process."<br />
<br />
But shortening the redemption period
would do little to deter outgoing homeowners intent on defacing their
property, according to Brown, who said other states have taken a more
direct approach by allowing banks to take possession of a home, with a
court order, if it is significantly damaged during the foreclosure
process.<br />
<br />
"If someone's inclined to destroy the property, they'll
do as much as they can in two months," she said. "So we have to look at
what is the most effective policy to address that issue. That's not done
with a blanket reduction of the redemption period."<br />
<br />
Underwater
homeowners are increasingly using the redemption period to negotiate a
short sale, which requires lender approval to sell their home for less
than they owe on the mortgage. Banks lose money in the process, while
the homeowners avoid significant damage to their credit and a
neighborhood can be spared a vacant home.<br />
<br />
Short sales can often
take six months to complete, according to Kathy Persha, a real-estate
agent in Metro Detroit who specializes in helping homeowners facing
foreclosures. She said that reducing the redemption period to only two
months would prohibit some residents from being able to find a buyer and
get lender approval to sell their home once it enters foreclosure.<br />
<br />
"It's
a joke," she said. "With some of the new rules that came out last
October, we thought the process would happen a lot quicker. Instead,
everyone I've talked to in this business have all said the same thing:
the time frame has gotten much longer for short sales. And some banks
would rather not approve short sales and just take the property back."<br />
<br />
Michigan
Senate Bills 380-383 now head to the full Senate for consideration.
Booher said he plans to meet with interested and concerned parties in
hopes of fine-tuning the legislation in coming weeks.<br />
<br />
<em>Jonathan Oosting is a Capitol reporter for MLive Media Group. <a href="mailto:joosting@mlive.com">Email him</a>, find him on <a href="https://plus.google.com/108539362806179261481">Google+</a> or follow him on <a href="http://twitter.com/jonathanoosting">Twitter</a>.</em><br />
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NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-19403002363286625992013-05-27T18:42:00.000-07:002013-05-27T18:42:46.565-07:00This Week in Poverty: Homeowners Take the Foreclosure Fight to the DOJ<br />
<a href="http://www.thenation.com/"><img id="logo-main" src="http://www.thenation.com/sites/default/themes/thenation/images/logo-main.gif?v=3" /></a><br />
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<img class="author-image" src="http://www.thenation.com/sites/default/files/GregKaufmann_100.jpg" /><br />
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<b><a href="http://www.thenation.com/blogs/greg-kaufmann">Greg Kaufmann</a></b>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Poverty in America: people, politics and policy.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/174528/week-poverty-homeowners-take-foreclosure-fight-doj" title="This Week in Poverty: Homeowners Take the Foreclosure Fight to the DOJ">This Week in Poverty: Homeowners Take the Foreclosure Fight to the DOJ</a></span></h2>
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<div class="byline">
<a href="http://www.thenation.com/authors/greg-kaufmann">Greg Kaufmann</a> <span class="timestamp"><abbr class="published" title="2013-05-24T10:07:04-14400">on May 24, 2013 - 10:07 AM ET</abbr></span></div>
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<img alt="" src="http://www.thenation.com/sites/default/files/user/238199/banks_doj_kaufmann_img.jpg" style="height: 397px; width: 615px;" /><br />
<em>Protesters mobilize at Freedom Plaza. Credit: Greg Kaufmann.</em><br />
<br />
<br />
Gisele Mata of Whittier, California, never considered herself a
political activist. Other than making some calls on behalf of President
Obama during the 2012 campaign, her focus was on her work, family,
church and volunteering as a Girl Scout troop leader.<br />
<br />
But on Monday morning at Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC, she was
ready to march to the Department of Justice, where she would risk arrest
in order to save her family’s home and stand up for other people facing
foreclosure.<br />
<br />
“Banks are doing extreme things to get people out of their homes, so
it requires extreme action,” Mata told me. “I wouldn’t be here except
the banks are not being monitored so we have to stand up as citizens.
They are getting away with acts of inhuman behavior and the Justice
Department is not reacting.”<br />
<br />
Mata was among 500 activists from across the country who came to the
nation’s capital to “Bring Justice to Justice”—participating in three
days of action organized by <a href="http://www.homedefendersleague.org/">Home Defenders League</a> and <a href="http://occupyourhomes.org/">Occupy Our Homes</a>.
They were calling for the criminal prosecution of banks for ongoing
illegal activity, including illegal foreclosures; and for resetting
mortgages to a property’s fair market value for the <a href="http://allianceforajustsociety.org/4592/national-report-released-today-on-racial-inequity-in-foreclosure-crisis/">more than 13 million homeowners</a> still at risk of foreclosure.<br />
<br />
Mata and her family have been in their home for more than ten years.
Their struggle began in 2009 when she and her husband were laid off from
their jobs in retail and engineering, respectively. They survived by
cashing out on their 401(k)s and working in low-wage jobs.<br />
<br />
“We didn’t have any problems until last year,” she said, when they no
longer could afford both their home and food for their family of five.
So Mata and her husband requested a mortgage modification from Bank of
America.<br />
<br />
“We asked them to tack on what we owed to the principal, and to give
us the going interest rate because we still have a high rate,” she said.
“We aren’t even asking for a principal reduction. Plus we’re both
working, we have equity in our home—but they still refuse.”<br />
<br />
Her eldest daughter is now working as a massage therapist. Her
husband is again employed as an aircraft parts quality inspector—for $13
an hour, compared to the $19 hourly wage he previously earned—and Mata
earns commissions as a sales representative for an energy company. But
the high interest payments they are paying force them to choose between a
roof over their head or food for the family.<br />
<br />
“Right now we’re choosing the roof and getting food from our church
in order to make payments on the mortgage,” she said. “And we go to the
99 cent store and buy Top Ramen [noodles] and tuna fish. That’s pretty
much how we make it.”<br />
But even as the Matas continue to make their payments, <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/05/06/new-york-to-sue-bank-of-america-and-wells-fargo-over-settlement-violations/">Bank of America</a>
continues to push for foreclosure. Her dealings with the bank in an
effort to get a modification tell a story that is now all too familiar
in this country.<br />
“Negotiating means paperwork multiple times over and over again,” she
said. “As soon as you get it in they switch your point-of-contact and
then you have to start over again. And as many times as they ask is how
many times you do it, or else they won’t consider you for the
modification. No one is holding them accountable.”<br />
<br />
Ann Haines of St. Paul, Minnesota, was also ready to get arrested
after experiencing an even more extreme nightmare in dealing with <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/173795/week-poverty-banks-got-nowhere-run-baby">US Bank</a>.
She had lived in her home with her three sons for thirteen years, and
was struggling to meet a monthly mortgage payment that had risen from
$800 to $1300.<br />
“I work in intake at a methadone program,” she said. “I see people at
their lowest and my nature is to help. So I was foolishly thinking that
by asking the bank for help I would get it.”<br />
<br />
Instead, what she got was US Bank telling her to stop making payments
for three months so she would be eligible for a modification, followed
by the bank sending her the wrong modification application. She then
arrived home one day to find her locks changed and a realtor going out
her back door. The bank proceeded with a sheriff’s sale.<br />
<br />
“It was terrifying and you don’t know what to do,” said Haines.<br />
<br />
Legal Aid was able to stop the sale of her home, since the bank
admitted it had sent her the wrong modification application and
foreclosed while she was still in underwriting—a process known as “dual
tracking.” (This is now barred under the California Homeowners’ Bill of
Rights and the just-passed <a href="http://www.mnfaireconomy.org/2013/05/minnesota-house-passes-the-homeowners-bill-of-rights-on-bipartisan-vote-of-123-0/">Minnesota Homeowners’ Bill of Rights</a>.)<br />
<br />
“But what really inspired me to fight was the attorney for US Bank
sitting across from me in court and saying, ‘The only negotiation US
Bank is willing to do right now is to get her out,’ ” said Haines. “He
didn’t have enough courage to look at me, but he said it.”<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #bf0e15; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;">
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Haines hooked up with <a href="http://www.occupyhomesmn.org/">Occupy Homes MN</a> and traveled last month to the US Bank shareholders meeting in <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/173795/week-poverty-banks-got-nowhere-run-baby">Boise, Idaho</a>, to confront CEO Richard Davis.<br />
“Two days later the eviction case was magically closed,” said Haines.<br />
She described herself as “elated” that she no longer fears losing her
home at any moment. But she still felt the need to be in Washington,
DC, to support other struggling homeowners.<br />
<br />
“I don’t want to be arrested, jail is scary for me,” she said. “But
I’m willing to do it to show that this is serious. There are too many
people going through this, and the banks have to be held accountable. If
I did something wrong they would hold me accountable.”<br />
<br />
Cammy Dupuy of Gonzales, Louisiana, isn’t affiliated with any
particular group—she had learned about the action in recent weeks on the
Internet. She was also prepared for arrest, though not particularly
looking forward to it.<br />
“I’m really nervous and scared to go to jail,” said Dupuy. “But if
that’s what it takes to let people know they’re not alone—the shame
shouldn’t be put on people.”<br />
<br />
Since 2006, Dupuy’s mortgage has had so many different banks and loan
servicers attached to it that the trail is dizzying. As a result, she
has had her paperwork lost as servicers change, not been provided new
mailing addresses for payments, fought off two sheriff’s sales and even
received modification “offers” that would have had her paying
double-digit interest rates and waiving her right to sue for the
mishandling of her note.<br />
<br />
Throughout her struggle, Dupuy has found herself alone.<br />
<br />
“The thing about Louisiana, nobody talks about foreclosures, and they
don’t put signs out in people’s yards like in other states, so they
really keep it from the public,” she said. “But I’ve been pulling up the
sales on my local sheriff’s website and every month there are quite a
bit just in my parish alone.”<br />
Dupuy said a lot of people are “just walking away because they don’t know what to do.”<br />
<br />
“I’m tired of feeling alone. I want people in Louisiana to start
talking about it, start standing up, start doing something,” said Dupuy.
“The people in Louisiana fear the law. But if all of us come together
and take a stand then fear shouldn’t be a problem.”<br />
<br />
By the end of the day on Monday, Mata was arrested on the steps of
the Department of Justice along with sixteen other nonviolent activists.
(The nonviolence by activists didn’t translate to nonviolent arrests by
Homeland Security officers, who used <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1XA33qI4XI&feature=youtu.be">tasers</a>.)
The demonstrators had set up an encampment and also blocked traffic
along a very busy Constitution Avenue. Mata and others didn’t give their
names when booked—they didn’t want this to be just another routine
booking and quick release—so she was held until Tuesday evening.<br />
<br />
“I told them I was [Bank of America CEO] Brian Moynihan,” said Mata,
and many of the other demonstrators who were arrested used the names of
bank CEOs as well.<br />
<br />
Dupuy was arrested along with six other homeowners Wednesday morning
while blocking the lobby entrance to Covington & Burling—a prominent
international law firm that has represented JP Morgan Chase, Bank of
America, UBS and other major banks. Haines was one of the demonstrators
blocking the entrance too, but because she was on the outside of the
building, police just removed her from the space.<br />
<br />
In addition to representing the large banks, organizers said the law
firm epitomizes the “revolving door” between serving government and
serving Wall Street’s interests, noting that Attorney General Eric
Holder was a partner at Covington & Burling before coming to the
DOJ, and former Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer left his post in
March to become vice chair of the firm.<br />
For three straight days, these homeowners and their supporters—mostly
low-income people of color—demonstrated what it means to personally
sacrifice for the good of others, to move beyond hopeful words to deeds
and actions.<br />
I hope that those of us who seek change feel their urgency, and will follow their lead to take more and greater action—together.<br />
<div style="margin-top: 34px;">
<strong>Victories in Minnesota: Progressive Budget and Homeowners Bill of Rights</strong></div>
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According to Carol Nieters, executive director of SEIU Local 284, in
1971, Minnesota Governor Wendell Anderson called education equity—poor
school districts that were struggling—and high property taxes “the issue
of our time.”<br />
The state legislature responded by creating a “general education
levy” that equalized and created dedicated funding for schools, and also
lowered property taxes.<br />
<br />
“It went forward like that for like the next four decades,” said
Nieters. “It put Minnesota in a place to be a premier state in
education.”<br />
<br />
But then along came Governor Jesse “The Body” Ventura who
body-slammed the levy, and Governor Tim Pawlenty who presided over
nearly a decade of disinvestment from schools and taking from school
appropriations to plug other holes in the budget.<br />
<br />
“As a result, we’ve now got ten or eleven four-day school districts,
and other than core curriculum, everything else is cut out—arts, music,
in some cases languages,” said Nieters.<br />
<br />
But this week the state reaffirmed its commitment to education. At a
time when so many states are opting to close schools that primarily
serve low-income students, Minnesota passed a budget that closes
corporate tax loopholes and increases education funding and equity.<br />
<br />
The 2013 budget erases the state’s $627 million budget deficit,
raises the income tax by 2 percent on the wealthiest 2 percent of
Minnesotans, raises $424 million by closing corporate tax loopholes and
reduces property taxes by $400 million.<br />
The budget uses new revenues to make key investments in education,
including: fully funding optional, all-day kindergarten; increasing
special education funding by $236 million; and importantly, passing <em>two</em> levies that will make funding for <em>all</em> school districts more reliable, while also providing additional resources to local districts with the greatest need.<br />
<br />
“This budget gets to equity in education <em>and</em> reduces property taxes,” said Nieters. “Over four decades later we are doing the same thing we did right in 1971.”<br />
<br />
She said the budget was achieved by the union and its progressive
allies reaching out to groups all across the state that were pursuing a
“common interest of stronger communities [through] an educated society
and workforce.” They began organizing prior to the 2012 election with a
message that wealthy individuals and corporations must pay their fair
share in order to strengthen education. Many Democrats ran on that
platform, and the party picked up enough seats to win majorities in both
the House and Senate.<br />
<br />
After the election, the grassroots coalition kept the pressure on the
newly elected legislators to follow through on their commitments. In
the last few months alone, there were thousands of calls, visits,
letters and e-mails to representatives, and a “Students’ Day” for
parents and children at the Capitol, with students from kindergarten
through high school attending.<br />
<br />
The budget was passed Monday night by the legislature, and Democratic Governor Mark Dayton signed it into law yesterday.<br />
<br />
“We engaged organizations all over the state—and we can make a
difference if we do that,” said Nieters. “The voice of the people can be
heard over the folks with the money. But you gotta get out there.”<br />
<br />
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On Sunday, the Minnesota House of Representatives passed the <a href="http://www.mnfaireconomy.org/2013/05/minnesota-house-passes-the-homeowners-bill-of-rights-on-bipartisan-vote-of-123-0/">Homeowners’ Bill of Rights</a> by a bipartisan 123-0 vote. The Senate passed a companion bill last week, so now it just awaits Governor Dayton’s signature.<br />
<br />
The bill protects homeowners through a number of provisions,
including: requiring loan servicers to offer modifications to all
eligible homeowners; banning “dual tracking,” which occurs when a bank
forecloses on a homeowner before communicating a decision on a loan
modification application; and allowing homeowners to take the servicer
to court to stop foreclosure if the servicer fails to comply with any
aspect of the Homeowners’ Bill of Rights. (Also important, lawyer’s fees
and court costs would be covered if the homeowner proves his or her
case.)<br />
<br />
Ann Haines, the homeowner from St. Paul interviewed in the DOJ story
above, testified along with other homeowners at a House hearing on the
bill in January.<br />
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<strong>Democrats and the Farm Bill</strong></div>
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I always expect the worst from the House Republicans when it comes to
SNAP (food stamps) and the Farm Bill. So while much attention and anger
has been focused on the <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/174391/congress-ready-fight-over-deep-food-stamp-cuts">$20.5 billion cut</a>
proposed by the House Agriculture Committee—which would take food
stamps away from nearly 2 million people and result in several hundred
thousand low-income children no longer receiving free school meals—my
reaction was more along the lines of… yeah, what did you expect?<br />
I was actually more disturbed that the Democratic Senate Agriculture
Committee would vote for a $4.1 billion cut in food stamps—even though
the average benefit is about <a href="http://www.nokidhungry.org/problem/hunger-facts">$1.46 per person, per meal</a>, and a recent Institute of Medicine <a href="http://frac.org/frac-statement-new-iom-report-outlines-steps-to-address-benefit-adequacy/">report</a> demonstrates that benefit levels are already too low to stave off hunger. The cut “would mean <a href="http://www.nyccah.org/node/1590">$90 less a month</a> for 500,000 families already struggling to make ends meet,” according to <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/173050/week-poverty-how-obama-can-fight-hunger-now">Joel Berg</a>,
executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger. Berg
noted that an amendment by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand would have
prevented the SNAP cuts “by instead cutting subsidies for crop insurance
companies, many of which are foreign owned.”<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, the committee failed to pass Senator Gillibrand’s
amendment, and Senate Democrats proved yet again that the party’s
commitment to those who are the most economically vulnerable is about as
thin as Republican cut proposals are deep.<br />
<br />
But the party outdid itself on Wednesday when the Farm Bill was
debated on the Senate floor. As Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
president Robert Greenstein <a href="http://www.offthechartsblog.org/senator-vitter-offersand-senate-democrats-accept-stunning-amendment-with-racially-tinged-impacts/">describes</a>:<br />
<blockquote>
Senator David Vitter offered—and Senate Democrats
accepted—an amendment that would increase hardship and will likely have
strongly racially discriminatory effects. [It] would bar from SNAP, for
life, anyone who was ever convicted of one of a specified list of
violent crimes at any time—even if they committed the crime decades ago
in their youth and have served their sentence, paid their debt to
society, and been a good citizen ever since…. The amendment would [also]
mean lower SNAP benefits for their children and other family members.
So, a young man who was convicted of a single crime at age 19 who then
reforms and is now elderly, poor, and raising grandchildren would be
thrown off SNAP, and his grandchildren’s benefits would be cut…. Senator
Vitter hawked his amendment as one to prevent murderers and rapists
from getting food stamps. Democrats accepted it without trying to modify
it to address its most ill-considered aspects.<br />
</blockquote>
Antipoverty advocates suggest <a href="http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm">contacting your senators</a>—particularly
Harry Reid, Debbie Stabenow and Richard Durbin—to tell them that you
oppose this provision. They suggest doing it as soon as possible since
it’s unclear how quickly the Farm Bill will move.<br />
<br />
You might also suggest to them that the party check Lost and Found for its spine, too.<br />
<div style="margin-top: 34px;">
<strong>But at Least We Have Congresswoman Barbara Lee</strong></div>
<div style="margin-top: 34px;">
<strong></strong></div>
Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer introduced
the Half-in-Ten Act of 2013, which would establish the Federal
Interagency Working Group on Reducing Poverty. The working group would
develop and implement a national strategy to reduce poverty by half in
ten years, integrating federal policies on poverty reduction, and also
provide regular progress reports to Congress.<br />
<br />
“Our policies and programs addressing poverty have not kept pace with
the growing needs of millions of Americans,” said Congresswoman Lee,
who chairs the new Democratic Whip Task Force on Poverty and Opportunity
and consistently represents the interests of low-income Americans. “It
is time we make the commitment to confront poverty head-on, create
pathways out of poverty and provide opportunities for all.”<br />
<br />
I would imagine this bill has about as much a shot at passing the
House as this blog has at becoming Speaker Boehner’s favorite bedtime
reading. Nevertheless, I’m always thankful for Representative Lee—I’m
glad the Democratic whip is supporting her efforts—and it’s always
worthwhile to keep up with her work and listen to what she has to say.<br />
<div style="margin-top: 34px;">
<strong>And That Goes for Senator Bernie Sanders, Too</strong></div>
<div style="margin-top: 34px;">
<strong></strong></div>
Senator Bernie Sanders, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on
Primary Health and Aging, introduced legislation yesterday to
reauthorize and strengthen the Older Americans Act, which supports Meals
on Wheels and other critical programs for seniors such as in-home care,
transportation, benefits access, caregiver support, chronic disease
self-management, job training and placement and elder abuse prevention.<br />
<br />
“With 10,000 Americans turning 65 every day, our country’s growing
population of seniors includes many who rely on these critical programs
to help them stay in their own homes and communities,” said Sanders,
speaking at an Older Americans Summit.<br />
<br />
Funding has not kept pace with the growth in need or numbers, and
recent cuts before the sequester hit have further eroded investments in
key services.<br />
In a letter endorsing Senator Sanders’s bill, National Council on
Aging president and CEO James Firman writes that the legislation “can
empower seniors and improve their health and economic security, bend
downward the long-term entitlements cost curve, and promote greater
program efficiency and coordination.”<br />
<br />
The bill would also require the Bureau of Labor Statistics to create a
consumer price index for the elderly that would account for spending on
high-inflation goods and services like healthcare, prescription drugs
and heating homes.<br />
<div style="margin-top: 34px;">
<strong>Get Involved</strong></div>
<div style="margin-top: 34px;">
<strong></strong></div>
<a href="http://action.sumofus.org/a/ciw-wendys/?sub=taf">Wendy’s: Join the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Fair Food Program</a><br />
<a href="http://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4023/c/48/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=7062&track=2013MAY30_take5">Hold Sallie Mae accountable for its role in the student debt crisis</a><br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2578008506186209311">Protect Federal Nutrition Programs and SNAP in the Farm Bill</a><br />
<a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/174273/week-poverty-twelve-things-you-can-do-fight-poverty-now">12 Things You Can Do to Fight Poverty</a><br />
<div style="margin-top: 34px;">
<strong>Events</strong></div>
<br />
<strong><em>A Bold Approach to the Jobs Emergency </em></strong>(Tuesday, June 4, 8:30 <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">am </span>– 4 <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">pm</span>,
20 F Street NW Conference Center, Washington, DC) We have a US jobs
emergency. More than 11 million Americans are still out of work, and the
austerity push is only making matters worse. States have been forced to
implement deep cuts to emergency unemployment benefits even though
almost 40 percent of the unemployed have been jobless for more than six
months. Great panels—with great people—on how to create good jobs and
raise labor standards. Among the participants: Dean Baker, Maya Wiley,
Ellen Bravo, Sarah Bloom Raskin, Nona Willis Aronowitz, Dorian Warren,
Annette Bernhardt, Ai-Jen Poo, Gar Alperovitz, Joseph Geevarghese,
Madeline Janis and Deepak Bhargava. Presented by the Roosevelt
Institute. <a href="http://jobsemergency.eventbrite.com/">Register here</a>.<br />
<br />
<strong><em>2013 Mississippi on the Potomac Reception</em></strong> (Tuesday, June 4, 6:30 <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">pm </span>– 8:30 <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">pm</span>, AFL-CIO, 815 16th Street, NW, Washington, DC) The event marks the tenth anniversary of the <a href="http://www.mscenterforjustice.org/about-center/mission">Mississippi Center for Justice</a>,
a not-for-profit public interest legal organization that works against
the odds to provide legal assistance to some of the most vulnerable and
neglected communities in Mississippi, the poorest state in the country.
For more information about the reception, contact Lauren Welford at
601-709-0859 or <a href="mailto:lwelford@mscenterforjustice.org">lwelford@mscenterforjustice.org</a>, or <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2578008506186209311">click here </a>to sponsor the event or purchase individual tickets.<br />
<div style="margin-top: 34px;">
<strong>Clips and other resources </strong>(<em>compiled with James Cersonsky</em>)</div>
<div style="margin-top: 34px;">
</div>
“<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gabriela-abendano/why-i-am-fasting-to-keep-_b_3281625.html">Why I Am Fasting to Keep Families Together</a>,” Gabriela Abendano<br />
“<a href="http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2013/05/16/improving-how-domestic-workers-and-their-employers-settle-disputes/">Improving How Domestic Workers and Their Employers Settle Disputes</a>,” Sheila Bapat<br />
“<a href="http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/snap-rolls-theyre-elevated-for-a-reason/">SNAP Rolls: They’re Elevated for a Reason</a>,” Jared Bernstein<br />
“<a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/174401/what-you-should-know-about-philly-student-walkout">What You Should Know About the Philly Student Walkout</a>,” James Cersonsky<br />
“<a href="http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/15029/florida_farmworkers_take_fair_food_fight_to_manhattan/">Farmworkers Fight Wendy’s, the ‘Last Holdout’ on Fair Food</a>,” Michelle Chen<br />
“<a href="http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/15039/top_democrats_low_wage_federal_contractors/">Top Democrats React to Low-Wage Federal Workers’ Strike</a>,” Mike Elk<br />
“<a href="http://www.equalvoiceforfamilies.org/one-communitys-effort-to-take-back-its-schools/">One Community’s Effort to Take Back its Schools</a>,” Equal Voice News<br />
“<a href="http://www.epi.org/publication/ongoing-joblessness-michigan-unemployment/?utm_source=Economic+Policy+Institute&utm_campaign=e9f41e1514-EPI_News&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e7c5826c50-e9f41e1514-55947661">Ongoing Joblessness in Michigan</a>,” Mary Gable and Douglas Hall<br />
“<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/business/legal-experts-debate-us-retailers-risks-of-signing-bangladesh-accord.html">U.S. Retailers See Big Risk in Safety Plan for Factories in Bangladesh</a>,” Steven Greenhouse<br />
“<a href="http://www.offthechartsblog.org/senator-vitter-offersand-senate-democrats-accept-stunning-amendment-with-racially-tinged-impacts/">Senator Vitter Offers—and Senate Democrats Accept—Stunning Amendment With Racially Tinged Impacts</a>,” Robert Greenstein<br />
“<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/05/brookings-report-suburban-poverty-charts">Poverty Flees to the Suburbs</a>,” Josh Harkinson<br />
“<a href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/cepr-blog/young-college-graduates-economic-implications-of-unpaid-internships">Young College Graduates: Economic Implications of Unpaid Internships</a>,” Will Kimball<br />
“<a href="http://colorlines.com/archives/2013/04/the_truth_about_so-called_obamaphones.html">‘Obamaphones’: A Case Study in How Race Perverts the Spending Debate</a>,” Jamilah King<br />
“<a href="http://www.mlpp.org/no-head-start-for-jacob-2">No Head Start for Jacob</a>,” Yannet Lathrop<br />
“<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/education/2-year-colleges-getting-a-falling-share-of-spending.html?_r=0">Though Enrolling More Poor Students, 2-Year Colleges Get Less of Federal Pie</a>,” David Leonhardt<br />
“<a href="http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/05/poverty_up_20_percent_among_nj.html">Poverty up 20 percent among N.J. children 5 and younger, report says</a>,” Susan K. Livio<br />
“<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2578008506186209311">Family Cap Rule Punishes California Kids</a>,” Ashley Morris<br />
“<a href="http://www.equalvoiceforfamilies.org/why-i-am-moved-to-end-domestic-and-all-types-of-violence/">Why I Am Moved to End Domestic and All Types of Violence</a>,” Marcia Olivo<br />
“<a href="http://blog.ourfuture.org/20130520/a-long-cold-summer-for-young-people-looking-for-work">A Long Cold Summer For Young People Looking For Work</a>,” Isaiah J. Poole<br />
“<a href="http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/labor/news/2013/05/21/63761/video-series-unions-make-the-middle-class/">Unions Make the Middle Class</a>,” Andrew Satter, Lauren Santa Cruz, and Karla Walter [VIDEO]<br />
“<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/therootdc/post/doing-away-with-food-deserts-in-the-district/2013/05/17/f3e7e2d2-bf1b-11e2-89c9-3be8095fe767_blog.html">Doing away with food deserts in the District</a>,” Michael Shank<br />
“<a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/report-job-training-rule-for-food-stamps-would-trim-rolls-by-half-b9914498z1.html">Report: Job training rule for food stamps would trim rolls by half</a>,” Jason Stein<br />
<div style="margin-top: 34px;">
<strong>Studies/Briefs </strong>(<em>summaries written by James Cersonsky</em>)</div>
<div style="margin-top: 34px;">
<br /></div>
“<a href="http://kff.org/medicare/issue-brief/a-state-by-state-snapshot-of-poverty-among-seniors/">A State-by-State Snapshot of Poverty Among Seniors</a>,”
Zachary Levinson, Anthony Damico, Juliette Cubanski and Patricia
Neuman. Kaiser Family Foundation. The Census Bureau’s standard poverty
measure is based on food costs, family size and age of family members. A
more recent, supplemental measure covers a range of other
poverty-related factors, including homeowner status, regional
differences in housing prices, tax credits, in-kind benefits and
expenses ranging from income taxes to healthcare. For seniors, half of
whom spent at least 16 percent of income on healthcare in 2009, this
last factor is critical. Under the supplemental measure, this report
finds, the senior poverty rate is higher in every state, at least twice
as high in twelve states and roughly <em>20 percent</em> in six states
(California, Hawaii, Louisiana, Nevada, Georgia and New York).
Nationally, the senior poverty rate is 15 percent under the supplemental
measure, compared to 9 percent under the official measure. For incomes
below 200 percent of the poverty level, the percentage of seniors
increases from 34 to 48 percent under the supplemental measure. These
findings, the authors say, weigh critically on Medicare and Social
Security policy.<br />
<br />
“<a href="http://www.wowonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/WOW-Economic-Security-Scorecard-2013.pdf">The Economic Security Scorecard: Policy and Security in the States</a>,”
Wider Opportunity for Women. What constitutes economic security? This
report hones in on twenty state-level policy areas covering eighty-five
policies: income and job standards, including minimum wages, state
earned income tax credits, paid sick leave and unemployment insurance;
saving and asset policies, including college savings and retirement
plans; supports including childcare assistance, medical assistance and
property tax relief; and education and workforce training policy. The
report evaluates states according to their performance in each of these
areas. Washington is the only state that receives higher than a C grade
(B-), followed by Vermont and Oregon (C+). Scoring D+, Mississippi,
Alabama and Utah anchor the bottom of the rankings. The report finds
that a state’s budget size, median income and overall fiscal health are <em>not </em>strongly
related to its economic security score. It finds a stronger
relationship between education levels and security; among the top five
states, an average of 35.1 percent of residents have a bachelor’s
degree, compared to 24.1 percent for the bottom five. Overall, it finds,
most states fall short on job quality standards.<br />
<br />
“<a href="http://washingtoncan.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/SeattleHomeWreckers_ClergyFinalpm.pdf">The Wall Street Wrecking Ball: What Foreclosures Are Costing Us and Why We Need to Reset Seattle Mortgages</a>,”
United Black Clergy and Washington Community Action Network. Across the
country, and particularly among people of color, homeowners are still
feeling the aftershock of the financial crisis. This report shines a
spotlight on Seattle. A staggering 33.5 percent of Seattle homeowners,
42,411 in total, are underwater on their mortgages. Between 2008 and
2012, 16,515 homes were foreclosed on. The report estimates that if
banks reset these underwater mortgages to fair market value, homeowners
would save an average of $9,253 annually, pumping $392 million into the
local economy and helping to create 5,800 jobs.<br />
<div style="margin-top: 34px;">
<strong>Vital Statistics</strong></div>
US poverty (less than $17,916 for a family of three): 46.2 million people, 15.1 percent.<br />
<br />
Children in poverty: 16.1 million, <a href="http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/2011-child-poverty-in-america.pdf">22 percent</a>
of all children, including 39 percent of African-American children and
34 percent of Latino children. Poorest age group in country.<br />
<br />
Deep poverty (less than $11,510 for a family of four): 20.4 million
people, 1 in 15 Americans, including more than 15 million women and
children.<br />
<br />
People who would have been in poverty if not for Social Security, 2011:<strong> <a href="http://www.epi.org/blog/census-bureau-data-2011-poverty-income-health-coverage/">67.6 million</a></strong> (program kept 21.4 million people out of poverty).<br />
<br />
People in the US experiencing poverty by age 65: <a href="http://www.urban.org/publications/411956.html">roughly half</a>.<br />
<br />
Gender gap, 2011: Women <a href="http://www.legalmomentum.org/news-room/latest-poverty-data.html">34 percent</a> more likely to be poor than men.<br />
<br />
Gender gap, 2010: Women <a href="http://www.legalmomentum.org/news-room/latest-poverty-data.html">29 percent</a> more likely to be poor than men.<br />
<br />
Twice the poverty level (less than $46,042 for a family of four): 106 million people, more than 1 in 3 Americans.<br />
<br />
Jobs in the US paying less than $34,000 a year: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/why-cant-we-end-poverty-in-america.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all">50 percent</a>.<br />
<br />
Jobs in the US paying below the poverty line for a family of four, less than $23,000 annually: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/why-cant-we-end-poverty-in-america.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all">25 percent</a>.<br />
<br />
Poverty-level wages, 2011: <a href="http://stateofworkingamerica.org/fact-sheets/poverty/">28 percent</a> of workers.<br />
<br />
Percentage of individuals and family members in poverty who either worked or lived with a working family member, 2011: <a href="http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/cpstables/032012/pov/toc.htm">57 percent</a>.<br />
<br />
Families receiving cash assistance, 1996: <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3700">68</a> for every 100 families living in poverty.<br />
<br />
Families receiving cash assistance, 2010: <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3700">27</a> for every 100 families living in poverty.<br />
<br />
Impact of public policy, 2010: without government assistance, <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3610">poverty would have been twice as high</a>—nearly 30 percent of population.<br />
<br />
Percentage of entitlement benefits going to elderly, disabled, or working households: <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3677">over 90 percent</a>.<br />
<br />
Number of homeless children in US public schools: <a href="http://www.nlchp.org/view_release.cfm?PRID=148">1,065,794</a>.<br />
<br />
Annual cost of child poverty nationwide: <a href="http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412659-Child-Poverty-and-Its-Lasting-Consequence-Paper.pdf">$550 billion</a>.<br />
<br />
Federal expenditures on home ownership mortgage deductions, 2012: <a href="http://blog.metrotrends.org/2011/07/biggest-housing-subsidies/">$131 billion</a>.<br />
<br />
Federal funding for low-income housing assistance programs, 2012: <a href="http://blog.metrotrends.org/2011/07/biggest-housing-subsidies/">less than $50 billion</a>.<br />
<div style="margin-top: 34px;">
<strong>Quote of the Week</strong></div>
“The banks are throwing families out into the streets with no regard and no one is holding them accountable.”<br />
—Gisele Mata, California homeowner, arrested at the Department of Justice<br />
<div style="margin-top: 34px;">
<em>James Cersonsky wrote the “Studies/Briefs” and co-wrote the “Clips and other resources” sections in this blog.</em></div>
<div style="margin-top: 34px;">
<br /></div>
<em>This Week in Poverty posts here on Friday mornings, and again at <a href="http://billmoyers.com/">Moyers & Company</a>. You can e-mail me at <a href="mailto:WeekInPoverty@me.com">WeekInPoverty@me.com</a> and follow me on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/GregKaufmann">Twitter</a>.</em><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="related-terms">
Related Topics: <a href="http://www.thenation.com/section/public-policy">Public Policy</a> | <a href="http://www.thenation.com/section/poverty">Poverty</a> | <a href="http://www.thenation.com/section/housing-activism">Housing Activism</a></div>
NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-25783259000436610982013-05-24T18:05:00.001-07:002013-05-24T18:07:52.485-07:00Man Who Paid His Mortgage Early Facing Foreclosure<br />
<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/issue/" id="page-link-url">
<img alt="ThinkProgress Logo" class="svg left logo" data-img-fallback="http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/themes/tp3/images/NewLogos/TP-logo-economy.png" src="http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/themes/tp3/images/NewLogos/TP-logo-economy.svg?cb=20130521" /></a><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/issue/" id="page-link-url">
</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<h1>
<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/05/24/2061601/man-who-paid-his-mortgage-early-facing-foreclosure/">Man Who Paid His Mortgage Early Facing Foreclosure</a></h1>
<div class="byline">
By <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/author/bcovert/">Bryce Covert</a> on May 24, 2013 at 3:09 pm</div>
<div class="byline">
<br /></div>
<div class="byline">
</div>
<div class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_2061631" style="width: 310px;">
<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/wells_fargo.jpg"><img alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-2061631" height="168" src="http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/wells_fargo-300x168.jpg" title="wells_fargo" width="300" /></a><br />
<div class="wp-caption-text">
Etienne Syldor (Credit: WFTV)</div>
</div>
<br />
<br />
Etienne Syldor, an Orlando resident who works as a bus driver at Walt Disney World, says that <a href="http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/wells-fargo-bank-foreclosing-orlando-man-who-paid-/nXsMr/">Wells Fargo has started foreclosing on his house</a>. This is despite the fact that he not only made his payments on time, but even overpaid on them.
<br />
<br />
As local station WFTV <a href="http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/wells-fargo-bank-foreclosing-orlando-man-who-paid-/nXsMr/">reported</a>,
“Last year, Wells Fargo offered him mortgage modification, and he was
told if he made four monthly payments during a trial period, the
modification would be permanent.” Court records show that he went beyond
making the payments on time to pay early and more than was required. At
times he says he has worked multiple jobs to make sure he can make
mortgage payments.<br />
<br />
But Wells Fargo recently stopped taking his payments and sent him a
letter telling him that it was starting foreclosure proceedings.<br />
<br />
Banks have been <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/08/24/302356/bofa-forecloses-two-day/">accused of similar shenanigans in the past</a>, as many have lost track of paperwork, <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/11/29/377392/banks-illegally-foreclose-military/">illegally foreclosed on military members</a>,
and refused to work with borrowers who scrounge up money on
modifications. Major banks have been widely reported to use a process
known as “dual tracking” in which they work with a borrower on a
modification while also pursuing foreclosure. Some instructed borrowers
to stop making payments to help enter the modification process only to
foreclose on them anyway.<br />
<br />
But banks <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/10/03/952601/report-abusive-practice-settlement/">were ordered to end dual tracking</a>
and other abusive practices as part of the $25 billion fraud
settlement. They dragged their feet on ending this practice as
homeowners continued to face foreclosure. Banks were also ordered to
modify mortgages as part of the settlement but some have <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/08/29/769141/bofa-zero-mortgage-modifications/">been</a> slow to dole out the <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/02/21/1622861/big-banks-still-exploiting-the-foreclosure-fraud-settlement/">relief</a>.<br />
<br />
Frustration about the weak agreement, coupled with the slow trickle of settlement money, <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/05/20/2039381/foreclosure-fraud-failures-come-to-a-head-in-justice-department-protest/">sparked a protest at the Department of Justice on Monday</a>, where activists and foreclosed homeowners marched and some were arrested. <br />
<div class="tags">
<h4>
Tags:</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/tag/foreclosures/">Foreclosures</a></li>
<li><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/tag/wells-fargo/">Wells Fargo</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="byline">
<br /></div>
NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-36820597037318670142013-05-12T16:19:00.004-07:002013-05-12T16:23:03.679-07:00Cleveland: Ground zero for the housing bubble <br />
<h2>
<a href="http://www.salon.com/">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">SALON
</span></a></h2>
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<b><span class="dateline">
<span class="toLocalTime" data-tlt-epoch-time="1368392400">Sunday, May 12, 2013 9:00 PM UTC</span> </span></b>
<br />
<h1>
</h1>
<h2>
<a class="gaTrackLinkEvent" data-ga-track-json="["navigation", "click", "Cleveland: Ground zero for the housing bubble"]" href="http://www.salon.com/2013/05/12/cleveland_ground_zero_for_the_housing_bubble/">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Cleveland: Ground zero for the housing bubble </span></a></h2>
<h1>
</h1>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: large;">The housing crisis that helped tank the
economy started here. As usual, America paid no attention to the Midwest</span> </h2>
<h2>
</h2>
<span class="byline">By <a class="gaTrackLinkEvent" data-ga-track-json="["author", "click", "Edward McClelland"]" href="http://www.salon.com/writer/edward_mcclelland/" rel="author">Edward McClelland</a></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="topics">
Topics:
<a class="gaTrackLinkEvent" data-ga-track-json="["topic", "click", "books"]" href="http://www.salon.com/topic/books">Books</a>,
<a class="gaTrackLinkEvent" data-ga-track-json="["topic", "click", "cleveland"]" href="http://www.salon.com/topic/cleveland">Cleveland</a>,
<a class="gaTrackLinkEvent" data-ga-track-json="["topic", "click", "housing_bubble"]" href="http://www.salon.com/topic/housing_bubble">Housing bubble</a>,
<a class="gaTrackLinkEvent" data-ga-track-json="["topic", "click", "great_recession"]" href="http://www.salon.com/topic/great_recession">Great Recession</a>,
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<a class="lightBox" href="http://media.salon.com/2013/05/cleveland_bubble.jpg" title="Cleveland: Ground zero for the housing bubble"><img alt="Cleveland: Ground zero for the housing bubble" src="http://media.salon.com/2013/05/cleveland_bubble-620x412.jpg" title="Cleveland: Ground zero for the housing bubble" /></a><span class="caption"> </span><br />
<span class="caption">Slavic Village, Cleveland, Monday, Jan. 14, 2008. <span class="photoCredit">(Credit: AP/Tony Dejak)</span></span></div>
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Excerpted from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608195295/?tag=saloncom08-20">"Nothin' But Blue Skies: The Heyday, Hard Times and Hopes of America's Industrial Heartland"</a></div>
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If
houses go to heaven, then Classen Avenue, in the Cleveland neighborhood
of Slavic Village, has been the scene of a mass Rapture. Ted Michols
watched it all happen. A retired trade magazine editor, a bachelor, a
man who likes to sit on his porch and share the neighborhood with
passersby he’s known fifty years, Michols has lived his entire life in a
little square house his grandfather bought in 1923. It was the kind of
house that used to be good enough for everyone in Cleveland: 800 square
feet of domesticity in the middle of a pond of grass where a Virgin Mary
is flanked by floral suns of marigolds, and an American flag. He shared
it with his brother, another bachelor who died in 2005. Now he’s alone.<br />
<br />
His old school friends want to know why he never followed them to the
suburbs. To them, Slavic Village is the Old Neighborhood, but no longer
the neighborhood they grew up in. “It’s changed,” they say delicately.
That’s Cleveland code for, “the element moved in,” which in turn is code
for “black.”<br />
<br />
Michols stayed because Slavic Village is
Polish—unlike many urban neighborhoods, where integration is the period
between the arrival of the first black and the departure of the last
white, Slavic Village only changed halfway. At Seven Roses, the cabbage
and pierogi buffet on Fleet Avenue, the newspapers and lunchtime gossip
are about doings in Krakow and Warszawa. And staying in Slavic Village
meant staying in the parish of Immaculate Heart of Mary, where he had
been baptized.<br />
<br />
“The one good thing about living here is you have a
lot of friends,” Michols said. “We were working on the sidewalk, about
10 people stopped and talked. You don’t get that in the suburbs. People
don’t talk.”<br />
<br />
But he had fewer friends than before the housing
crisis. The house next door disappeared first. The couple who lived
there had paid $17,500 for it, in 1977. At that price, they should have
been sheltered for life, but “they liked to buy stuff,” Michols
observed, so they borrowed and borrowed against their equity until, in
2004, they lost it to the bank. A fireman picked it up for $25,000. Like
a slumlord, he painted it and rented to a woman on Section 8, who was
so clueless about housekeeping that Michols had to mow her lawn. From
owner to low-income renter, the house was moving down in the world.
Eventually, a corner of the foundation collapsed, causing the floor to
sink four inches. The tenant moved out, and the house was demolished,
leaving in the grass only the outline of its basement. The same thing
happened across the street, where an absentee landlord bought out an
owner, and rented to tenants who sold drugs. After they set the house on
fire, Michols went to court to have the place demolished.<br />
<br />
<div class="toggle-group target hideOnInit" data-toggle-group="story-13295507">
Frugality
was easy for Michols. Having inherited his house, he’d never made a
mortgage payment. Having no children to educate, he never thought of
borrowing. So he was astonished by the appliance repairman who divorced
his wife and abandoned his house, owing $83,000. And by the speculators
who were paying double what the old-line neighbors knew the properties
were worth.<br />
“Sometimes, we’d look at some of those homes and we
said, ‘This is going for $86,000? What is going on.’ The bank wasn’t
looking at applications.”<br />
<br />
As the loans went bad, and the houses
emptied, the scrappers arrived, tearing out furnaces, aluminum siding
and water pipes right in broad daylight. To discourage scavengers, signs
reading THIS HOUSE DOES NOT HAVE COPPER PLUMBING were posted in
windows. But Classen Avenue became such a magnet for thieves they even
broke into occupied houses. A kid from down the street tried to burgle
Michols, but Michols chased him off. Only a neighbor who mowed the
vacant lots prevented Classen Avenue from reverting to pre-settlement
prairie.<br />
<br />
Clevelanders have a saying: “Cleveland’s pain, the
nation’s gain.” It means, “A lot of shitty stuff happens here, but we
hope the rest of America can learn from our misfortune and avoid the
same crap.” The foreclosure crisis that would drag the American economy
into its deepest slough since the Great Depression arrived first in
Cleveland, and nowhere was it more severe than Slavic Village. The 44105
zip code, which covers southeast Cleveland, was the scene of more
housing speculation than any place in the country. Unfortunately, the
rest of America wasn’t paying attention.<br />
<br />
Slavic Village was
settled in the late 19th century by Poles, Czechs and Bohemians who’d
been imported to break a strike by native-born workers at the Cleveland
Rolling Mill. They worked ten hours a day, six days a week, for wages
that kept them just a bit more comfortable than barnyard animals, and
built $400 cottages with even smaller mother-in-law cabins out back.
Slavic Village was sooty, it was overcrowded, but it was also one of
those self-contained ethnic ghettoes that perpetuated Old World
languages and customs for decades after <i>babeia</i> and <i>diadziek</i>
arrived on the ship from Danzig. The church where you were baptized,
the department store where you bought your communion dress, the high
school where you finished your education, the factory where you spent
your working life, the tavern where you spent your afterwork life, the
house where you raised your family, the hospital where you died, and the
graveyard where you were buried were all within a few miles of each
other. Unto the third generation, children grew up speaking Slavic
languages at home, hearing them during Mass at St. Stanislaus (Polish)
or St. John Nepomucene (Czech) and arguing in them at the Alliance of
Poles, the Czech Sokol Center or the Bohemian National Hall. The
storefronts on Fleet Avenue and Broadway were labeled with
poorly-emvoweled names: Stepke’s Hot Shop, Glinka’s Tavern, Divorky
Hardware. Nobody minded a small house, because the tavern, the church
and the social hall were extensions of the living room.<br />
<br />
That all
changed after World War II, of course. Slavic Village’s children moved
to inner-ring suburbs such as Garfield Heights and Parma. (Parma is
Cleveland’s Cleveland, the butt of local jokes about pink flamingos and
bathtub Madonnas. <i>The Drew Carey Show</i>’s original theme was
“Moon over Parma” and in 2010, a radio host spoofed Jay-Z’s “Empire
State of Mind” with “Parma State of Mind.”) The suburbanites returned
for polka bands and pierogi-eating contests at Slavic Village Fest, but
when their parents died, the middle-aged offspring had no interest in
their childhood homes. They sold out to absentee landlords, who rented
to Section 8 tenants. By the 1990s, Slavic Village, which had never
actually been a village, was no longer entirely Slavic either. It was
more than 50 percent African-American. After the slumlords came the
speculators, the house-flippers. Ohio had some of the weakest lending
laws in the nation. Slavic Village, a neighborhood full of unwanted
dwellings, was ground zero for exploitation.<br />
Between 2000 and 2010,
Slavic Village’s population dropped 27 percent, on its way down from its
all-time high of 70,000 to 20,000. During a time when banks were
willing to write mortgages to <i>anyone</i>, for any amount of money,
there was cash to be squeezed out of empty houses. Here’s how one scam
worked, according to Tony Zajac, an aide to Slavic Village’s city
councilman, Anthony Brancatelli. When Zajac’s aunt was 89, her son moved
her into a nursing home. He put a “PRIVATE SALE” sign on her 10-room
house, offering it for $40,000. The buyer took out a $90,000 mortgage,
stating on the purchase agreement that she intended to use the balance
for rehab. Instead, she split the money with the mortgage broker and the
appraiser who had conspired to falsify the home’s value.<br />
<br />
“They
took the $50,000 and split it to line their pockets with gold,” Zajac
said. “Three years ago, Aunt Mary and her son were sued by the lender,
Deutsche Bank. They falsify the income of the purchaser and they fly.
They leave the house once they got the money.”<br />
<br />
Then there were
flippers. They paid old women $40,000 for their houses, then turned
around and sold them for $60,000 to suckers whose greed was inflamed by
“Get Rich Quick in Real Estate!” infomercials, and by the inflated real
estate market of the late 1990s, when properties were doubling and
tripling in value. Hapless bargain hunters purchased houses on the
Internet, only to find them boarded up and stripped of every metal
fixture. A California artist looking for a cheap home/studio bought a
Slavic Village house that turned out to be condemned. (After many trips
to housing court, he brought it back up to code.)<br />
The lenders were
so aggressive they went door to door on the East Side of Cleveland,
pointing out loose shingles, collapsing chimneys, or sagging porches.
Money from a second mortgage could repair any of those defects, the
door-to-door brokers told the homeowners. They never mentioned the
adjustable rate.<br />
<br />
Anita Gardner’s sons fell for that scam. Gardner,
who worked 31 years as a heavy duty machinist and welder at TRW, bought
a two-story house on the East Side for $21,000 back in the early 1970s.
It was almost paid off when she was diagnosed with Chiari malformation,
a brain disorder that left her too ill to work, or even walk up the
stairs to her bedroom. So she bought a one-story home, a converted
liquor store, and signed the old house—“My Buckingham Palace, a place
where I could cover the walls with my paintings and close off the
world”—over to her two thirty-something sons. When Gardner had moved in,
every house was owned by an autoworker or a steelworker with a wife,
four or five children, and a new car. Then J+L Steel, the neighborhood’s
largest employer, closed in 1999. The blue-collar workers moved out,
and the mortgage brokers began moving in, attracted by the remaining
residents’ financial desperation. Having lost their paychecks, these
dispossessed factory rats were told they still had a source of income,
in the houses they’d bought cheap and paid off with union wages and
frugality.<br />
<br />
“This couldn’t have happened if people had good jobs,”
Gardner said. “Or why would they change their mortgage? They were
desperate for money. It was targeted. It was definitely targeted.
Mortgage agents were going door to door, calling on the phone. It was in
the air: ‘You don’t have to have credit. You can have nice things.’”<br />
<br />
Gardner’s
sons fell for the pitch. Neither had ever been able to afford nice
things. The elder brother had served 11 years on a drug charge. When he
got out of prison, the only job he could find was delivering furniture
for Sears. The younger brother was a restaurant supply salesman. When an
agent from Countrywide Financial agent offered them a $70,000 mortgage
on their mom’s almost-paid-off house, they signed. Gardner suspects the
agent falsely inflated the home’s value in order to write a bigger
mortgage. Agents received bigger commissions for adjustable-rate
mortgages. The boys used the second mortgage for a shopping spree. A
black Hyundai Tiburon sports car. A new couch. A big screen TV. A
refrigerator in the garage, full of beer.<br />
<br />
The monthly payments
began at $436 a month, but as the boys missed payments, it more than
doubled to $950, far more than they could pay on their small-time jobs.
When the past due amount reached $4,000, Gardner’s sons appealed to mom
for a bailout.<br />
<br />
Gardner paid the arrears, plus an $800 transaction
fee, plus a series of six $1,000 “good faith payments” to return the
note to its original payment plan. A realtor friend negotiated with
Countrywide to buy the house back for $25,000 — which Gardner raised by
borrowing on her new house. The mortgage lending crisis ate up her life
savings.<br />
<br />
“I’m out of money,” she said. “This is all my retirement
money. I have enough to live on, but all the money I had stuffed under
the mattress, it’s gone. Meanwhile, my mortgage on the new house jumps
from $600 to $900.”<br />
<br />
Gardner evicted her sons—“they don’t deserve
this, they don’t understand what the palace is”—but two months after
buying back her house from Countrywide, she was informed that the
employee with whom she’d negotiated had no authority to cut a deal.<br />
<br />
“Why
should we take $25,000 when we can get $70,000?” a Countrywide agent
told Gardner. “We will get the money from your son. We will prosecute
him.”<br />
Countrywide sued Gardner’s sons, and began foreclosure
proceedings on the house. Desperate, she appealed to an organization
called ESOP—Empowering and Strengthening Ohio’s People. As a social
service agency in the nation’s foreclosure capital, ESOP was devoting a
large part of its resources to mortgage counseling. Having lived a
middle-class life, Gardner was a little put off by ESOP’s office. A room
in the back of a church, with two or three people working on mismatched
furniture, it reminded her of a sweatshop or a numbers runner’s den.
But Gardner joined ESOP’s campaign against Countrywide, which had been
writing shady mortgages all over northeastern Ohio. Wearing a shark’s
head, Gardner joined a picket of Countrywide’s headquarters, where ESOP
members passed out the personal cell phone number of CEO Angelo Mozilo.<br />
Busloads of protestors picketed Marzullo’s country club. (They were
followed, needless to say, by vanloads of TV cameras). ESOP blew up the
company’s fax machine with photographs of foreclosed homes. Finally,
Countrywide settled with Gardner for another $6,000. Buckingham Palace
was hers again, but the rest of her street was a cemetery.<br />
<br />
“There was seventy-six houses on the street, and now only eleven are occupied,” she said.<br />
<br />
This
raises a question. Which is the greater social ill: allowing people who
can no longer afford their mortgages to stay in their houses, thus
undermining the credit system by letting people to skip out on their
payments, or evicting people from houses for which there is no buyer,
thus undermining the property itself, and the surrounding neighborhood?
Ted Michols and Anita Gardner would say let the poor folks stay and look
after their houses. Vacant houses attract criminals. Michols called the
cops on a stripper trying to tear the aluminum drainpipe off a house at
11 o’clock in the morning. In a 150-foot radius around a vacant house,
property values go down at least $7,000. A vacant house reduces its <i>own</i>
value even more, since it’s usually denuded of plumbing fixtures,
boilers, carpeting, sinks, toilets, heating pipes and any architectural
sconces that can be peddled in a second-hand shop. Yellow foreclosure
stickers and plywood windows are not warnings, they’re invitations.
After homeowners exhaust the equity, inner-city scavengers salvage the
last pennies of value out of a house, until the mortgage lender ends up
paying the city for demolition.<br />
<br />
Jim Rokakis, who had been a
22-year-old city councilman when Dennis Kucinich was mayor, was elected
Cuyahoga County Treasurer in 1996. Holding that job, at that time, made
him the first politician in America to see the foreclosure crisis
coming. Normally, 2 to 3 percent of the county’s homes were in
foreclosure. But by the end of Rokakis’s first term, that proportion had
doubled. Cuyahoga County had the highest foreclosure rate in the
nation.<br />
<br />
As a freshman treasurer, Rokakis was ignorant of the
mortgage industry’s scams. But once he learned that fly-by-night brokers
were writing inflated mortgages to buyers with no income, he convened a
conference on “Predatory Lending in Ohio” at the Cleveland branch of
the Federal Reserve. Rokakis hoped that Federal Reserve Board Chairman
Alan Greenspan might crack down on sleazy lenders like Countrywide.
Greenspan did nothing, not even after receiving a warning letter from a
federal reserve governor who attended the conference. So Rokakis
persuaded three Ohio cities—Cleveland, Dayton and Toledo—to adopt
anti-predatory lending ordinances. The ordinances were quickly
invalidated by the state legislature in Columbus, which passed a law
specifying that only the state could regulate banking. This, of course,
lured even more lenders to Cleveland. In 2004, Ameriquest Mortgage
Company, the nation’s largest subprime lender, established an office of
its Argent Mortgage subsidiary in Cleveland. Ameriquest had invented the
“stated income loan”: if a customer told Ameriquest he earned 100 grand
a year, Ameriquest would take his word for it. Why let the facts mess
up a bad loan?<br />
<br />
“The amazing statistic about Argent is their first
year of operation, ’04, they led Cuyahoga County in two categories—loans
issued and foreclosures,” Rokakis said. “So the day they opened up,
they were in trouble. They were making these wild loans and they were
making loans that could not be repaid.”<br />
<br />
By the time the crisis
peaked, in 2006, Cuyahoga County had 13,000 foreclosure filings—four
times its pre-2000 level. Unable to get the attention of Greenspan or
Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, Rokakis wrote an Op-Ed for <i>The Washington Post</i>.
By then, it was too late for the nation to gain from Cleveland’s pain.
From its cradle in Slavic Village, the sub-prime lending industry had
spread throughout the entire nation, and was a year away from capsizing
the entire American economy. Wrote Rokakis:<br />
<blockquote>
“Let me
tell you about a place called Slavic Village and the death of a girl
called Cookie Thomas. You’ve never heard this story before—talk of
housing markets and hedge funds, interest rates and the Federal Reserve
has drowned it out.<br />
Twenty years ago, the Slavic Village
neighborhood of Cleveland was a tightly knit community of first- and
second-generation Polish and Czech immigrants. Today, it’s in danger of
becoming a ghost town, largely because a swarm of speculators, real
estate agents, mortgage brokers and lenders saw an opportunity to make a
buck there.<br />
You could say it was because of them that
12-year-old Asteve “Cookie” Thomas lost her life on Sept. 1, shot in
Slavic Village when she stumbled into the crossfire of suspected drug
dealers. The neighborhood wasn’t always a haven for criminals—not until
hundreds of foreclosures destabilized the community. Houses (800 at last
count) and then entire streets were abandoned. Crime increased as
vacant properties offered shelter for people who had a reason to hide.<br />
Cookie
Thomas… haunt[s] me because [she] didn’t have to die. In a sense, [her
death] was foreshadowed in the late 1990s, when the dark side of the
real estate industry—the predatory lenders—came to Ohio, including
Cleveland’s Cuyahoga County, where I serve as treasurer They knew that
the state’s lax regulatory structure would give them virtually free
rein. This is when we first heard terms such as “securitization,”
“mortgage-backed securities,” “3-28s,” and “risk modeling.” These are
code words for Wall Street strategies that made the cycle of
no-money-down, no-questions-asked lending possible—the strategies that
have sucked the life out of my city.”</blockquote>
By 2006, the
year the crisis peaked in Cleveland, 903 of Slavic Village’s 2,944
properties were in foreclosure. Rokakis did secure passage of a county
ordinance that sped up foreclosure of vacant, tax-delinquent properties.
The empty houses went into the city’s land bank, which often sold them
to next-door neighbors, so they could expand their yards. (“If the
vacant lot is next to you and you can beautify it by putting grass and
cutting it and keep it nice, it adds to your property value,” Rokakis
said.) Others went to community development organizations. On a street
as gapped and rotten as an old tramp’s mouth, a group called Slavic
Village Development built vinyl-sided ranch houses to replace the
worn-out workingman’s cottages.<br />
<br />
Slavic Village offers an
opportunity for an entrepreneurial developer. Broadway, the
neighborhood’s high street, is served by five-and-ten dollar businesses:
Walgreen’s, Wendy’s, soft ice cream stands, and grimy diners serving
city chicken. (The Cleveland dish of city chicken is actually cubed pork
on a skewer. It was invented as a poultry substitute by Slavic
housewives too poor to afford actual chicken, and is still served as a
white ethnic comfort food.) What Slavic Village needs is a strip mall
gathering every ghetto business under a single roof. It would include a
cell phone store, a discount dollar store, a Rent-to-Own center, a
Laundromat, a liquor store specializing in White Owl cigars and Night
Train wine, a Chinese take-out with three wobbly tables, and a
hand-lettered “NO MSG” sign in the window, a chicken-and-fish grill
where the food is served on a rotisserie that rotates through a
bulletproof window, an Instant Tax Refund Center where a man dressed as
the Statue of Liberty hands out flyers every winter, and a Currency
Exchange charging a 3% fee to cash checks for people trying to avoid
having their bank accounts garnished for child support and/or back taxes
and/or legal fees. The mall could also support a sneaker boutique
selling counterfeit Nikes (look for the backward swoosh) and
three-for-five packages of cotton socks; as well as a day labor center
that takes a 33% fee out of your wages, but doesn’t ask “Have you ever
been convicted of a felony?” on the application. A pawn shop is also a
possibility, although pawnbrokers have been thriving since the recession
began, so they might be able to afford their own building.<br />
<br />
The
wonderful thing about this mall is that it could be pre-fabricated and
franchised out to every inner-city neighborhood and small town in the
United States. Just as toothpaste and soap manufacturers are trying to
profit from the economic stratification of America by developing
discount products for the formerly middle class, a single
poverty-pimpin’ conglomerate—we’ll call it PoorMart—could develop
thousands of these little malls, from Bridgeport, Conn., to Phoenix
City, Ala., to Stockton, Calif. After buying the properties in
foreclosure sales, PoorMart would hire non-union contractors to build
the stores, and recruit low-wage employees from Pakistan, India, Nigeria
and Iraq, arranging for work visas which would be voided at the first
sign of insubordination. PoorMart would fill a niche too small and
specialized for Walmart to occupy. As the Walton family earns billions
of dollars by selling shoddy goods to people who lack the money or the
transportation options to shop in department stores, PoorMart’s owners
would earn billions off people to poor to shop at Walmart. They’d earn
make billions more in interest and convenience fees from people too
broke to save up for a living room set, or wait six weeks for their tax
refunds. With its combination of retail stores and financial services,
PoorMart would transmutation the masses’ poverty into investors’ wealth.<br />
<br />
As
the birthplace of the New Underclass, Slavic Village is the perfect
test market for PoorMart. Unlike most urban neighborhoods—even most
neighborhoods in Cleveland, where the Cuyahoga River separates East Side
blacks and West Side whites—Slavic Village is racially mixed. A cross
was burned when blacks began to infiltrate in the 1990s, but Catholic
parishes—like Ted Michols’s Immaculate Heart of Mary—and Polish
immigrants prevented unanimous white flight. Slavic Village’s
demographics have settled at 55 percent African-American and 41 percent
Caucasian. The white population has actually been growing, due to young
urban pioneers seeking cheap housing and “authentic urban experiences”
(i.e., Polish bakeries) they can’t find in the suburbs. When Slavic
Village Development built middle-income houses and townhouses on the
site of a closed-down state mental institution, it managed to attract
black and white buyers in equal numbers, by marketing to both races.
Councilman Brancatelli marketed his 4th of July fireworks show the same
way: he hires a country singer and a funk band, thus drawing a
salt-and-pepper crowd of blacks, elderly Poles, and tattooed white
families. While waiting in line for free ice cream and hot dogs before
the fireworks, I met a man who identified himself as “Bohemian,
Hungarian, Polish, Czech and Slovenian,” which used to pass for
diversity in Slavic Village. He believed his neighborhood’s worst years
were over, now that the city was demolishing the legacies of the
foreclosures.<br />
<br />
“It’s cleaned up a lot of property,” he said.
“There’s a lot of vacant land. The crime went up, because there was drug
dealers in all the houses, but they’ve been torn down. It’s turning the
corner. Plus, once you’re a drug dealer, you have to have money to buy
drugs. All the scrap is gone. The drug dealers are moving out to the
suburbs.”<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
* * *</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
The housing
crisis that began in Slavic Village eventually bankrupted several Wall
Street houses that had overinvested in subprime mortgage-backed
securities. What was bad for Wall Street was even worse for Detroit. The
American automakers were already struggling in 2008. Their solvency
depended on SUV sales. Only big vehicles could generate the profits
necessary to pay health care premiums and pensions for millions of
retirees. But once gasoline prices crested at $4 a gallon that May, even
Americans stopped buying SUVs. In the spring quarter of 2008, General
Motors lost $15.5 billion. GM cut off medical benefits to retired
salesmen, engineers, and executives, but it couldn’t cut off UAW
members, whose contracts guaranteed health care for life.<br />
<br />
Then, in
September, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. The stock market lost
30 percent of its value. Automobile sales dropped by the same amount, to
their lowest levels since the Iranian crisis of the late 1970s. GM
stock crashed to $3.36 a share—less than a third of its value just three
months before, and its most meager price since 1946. Drivers weren’t
buying cars. Bankers weren’t making loans. The auto companies had only
one place to turn for money: the federal government.<br />
<br />
In Pinckney,
Michigan, an automotive engineer named Tom Lavey watched the entire
congressional auto bailout hearings on CNN. Lavey had plenty of time to
sit in front of his television, because he’d just been laid off for the
second time that year. During the spring, he’d ended a contract job with
International Automotive Components, designing carpets for Ford cars.
In the fall, Lavey caught on as a contractor with Ford, where he had
worked early in his career. It paid a third less than he’d been making
at IAC, but in 2008, the Big Three weren’t handing out engineering jobs,
the way they had been when Lavey graduated from Eastern Michigan
University in the 1980s.<br />
<br />
There’s a saying that when a boy is born
in Southeastern Michigan, his parents declare “What a cute baby. He’ll
make a great addition to the auto industry.” Lavey decided that himself.
From the time he was seven years old, he wanted to make cars. His path
was confirmed in college, where he saw a flyer listing the salaries of
various careers. “Manufacturing and Auto Industry: $30,000 a year” it
read. That was good money. It was security, too. How could manufacturing
ever go away? People would always need stuff. The auto industry had
supported his grandfather, who’d spent his entire career at Ford’s, and
it would support him, too. Right out of college, Lavey got a contract
job at Ford, and saved enough money for a three-month trip to Europe.<br />
<br />
“From 1989 to 2008, it was fat in this town,” he said. “you’d get a contract, have two parts to work on.”<br />
<br />
Throughout
the 2000s, though, Lavey saw signs that his dream career was not as
secure as he’d imagined. There were fewer designers on each job, which
mean the surviving engineers often had to stay in the office until eight
or nine o’clock. And the auto companies were outsourcing computer
assisted drafting to India and the Philippines. The draftsmen were
cheaper, but a pain to work with. You couldn’t talk to them face to
face. Because they were on the opposite side of the world, bad designs
took an entire day to fix.<br />
<br />
Still, Lavey wasn’t prepared for the
brevity of his last assignment for Ford. The job lasted exactly a month
before it was eliminated during the financial crisis.<br />
“Don’t worry,” Lavey’s supervisor told him. “This is a budget thing. We’ll have you back in January.”<br />
<br />
Two weeks later, the boss called back, with more bad news.<br />
<br />
“Guess what?” he told Lavey. “They got me, too.”<br />
<br />
When
the chairmen of General Motors and Chrysler traveled to Washington to
beg for a loan (first by corporate jet, then by caravan, after
congressmen criticized the mendicant auto executives for flying when it
have would been cheaper to drive), the strongest opposition came from
Southerners who saw burying Detroit as an opportunity to bury the United
Auto Workers and the entire union movement. Sen. Richard Shelby of
Alabama called the American auto industry a “dinosaur,” and suggested
government aid would only delay its well-deserved demise.<br />
<br />
“Companies fail every day and others take their place,” Shelby said. “I think this is a road we should not go down.”<br />
<br />
The
companies that would have taken GM’s place—Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, and
Honda—all have plants in Alabama, where they benefit from Southern
hostility to organized labor. None of Alabama’s plants are
unionized—perhaps one reason the state ranks 46th in household income.<br />
<br />
Sen.
Bob Corker of Tennessee, who represented a Volkswagen and a Nissan
plant (as well as GM’s unionized Saturn facility in Spring Hill), tried
to force the UAW to agree to “wage parity” with the Japanese auto plants
as a condition of the bailout. His attempt to cut union wages to
non-union levels was mooted when President George W. Bush decided that,
like the banks, the auto companies were too big to fail, and sent them
$17.4 billion of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout money, enough to
keep them afloat for three months.<br />
<br />
Bush was one of Detroit’s few
friends in Washington during that difficult autumn. Even as Two of the
Big Three wheedled with the Senate Banking Committee, the House Energy
and Commerce Committee unhorsed Rep. John Dingell of Michigan as its
chairman, replacing him with Henry Waxman of California. It was a clash
between liberalism’s most powerful wings—coastal progressives and Rust
Belt union brothers—and it was unfortunate, because between them, the
two have a solution for saving the auto industry.<br />
<br />
If one
congressman had forever seen that universal healthcare could be a boon
to American manufacturing, it was Dingell. Rooted in the New Deal and
the Industrial Heartland, Dingell embodied the auto industry’s
traditions. Stocky, block-headed, with safety-glass eyewear, he looked
like he should have been inspecting the paint job on a Buick. Every year
since beginning his record-setting service in Congress, in 1955,
Dingell had introduced a bill for a single-payer national health
insurance system—the same bill his father began promoting in 1933.<br />
<br />
By
2008, though, the political tide had turned against the old Detroit
champion. Dingell’s defense of the auto industry made him a stalwart
opponent of any regulations that might discourage GM from building
ginormous SUVs. He had tried to prevent California from adopting its own
auto emissions standards, arguing for a nationwide plan. Waxman, a
resident of Beverly Hills, he was more concerned with air quality in his
overpopulated state than with the plight of Midwestern factory workers.
The 82-year-old Dingell left the meeting at which he lost his
chairmanship on crutches, demonstrating both the infirmity of his state
and the industry he has defended so vigorously.<br />
<br />
Waxman and Dingell
both needed to realize that health care, environmentalism and the labor
movement are inseparable elements of saving the auto industry.
Unfortunately, the Affordable Care Act that Waxman would help pass did
not relieve the burden of health care costs on automakers. GM had
already tried to do that on its own. During a two-day strike in 2007,
the company negotiated an agreement to transfer retiree healthcare to an
independent trust fund, maintained by the UAW. GM contributed $36
billion to the fund—70 percent of its liability to retirees. It was
expected to save the company $2.5 billion a year.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
* * *</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
The
$17 billion bailout did not provide a new job for Tom Lavey. Americans
still weren’t buying cars. They had no equity left in their houses, and
since new housing starts had crashed from 2 million a year to 500,000,
hordes of construction workers were without jobs. Out of work for the
first time in his adult life, Lavey joined the “99ers”—the hard-luck
Americans eligible for 99 weeks of unemployment. As a bachelor, he had
no family to support, but he was nonetheless grateful when his landlord
cut the rent in half. He could have paid the full freight with his
unemployment check, but that would have meant eating a lot of meals at
his mother’s house. Lavey kept busy in his machine shop, where he made
screws, nuts and binocular housings, selling them to a science supply
company for just enough money to cover his cell phone bill and fill his
gas tank.<br />
“Working in a shop, I got laid off for a week at a
time,” Lavey said. “But this was the first time I was told, ‘Get out and
don’t come back.’”<br />
<br />
He wouldn’t be invited back in for almost two years.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
* * *</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
When
Nick Waun came home to Michigan after a tour of duty in Iraq, he
intended to finish his economics degree at the University of
Michigan-Flint. But first, he needed a job to pay for school. Waun was a
fourth-generation factory brat—his great-grandfather had been a
Sit-Down Striker, and growing up, he’d listened to his father and
grandfather talk shop. In 2007, it wasn’t easy to get a job in an auto
plant, but Waun was a veteran. More importantly, he was a legacy. He had
an in.<br />
<br />
“Hey,” his aunt asked. “You want to go work for General Motors?”<br />
<br />
(A
family recommendation is pretty much the only way to get a job in an
auto plant nowadays. The United Auto Workers may as well be a hereditary
guild.)<br />
Waun was hired to work on the line at the Lake Orion
Assembly Plant, at $28 an hour, an astonishingly high wage for a 25-year
old. He bought a house in Lapeer, a village in Michigan’s Thumb, a
protuberance east of Flint whose anatomical nickname is derived from its
resemblance to the loose digit on the mitten-shaped Lower Peninsula. At
night, Waun built Pontiac G-6s and Chevy Malibus. During the day, he
went to school in Flint.<br />
<br />
Waun belonged to the final class of
middle-income autoworkers. If he’d hired in even a few months later, he
would have been offered half the money he was earning, and fewer
benefits. In 2007, as part of the same national agreement in which the
UAW took on retirees’ health care costs, the union also agreed that
non-assembly workers could be paid $14 an hour. This arrangement became
known as the tiered wage system. The veteran auto-workers were called
Tier Ones, while the ill-paid new hires were Tier Twos. The UAW hoped
Tier Twos would become Tier Ones as soon as the companies’ fortunes
improved. The next year, of course, GM and Chrysler went bankrupt. As
part of its pre-bankruptcy concessions, the union agreed to freeze Tier
Two wages until 2015. During the bankruptcy restructuring, GM was forced
to eliminate the Pontiac nameplate. (With Oldsmobile already dead, GM’s
brand ladder had been reduced to three rungs: Chevrolet, Buick and
Cadillac. Buick survived because it had become to Chinese party
officials and software tycoons what the Mercedes-Benz is to Hollywood
producers and Brooklyn rap stars: the car that says, ‘I’ve made it,’ or
however they say ‘I’ve made it’ in Mandarin.) With Pontiac in the brand
graveyard, Waun was laid off for a year while the Lake Orion plant was
retooled to build Chevy Aveos. When he was called back, GM gave him a
choice: he could stay in Lake Orion as a Tier Two, or he could continue
earning $28 an hour at the plant in Lordstown, Ohio, 220 miles around
the bend of Lake Erie. The reason: Lake Orion would be building the Aveo
and the Chevy Cruze, compact cars that sold for less than $20,000. GM
could only make a profit if 40 percent of the workers assembling those
cars earned $14 an hour. Because of Waun’s low seniority, he would have
to take a pay cut.<br />
<br />
Waun took the transfer, which came with a
$30,000 bonus. He dropped out of college 18 credits short of a degree,
and rented a $450 a month trailer in a mobile home court across the
turnpike from the plant. Lordstown was home to a lot of GM gypsies who’d
been forced out of their home factories.<br />
<br />
Even before he was
jerked around by General Motors, Waun had been a rabble rouser. During
his freshman year in college, he was a campus radical who thought a
student should sit on the University of Michigan’s Board of Regents.<br />
Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans would nominate him, so he ran
on the Reform Party ticket. At 18, Waun was the youngest candidate ever
to appear on a statewide ballot in Michigan—one-upping fellow Flintoid
Michael Moore, who had only run for local office. As an autoworker, Waun
labored in GM’s two most militant cities: Flint and Lordstown. The
Lordstown plant had opened in 1966, and was immediately staffed with
Viet Nam veterans, who were, as we saw in Decatur, Ill., the most
uncompromising labor activists of the late 20th century. Lordstown built
the Vega, Chevy’s crappy attempt to crash the small car market. The car
was scheduled to debut in 1970, but that fall’s UAW strike delayed its
introduction. The little Vega was supposed to be America’s greatest
weapon against Japan since Little Boy. To rush the heavily-advertised
car to dealers, GM <i>doubled</i> the speed of Lordstown’s assembly
line. A “speed up” had caused the Sit-Down Strike. Lordstown’s workers
responded by slashing upholstery, keying up paint jobs, denting quarter
panels and even breaking off keys in locks. Finally, they went on
strike. The estrangement of these young, multi-racial workers became
known as the “blue-collar blues”; their rebellion was a “Worker’s
Woodstock,” drawing comparisons to the anti-war matches at nearby Kent
State University.<br />
<br />
As a scion of both these Up the Company
traditions, Waun began a campaign against the tiered wage system. It
wasn’t just about economic fairness, although that was certainly part of
it. Tiered wages were accomplishing what those Southern senators had
tried to write into the auto bailout plan. Non-union, foreign-owned
plants were now setting the pay scale for American autoworkers. Not only
did Tier Twos earn half as much, they had lesser benefits, bigger
co-pays for health care, and a 401k contribution, instead of a pension.
If GM could threaten to cut Waun’s pay in half, whose livelihood was
safe? There was also a quality issue. After a year at Lake Orion, Waun
was named a team leader—just as the plant brought in a second shift,
composed partly of Tier Twos. Tier Twos were not supposed to assemble
cars. According to the agreement, that status was reserved for
“non-core” jobs, away from the line. But GM was putting them on the
line, and, unsurprisingly to Waun, they wouldn’t—or couldn’t—work as
hard as Tier Ones. Some were juggling two jobs to pay their rent, and
came to the plant exhausted. Others decided that $14 an hour was not
enough money for the hectic pace of auto work. They walked out of the
plant, declaring “I’m going back to Home Depot.” If a bolt wasn’t
torqued right, they’d let it go down the line, rather than making the
effort to tighten it. Such lax attitudes created tension with the Tier
Ones. Waun saw a resentful Tier One punch his Tier Two team leader. When
the Michiganders arrived at Lordstown, the lower-paid Ohioans refused
to speak to them, then taunted them by wearing t-shirts popular on
football Saturdays in Columbus: “Ann Arbor is a Whore”; “M Go Blow.”<br />
<br />
“They’ve
already had problems with the Cruze, with steering wheels coming off,”
Waun said. “There’s been a couple recalls. I’ve heard it brought up at
the union, that it was sabotage by disgruntled Tier Two workers.”<br />
Waun
filed a complaint against the Lake Orion agreement, on the grounds that
it had been approved without a vote of the local membership. If his
brothers and sisters had known about the Tier One/Tier Two clause, he
was sure they would have turned it down.<br />
<br />
“The membership had no
previous knowledge that a 50% pay cut was under consideration until the
announcement on October 3,” Waun wrote in his complaint. “For the
previous 12 months, charging member Nick Waun had perused every local
newsletter, attended every local meeting, and frequently reviewed the
local website. Though negotiations with GM were reported on, there had
been no indication that significant pay cuts might be an issue at the
table.”<br />
<br />
In a letter addressed to “Brother Waun,” UAW President Bob
King replied that the International Executive Board had not only
rejected Waun’s complaint, but that he had no standing to make a
complaint, because he had transferred his local membership from Lake
Orion’s 5960 to Lordstown’s 1112. Waun then appealed to the National
Labor relations Board, which declined to intervene in “an internal Union
matter.”<br />
<br />
So Waun continued his campaign on the Internet. He
became a regular poster on factoryrat.com and autoworkercaravan.org, two
shoprat message boards. During a visit to Michigan, Waun participated
in a demonstration against the two-tier system that was attended by one
of the last surviving Sit-Downers. Bob King labeled him “the number one
troublemaker in the UAW.”<br />
<br />
As I found out when I visited his
trailer in Lordstown, Waun had nothing better to do. Big and soft, with a
shaved head and oblong, half-framed spectacles, Waun lived in
conditions that identified him as a) the tidiest bachelor this side of a
wedding; b) a mustered-out soldier who still abided by barrack-room
standards of neatness, or c) a man who spends most of his nights in a
place he refuses to call home. Probably all three. The <i>only</i> furniture in his living room was a folding card table, on which rested his computer and a copy of <i>Overhaul</i>,
Auto Czar Steven Rattner’s self-congratulatory memoir of how he saved
Detroit, despite spending only one day there and knowing far more about
credit default swaps than internal combustion.<br />
<br />
“I look at it like
camping,” Waun said of his austere life. “I look at it like when I was
in the Army. A lot of times we’d sleep in tents. A lot of times we’d
sleep in trailers.”<br />
<br />
Waun couldn’t travel because he’d burned all
his time off visiting his aged parents in Michigan. Since his brother
lives in Seattle, Waun is the closest, so he used up a month-and-half
sick leave caring for his diabetic father. When his mother’s heater
broke down, Waun took vacation time to fix it. He couldn’t sell his
house, either, because it’s worth less than he paid for it. Nor could he
finish his degree: the school where he earned 90 percent of his credits
is in Michigan. Waun didn’t live where he worked. Nor did he work where
he lived. It was a familiar situation for a soldier, and it was
becoming familiar for autoworkers too.<br />
<br />
“We’ve had guys who’ve had
nervous breakdowns,” he said. “They’re facing divorce. We’ve had three
suicides. They just couldn’t face moving down here. A number of guys got
into drugs. Now they’re in rehab.”<br />
<br />
Waun took the transfer because
had he stayed in Lake Orion, he would never again have earned $28 an
hour. GM has promised to promote Tier Twos to Tier Ones, but given the
economic structure of the auto industry—in which companies must pay
grand retiree benefits while trying to make a profit on fuel-efficient
cars—and the prevailing wages at non-union competitors, Waun believe the
company is using the system to permanently reduce its labor costs.<br />
<br />
“We’re
trying to prevent it from becoming the future,” Waun said. “The Tier
Two was sold to the membership in 2007 as a temporary fix to their
problems. Now that they’re out of bankruptcy, the dog is dead, but the
tail is still wagging.”<br />
The tiered wage system was not just bad
for the Tier Twos, he believed. It was bad for the UAW. The union is
trying to organize Southern plants, but who needs a union that can’t get
you any more money than you’re earning now? It was bad for all American
workers, because the UAW “set a standard for wages in the industrial
world, and industrial America. At $28.12 an hour, people can feed a
family and buy a used car, buy a decent house and maintain a certain
standard of living.” It was bad for GM, because the auto plants would
only attract less skilled, less committed workers. “There are more
minorities and women among the Tier Twos. A lot of the white males
refused to work for the wage. They just quit.” And it was bad for the
auto industry, because those workers would build cars as shoddy as any
Vega that came out of Lordstown in the early ’70s. “People aren’t going
to have a vested interest in the automobile. You’re going to end up with
cars like my Aveo out there. After 50,000 miles, the rear axle came off
and the odometer broke.”<br />
<br />
I visited Waun late in the evening. It
was his early morning, since he worked Third Shift, midnight to eight,
at the building across the highway that was his only reason for leaving
the trailer. Our interview ended as his clock-in time approached. Before
I left, he gave me the phone number of a co-worker named Nadine, who
had suffered even more from the tiered-wage system: she’d been forced to
take a 40 percent pay cut.<br />
<br />
Nadine was a plaintiff in <i>Dragomier et al v. UAW</i>,
a lawsuit filed by a group of Lordstown autoworkers who had been busted
down from Tier One to Tier Two. Nadine hired in at Lordstown in 2002.
After over a dozen years of working for banks and law firms, she changed
the color of her collar because she was tired of sitting in front of a
computer for 15 hours a day. Building cars was an eight-hour job she
could forget about when she went home. Hired as a temporary employee at
70 percent of the full-time rate, by 2008 she was earning $24.40 an
hour. That June, a union representative called in thirty-five temporary
employees, one at a time, and gave them all the same speech: “The
company is finally going to make you permanent. The only thing is,
you’re going to have to take a temporary pay cut. If you don’t, you’ll
be out of the plant by September.”<br />
When Nadine appealed to an
official in the company’s labor-management department, the official told
her, “Take it or leave it. You do this or you’ll be out of a job.”<br />
<br />
Had
Nadine turned down the offer, she would have been ineligible for
unemployment. So she signed. Right away, her life went to hell, inside
and outside the plant. As a single woman, Nadine had no one at home to
share expenses. She cancelled her cable and her internet. That left her
with just enough money to pay the mortgage.<br />
<br />
“I am living like I’m
on unemployment or welfare,” Nadine said bitterly. “I’m struggling to
make my mortgage payments, to live. I’m losing $500 to $700 a week. I
can’t afford to do anything. At work, it’s ‘Oh, what are you doing on
shutdown? I’m going to Florida.’ ‘Oh great, I’m trying not to lose my
house.’ I have nothing in common with people I work with. After I put
gas in my car, pay late bills and late fees, I have $20 left to eat for a
week and a half. I still owe money on a foot surgery from over two
years ago. It’s devastated my life. I’ve lost friends over it. I’ve lost
family over it. I can’t socialize.”<br />
<br />
GM promised to raise Nadine’s
pay when it added a third shift, but ended up filling those jobs with
workers from Delphi Automotive, a parts supplier that had sold some of
its operations to the company. Workers with <i>less</i> seniority were
earning more money than Nadine, which “really raised my rage.” To add
insult to poverty, Nadine was still working on the main assembly line,
instead of the easier, non-assembly work supposed to be assigned to Tier
Twos. Whenever she got off the turnpike at Lordstown, her dread of the
upcoming shift generated “a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach.”
All night, as she installed brake boosters, Nadine reminded herself that
her situation was not the car’s fault, or the customer’s fault. It was
the only way to prevent her acid anger toward GM and the UAW from
eroding her work ethic. Really, the only thing that kept her coming to
the plant every day was the lawsuit against what she knew was an illegal
contract. If she quit, she would lose her standing as an advocate for
all the Tier Twos at all the GM plants.<br />
<br />
“The only reason I’m still there,” she said, “is that I know it’s easier to fight this battle from the inside.”<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
* * *</div>
Tom
Lavey finally went back to work in the spring of 2010, designing floor
mats for Ford. He was a contractor, meaning his company badge was piped
with a green stripe, rather than the blue stripe that identified
full-time employees.<br />
“I’m making more money than I did before the
layoff, but it’s not secure,” he said. “Even if they give you a blue
stripe, it’s not secure. A lot of people don’t trust the car industry
anymore. A lot of engineers left to go to Indiana to work at Navistar.
I’ve got a five-year-old car, and I’m going to drive it into the ground.
I’m check to check. That’s the way everybody feels deep down.”<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
* * *</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
In
Michigan, the 2000s are known as “The Lost Decade.” The Rust Belt was
the site of the nation’s first Great Recession, in the early 1980s. The
First was deeper than the Second — in 1982, Michigan’s unemployment rate
was 14.3 percent, a figure not even 2009 could touch — but it was
briefer, and it did not result in a permanent diminution of
Michiganders’ standard of living. Michigan was the only state to lose
population in the 2000s. In 2000, Michigan’s per capita income was 18th
among states. By 2009, it was 37th. The poverty rate, once fifth lowest,
was 14.4 percent — in the Top 20. Even the obesity rate ballooned to
31.5 percent, putting Michigan among the five fattest states, in the
same league of avoirdupois as Alabama and West Virginia. In college
degrees, Michigan fell from 30th to 35th, as half the graduates left the
state in search of work, like Okies with B.A.s and B.S.s, reversing the
migration from the South that had built it into a Megastate of the
mid-20th century. (By the early 21st, Michigan would be surpassed by
Georgia and North Carolina.) “There’s nothing for them here,” explained a
retired Oldsmobile engineer whose children had dispersed to Colorado
and California. The unemployment, the low education rate, and the
fissured, potholes roads inspired Michiganders to nickname their state
“Michissippi.” It may be even more backwards, as racial resentments
dating back to the 1960s prevent black Detroit and its white-flight
suburbs from acknowledging Michigan can no longer afford so many
municipalities. That’s one reason Michigan’s cities are more decrepit
and more destitute than any other state’s. Benton Harbor, Pontiac and
Flint are so broke their operations have been taken over by emergency
financial managers, appointed by the governor. Detroit is to urban
blight what Paris is to romance. In Lansing, the shopping center where
my family once shopped for groceries, graduation clothes, haircuts,
birthday cakes and garden tools is now anchored by a Laundromat, a Food
for Less, a dollar store and a plasma center—our very own PoorMart,
where a few faded Oldsmobiles and pickup trucks with “$500/OBO” signs
float on a lake of asphalt.<br />
<br />
<i>Excerpted from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608195295/?tag=saloncom08-20">“Nothin’ But Blue Skies: The Heyday, Hard Times and Hopes of America’s Industrial Heartland”</a> by Edward McClelland. Published by Bloomsbury. Copyright 2013 Edward McClelland. Reprinted with permission of the author.</i></div>
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<div class="writerMeta">
Edward McClelland is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Young-Mr-Obama-Chicago-President/dp/1608190609/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298064074&sr=8-1">"Young Mr. Obama: Chicago and the Making of a Black President"</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Nothin-But-Blue-Skies-Industrial/dp/1608195295/ref=la_B001JRZMM4_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1355176583&sr=1-4">"Nothin' But Blue Skies: The Heyday, Hard Times and Hopes of America's Industrial Heartland."</a> Follow him on Twitter at @tedmcclelland. <a class="byline" href="http://www.salon.com/writer/edward_mcclelland/" title="More Edward McClelland.">
More Edward McClelland.
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NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-46783757617836888272013-05-12T10:31:00.000-07:002013-05-12T10:31:51.719-07:00Florida HB 87, Homeowners, and the Foreclosure Inferno<a href="http://www.opednews.com/index.php"><img border="0" height="189" src="http://www.opednews.com/images/oenearthlogo.gif" width="192" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/Florida-HB-87-Homeowners-by-Michael-Collins-130510-603.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Florida HB 87, Homeowners, and the Foreclosure Inferno</span></a></h2>
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<span class="wwscontent"><i>By <a class="wwscontent" href="http://www.opednews.com/michaelcollins" rel="author">Michael Collins</a> <a class="wwscontent" href="http://www.opednews.com/michaelcollins">(about the author)</a></i> <b><a class="wwscontent" href="http://www.opednews.com/articles/Florida-HB-87-Homeowners-by-Michael-Collins-130510-603.html">Permalink</a></b></span> <span class="wwscontentsmall"> (Page 1 of 2 pages)</span><br />
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<span class="wwscontent"><b><time datetime="2013-05-10T18:02:44" pubdate=""></time></b></span></div>
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<b><br /><a href="http://www.opednews.com/">opednews.com</a></b></div>
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<a href="http://agonist.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/hb871.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="hb87" class="populumcaption" data-mce-src="http://agonist.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/hb871.jpg" height="301" src="http://agonist.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/hb871.jpg" width="400" /><br /><span style="font-weight: normal;"><cite class="wwscontentsmaller"> </cite></span></a><br />
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><cite class="wwscontentsmaller">by </cite></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nbr/336982610/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Nathan Rein</a><br class="endpopulumcaption" /> </span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">A
bill passed last week by the Florida legislature offers efficiencies
and advantages to banks that may launch a major increase in </span><nobr><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a class="FAtxtL" href="http://www.opednews.com/populum/#" id="FALINK_1_0_0" rel="nofollow">foreclosures</a></span></nobr><span style="font-weight: normal;">
in the state known for its volatile real estate market. The only thing
standing in the way is a veto by <a href="http://www.flgov.com/contact-governor/" rel="nofollow">Governor Rick Scott</a>. (<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nbr/336982610/" rel="nofollow">Image: Nathan Rein</a>)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">HB
87 shifts the burden of proof from the plaintiff, typically a bank, to
the defendant, the homeowner. If the bill is signed into law,
homeowners must prove that the bank lacks the legal right to take your
home within 20 to 45 days of the date that the bank served the
</span><nobr><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a class="FAtxtL" href="http://www.opednews.com/populum/#" id="FALINK_2_0_1" rel="nofollow">foreclosure</a></span></nobr><span style="font-weight: normal;"> notice. The reduced timeline restricts the ability to
gather evidence from the bank and test it (Does the bank actually have a
legal record of your </span><nobr><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a class="FAtxtL" href="http://www.opednews.com/populum/#" id="FALINK_3_0_2" rel="nofollow">mortgage</a></span></nobr><span style="font-weight: normal;">?). Without the time to discover
evidence, </span><nobr><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a class="FAtxtL" href="http://www.opednews.com/populum/#" id="FALINK_3_0_2" rel="nofollow">homeowners</a></span></nobr><span style="font-weight: normal;"> are at a major disadvantage at the initial hearing
or appealing a decision, presuming there are funds for an appeal.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">The bank-friendly bill, <a href="http://tinyurl.com/cgcn7k5" rel="nofollow">H.B. 87</a>, was passed by the <a href="http://tinyurl.com/ccckofx" rel="nofollow">Florida Senate</a> 27 to 13 and <a href="http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Bills/floorvote.aspx?VoteId=14233&BillId=49274" rel="nofollow">House of Representatives</a>
87 to 26 in partisan votes with Republicans in favor and Democrats
opposed. However, when Democrats in the Florida Senate had
opportunities to stop the bill due to rules violations, none spoke up.
The party line vote was a sideshow that masked the bipartisan assent <a href="http://agonist.org/florida-hb-87/" rel="nofollow">without objection</a> to what may be the most pro-bank legislation in any major state.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Down Market</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">There were 154,000 foreclosure filings this February in the United States. Florida led the way with 32,000, according to a <i>RealtyTrac</i> data as reported by <a href="http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=288686" rel="nofollow"><i>Florida Realtors</i></a>.
For cities over 200,000 people, Florida had seven of the top ten cities
in the nation for "default notices, scheduled actions, and
repossessions," the events that comprise foreclosure filings according
to <i>RealtyTrac</i>.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">The plunge in home values, job losses, a
lack of </span><nobr><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a class="FAtxtL" href="http://www.opednews.com/populum/#" id="FALINK_2_0_1" rel="nofollow">new jobs</a></span></nobr><span style="font-weight: normal;">, and flat wages all work against homeowners trying to
keep a roof over their head. When they fall behind, the banks make
their move, Florida homeowners will find it even more difficult to
protect their rights if this legislation is signed by Governor Rick
Scott.</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Citizen groups are urging a <a href="http://signon.org/sign/governor-scott-veto-floridas" rel="nofollow">veto by the governor</a>.</span><br />
<br />
</b><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="wwscontent"><time datetime="2013-05-10T18:02:44" pubdate=""><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Burden Falls on the Homeowner</span></time></span></span></h3>
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<span class="wwscontent"><b><time datetime="2013-05-10T18:02:44" pubdate=""></time></b></span></div>
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<b>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Real estate </span><nobr><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a class="FAtxtL" href="http://www.opednews.com/populum/#" id="FALINK_1_0_0" rel="nofollow">foreclosures</a></span></nobr><span style="font-weight: normal;"> fall under state law. States are divided between <a href="http://www.realtytrac.com/foreclosure-laws/foreclosure-laws-comparison.asp" rel="nofollow"><i>judicial and non-judicial foreclosure laws</i></a>.
The big bank advantages in non-judicial states are legion. In judicial
foreclosure states, homeowners still have some rights (if they can
afford to exercise them).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Florida is a judicial foreclosure
state. Currently, the court system requires that banks (plaintiffs)
prove their case. Homeowners (defendants) have the right to challenge
foreclosures presuming they have an adequate attorney.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">If Governor
Scott signs HB 87 into law, homeowners will face a new version of due
process before the law. In addition, several timing and evidence
gathering impediments will stack the deck in favor of the banker
plaintiffs. Any hope for justice will become rare among citizens.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">The essence of due process in our legal system is found in the burden of proof: "the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_burden_of_proof" rel="nofollow">necessity of proof</a> always lies with the person who lays charges." The banks <i>lay charges</i> when they initiate foreclosure. Therefore, the banks have the burden of proof. Not in HB 87.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">HB 87, Section 702.10, subsection (1) <a href="http://tinyurl.com/cgcn7k5" rel="nofollow">turns due process upside down</a>. (Lines 250-264, pp. 9, 10)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">The
plaintiff "may request an order to show cause for the entry of final
judgment in a foreclosure." The court "shall immediately review the
request and court file in chambers without a hearing." If "the court
finds that the complaint is verified " the court shall promptly issue an
order directed to the other parties named in the action to show cause
why a final judgment of foreclosure should not be entered."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">The
bank that initiates the action need only provide a written request.
That request is reviewed in chambers without any one challenging the
evidence or logic ("without a hearing"). When the order is issued solely
on the basis of the judge's uninterrupted review in chambers, the
homeowner assumes the burden of proof. <i>Show that this document is false</i>
the court orders. Justice and basic concepts of law are sacrificed to
allow banks greater ease and efficiency in taking possession of your
home.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Another problem created for homeowners is found in timelines
required to make a case against the foreclosure, as limited as the
opportunity may be to have the case heard.</span><br />
</b><time datetime="2013-05-10T18:02:44" pubdate=""><a href="http://tinyurl.com/cgcn7k5" rel="nofollow">Under HB 87, Section 702.10 (1) (a) (1)</a>
(p. 10), a judge will review the complaint without a hearing then issue
an order to show cause to the homeowner. At that point, homeowners
must show cause why they shouldn't be foreclosed on at a hearing set
within 20 to 45 days after service of process (lines 270-274). The
outside limit of the response is 45 days after the initial complaint.
This is a very short timeline particularly when dealing with homeowner
discovery of evidence from a huge corporation like a bank. The 45 day
requirement is also in conflict with the <a href="http://www.floridabar.org/TFB/TFBResources.nsf/Attachments/10C69DF6FF15185085256B29004BF823/$FILE/Civil.pdf?OpenElement" rel="nofollow">Florida Rules of Civil Procedure</a>. Depositions require 30 day notice to witnesses. Witnesses have 30 days to respond to written questions (interrogatories).<br />
<br />
To
have any chance to prevail, you need an attorney the day the bank files
a complaint. That's not all you need on the first day of the
foreclosure filing against you. You must know who all the witnesses are
and produce written questions sharp enough to get the required
evidence. The questions need to go out that very day in accord with the
general rules of civil procedures. If you do all this on day one, you
may have time to obtain some discovery if the hearing has been set after
30 days and the bank doesn't attempt to delay discovery, something
which banks typically do. Talk about the perfect storm.<br />
<br />
HB 87
greatly reduces plaintiff requirements for proof of a mortgage
agreement. It is well known that the banks set up their own recording
system for mortgages that bypassed normal recording <a href="http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/wheres-note-shock-and-awe-big-banks" rel="nofollow">requirements</a>. They did this in order to bundle and sell mortgages leading up the Wall Street crash of 2008. (See <a href="http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/foreclosuregate-deal-mandatory-cover" rel="nofollow"><i>ForeclosureGate Deal</i></a>
). When requested, banks are often at a loss to produce the basis for
the mortgage agreement, original documents. HB 87 loosens the
documentation requirements to enforce contracts that may be just scraps
of photocopied paper. (See <a href="http://tinyurl.com/cgcn7k5" rel="nofollow">HB 87 702.015 (4) lines 125-137, p. 5</a>)<br />
HB
87 closes the door on any objections to errors in the foreclosure
process in Section 702.036, (1) (a), lines 162-169 (pp. 6, 7) <a href="http://tinyurl.com/cgcn7k5" rel="nofollow">Finality of mortgage foreclosure judgment</a>.<br />
<br />
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;">
"In
any action or proceeding in which a party seeks to set aside,
invalidate, or challenge the validity of a final judgment ", the court
shall treat such request solely as a claim for monetary damages and may
not grant relief that adversely affects the quality or character of the
title to the property."</div>
<div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;">
<br /></div>
Once the judge issues his/her order to
show cause at the quickie hearing in favor of the bank and the 30 day
period to file an appeal expires, the homeowner can produce undisputable
proof that the bank had no right to be awarded the home. In this
case, the only damages available are monetary awards. The issue of home
ownership and title cannot be changed under the new law. No amount of
monetary damages will replace the value of a family home.<br />
<br />
Once
again, the perpetrators of the biggest transfer of wealth in history are
given even more advantages, right where those advantages count, in the
law.<br />
Will Governor Scott sign legislation that lets banks take
homes with a low standard of proof or will he respond to the needs of
the people represented by those signing <a href="http://signon.org/sign/governor-scott-veto-floridas" rel="nofollow">the petition for a veto </a>? Nothing less than due process and all that implies is at stake.<br />
<br />
Will the Democrats start looking more like the party of Lawton Chiles than Jeb Bush?<br />
<br />
Will the media wake up to the cloak of secrecy and the motives for that cloak in time to alert the people?<br />
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</time><b><time datetime="2013-05-10T18:02:44" pubdate=""><div align="center">
END</div>
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This article may be reposted with attribution of authorship and a link to this article.</div>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">http://themoneyparty.org</span><br />
<br />
Michael Collins is a writer in the DC area who researches and comments
on the corruptions of the new millennium. His articles focus on the
financial manipulations of The Money Party, the abuse of power by
government, and features on elections and (<a href="http://www.opednews.com/author/author3863.html">more...</a>)</time></b><b><time datetime="2013-05-10T18:02:44" pubdate=""></time></b> NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-27944709624360546642013-04-10T18:00:00.000-07:002013-04-10T18:34:22.685-07:00Things you can buy with the $ you got for having your house stolen by the megabanks<h3>
http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/</h3>
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<header id="stat-header">
<hgroup>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/" title="Home">What You Can Buy For Having Your House Stolen</a></span></h2>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></h2>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: large;">The OCC <a href="http://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2013/nr-ia-2013-60a.pdf">announced on 4/9/13</a> how much $ homeowners that banks wrongfully foreclosed on will get. Here's what they can buy!</span></h2>
<br />
<time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""><a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47557740516/about-one-hours-worth-of-legal-advice" rel="bookmark">April 9, 2013</a></time>
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47557740516/about-one-hours-worth-of-legal-advice" rel="bookmark">About One Hour’s Worth of Legal Advice</a></span></h2>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></h2>
</hgroup>
<section>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/45126397@N06/4990557451/" title="Lawyer Bashing Is Fun by rkrichardson, on Flickr"><img alt="Lawyer Bashing Is Fun" height="375" src="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4078/4990557451_b175686d62.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
“Hello, yes, it’s very nice to meet you, too, I’m LAWYER.”<br />
<br />
“Ok, so, you were approved for a loan modification? Great! So legally
the bank can no longer foreclose on you. Oh? You are still being
foreclosed on? I’m very sorry to hear that.”<br />
<br />
“How long has this been going on? And you received $500 as a part of the <a href="http://twitter.com/USOCC" target="_blank">@USOCC</a> settlement with the banks?”<br />
<br />
“Well, you can still pursue legal action. Next steps? Well, I’m
afraid our one hour is up. If you’d like to continue, we’ll need to
schedule another meeting. And yes, my rate is $500/hour, so if you need
to set up a payment plan we can definitely help you with that…”<br />
<br />
h/t <a href="https://twitter.com/kiplet" target="_blank">@kiplet</a><br />
</section>
Filed under <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/OCC">OCC</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/IFR">IFR</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/independent-foreclosure-review">independent foreclosure review</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/dual-tracking">dual-tracking</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/megabanks">megabanks</a><hgroup><br />
<br />
<time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""><a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47554229608/enough-alcohol-to-drown-your-sorrows" rel="bookmark">April 9, 2013</a></time>
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47554229608/enough-alcohol-to-drown-your-sorrows" rel="bookmark">Enough Alcohol To Drown Your Sorrows</a></span></h2>
</hgroup>
<section>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brosner/1332346/" title="Another Alcohol Shot by brosner, on Flickr"><img alt="Another Alcohol Shot" height="375" src="http://farm1.staticflickr.com/2/1332346_68efb8e1b4.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
Yes, maligned homeowner, one of the megabanks screwed you. You had a
loan modification request APPROVED, and yet you were STILL foreclosed
on. The banks fucked up, what can we say?<br />
<br />
You know, it was probably Wells Fargo, who had up to an 80% error rate in foreclosure files reviewed, <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323293704578332560551745742.html" target="_blank">as reported on by the WSJ last year</a>: “Ms.
Cordova, who trained contract workers on a review of Wells Fargo files
in Orange, Calif., said the rate of errors on files she saw was rising
when banks and regulators halted the exams. Certain batches produced
error rates as high as 45% to 80% in late 2012, she added.”<br />
<br />
But don’t worry! The <a href="http://twitter.com/USOCC" target="_blank">@USOCC</a> has a solution! They’re gonna make the banks <a href="https://twitter.com/alexisgoldstein/status/321648266917867520" target="_blank">pay you between $300 and $500</a>!<br />
<br />
THINK OF ALL THE BOOZE YOU CAN BUY WITH THAT MONEY!?<br />
Who needs a house when you can drown your sorrows with drink?!<br />
h/t <a href="https://twitter.com/smcke0wn" target="_blank">@smck0wn</a><br />
<br />
</section>
<div class="stat-tumblr-tags">
Filed under <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/OCC">OCC</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/IFR">IFR</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/independent-foreclosure-review">independent foreclosure review</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/dual-tracking">dual-tracking</a> </div>
<header>
<div class="stat-notes">
<a class="stat-bubble" href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47552600039/ten-pitchforks-yeah-sure-you-are-only-getting#notes"><i> </i></a><br />
<br />
<br />
</div>
<time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""><a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47552600039/ten-pitchforks-yeah-sure-you-are-only-getting" rel="bookmark">April 9, 2013</a></time>
<div class="stat-media-wrapper">
<a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/image/47552600039"><img alt="Ten Pitchforks
Yeah, sure, you are only getting $500 for being foreclosed on even though the bank approved your loan mod. Hey, you know, the banks mess up sometimes! And sure, the consultant who reviewed your file &amp; your tale of heartbreak made $10,000.
But think about it! With that $500 you can buy TEN PITCHFORKS and go visit the offices of Promonotory Financial Group (Where The Bank Regulators Go To Get Rich™)." src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/990baf63c01e27b19cfc622c4ba7c61e/tumblr_ml03f2jcVS1snijlzo1_500.png" /></a></div>
</header>
<section><h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47552600039/ten-pitchforks-yeah-sure-you-are-only-getting" target="_blank">Ten Pitchforks</a></span></h2>
Yeah, sure, <a href="https://twitter.com/alexisgoldstein/status/321651817236819970" target="_blank">you are only getting <b>$500</b> for being foreclosed on</a>
even though the bank approved your loan mod. Hey, you know, the banks
mess up sometimes! And sure, the consultant who reviewed your file &
your tale of heartbreak <a href="http://www.americanbanker.com/magazine/123_4/how-promontory-financial-became-banking-s-shadow-regulator-1057480-1.html?pg=8" target="_blank">made <b>$10,000</b></a>.<br />
<br />
But think about it! With that $500 you can buy <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002GQ718A?ie=UTF8&camp=213733&creative=393177&creativeASIN=B002GQ718A&linkCode=shr&tag=livetotry-20" target="_blank">TEN PITCHFORKS</a> and go visit the offices of Promonotory Financial Group (<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-07/where-bank-regulators-go-to-get-rich.html" target="_blank">Where The Bank Regulators Go To Get Rich</a>™).<br />
</section>
Filed under <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/promonotory">promonotory</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/consultant-rip-off">consultant rip-off</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/IFR">IFR</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/OCC">OCC</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/foreclosure-settlement">foreclosure settlement</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/independent-foreclosure-review">independent foreclosure review</a><hgroup><br />
<br />
<br />
<time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""><a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47551946276/nearly-four-months-rent-in-alaska-if-you-are" rel="bookmark">April 9, 2013</a></time>
</hgroup><div class="stat-media-wrapper">
<a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/image/47551946276"><img alt="Nearly Four Months Rent in Alaska
If you are being illegally foreclosed on FOR NO REASON (you are not even in default), the @USOCC will make the banks pay you $5000 for this illegal foreclosure.
You could rent a place in Alaska for like 4 months with that money! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN COMPLAINING ABOUT, WRONGED BORROWER! " src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/03c126e52ed9c79f7bc7e64e3b6cb020/tumblr_ml02vyoqCE1snijlzo1_r1_500.png" /></a></div>
<section><h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47551946276/if-you-are-being-illegally-foreclosed-on-for-no">Nearly Four Months Rent in Alaska</a></span></h2>
If you are being illegally foreclosed on FOR NO REASON (you are not even in default), the <a href="https://twitter.com/USOCC" target="_blank">@USOCC</a> will <a href="https://twitter.com/alexisgoldstein/status/321644664149114880" target="_blank">make the banks pay you $5000 for this illegal foreclosure</a>.<br />
<br />
You could rent a place in Alaska for like 4 months with that money! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN COMPLAINING ABOUT, WRONGED BORROWER!<br />
</section>
<div class="stat-tumblr-tags">
Filed under <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/OCC">OCC</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/IFR">IFR</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/illegal-foreclosures">illegal foreclosures</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/foreclosure-settlement">foreclosure settlement</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/independent-foreclosure-review">independent foreclosure review</a></div>
<div class="stat-tumblr-tags">
</div>
<article class="stat-photo" id="post-47551095470">
<header>
<div class="stat-notes">
<a class="stat-bubble" href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47551095470/who-needs-a-house-when-you-can-buy-a-tent-yeah#notes"><i> </i></a><br />
<br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="stat-notes">
<br /></div>
<time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""><a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47551095470/who-needs-a-house-when-you-can-buy-a-tent-yeah" rel="bookmark">April 9, 2013</a></time></header><header><time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""> </time>
<div class="stat-media-wrapper">
<a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/image/47551095470"><img alt="Who Needs a House When You Can Buy a TENT!
Yeah, you are not in default, and thus the foreclosure you are STILL IN is TOTALLY ILLEGAL!
But come on, the @USOCC is gonna make the banks pay you $5000 for this foreclosure the bank is illegally conducting. $5000! DO YOU SEE THIS TENT YOU CAN BUY WITH $5000?!? WHO NEEDS A HOME WITH A TENT LIKE THIS?! " src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/9e9474034b5e0bfe720723fff2d86f14/tumblr_ml026c1rB21snijlzo1_500.png" /></a></div>
</header>
<section><h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47551095470/yeah-you-are-not-in-default-and-thus-the" target="_blank">Who Needs a House When You Can Buy a TENT!</a></span></h2>
Yeah, you are not in default, and thus the foreclosure you are STILL IN is TOTALLY ILLEGAL!<br />
<br />
But come on, the <a href="https://twitter.com/USOCC" target="_blank">@USOCC</a> is gonna <a href="https://twitter.com/alexisgoldstein/status/321644664149114880" target="_blank">make the banks pay you $5000 for this foreclosure the bank is illegally conducting</a>. $5000! DO YOU SEE THIS TENT YOU CAN BUY WITH $5000?!? WHO NEEDS A HOME WITH A TENT LIKE THIS?!<br />
</section>
</article>
<article class="stat-photo" id="post-47550616272">
<header>
<div class="stat-notes">
<a class="stat-bubble" href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47550616272/like-300-boxes-of-kleenex-if-you-were-foreclosed#notes"><i> </i></a></div>
<div class="stat-notes">
<br /></div>
<time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""> </time></header><header><time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""> </time></header><header><time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""> </time></header><header><time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""><a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47550616272/like-300-boxes-of-kleenex-if-you-were-foreclosed" rel="bookmark">April 9, 2013</a></time>
<div class="stat-media-wrapper">
<a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/image/47550616272"><img alt="Like 300 Boxes of Kleenex
If you were foreclosed on because of &#8220;dual-tracking,&#8221; where one part of the bank approved your loan mod, but the foreclosure department, uh, didn&#8217;t talk to them, the @USOCC is really sorry!
They&#8217;re going to make the banks pay you $300!
You can buy 300 boxes of Kleenex with that, to help dry all your tears! YOU&#8217;RE WELCOME!" src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/e56a70f98f69e3186f868549839b56de/tumblr_ml01s15LJZ1snijlzo1_500.png" /></a></div>
</header>
<section><h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47550616272/if-you-were-foreclosed-on-because-of">Like 300 Boxes of Kleenex</a></span></h2>
If you were foreclosed on because of “<a href="http://www.ncbrc.org/blog/2013/02/04/new-cfpb-rules-fail-to-resolve-problem-of-dual-tracking-on-delinquent-mortgages/" target="_blank">dual-tracking</a>,” where one part of the bank approved your loan mod, but the foreclosure department, uh, didn’t talk to them, <a href="http://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2013/nr-ia-2013-60a.pdf" target="_blank">the @USOCC is really sorry</a>!<br />
<br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/alexisgoldstein/status/321650338845310977" target="_blank">They’re going to make the banks pay you $300! </a><br />
<br />
You can buy 300 boxes of Kleenex with that, to help dry all your tears! YOU’RE WELCOME!<br />
</section>
<div class="stat-tumblr-tags">
Filed under <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/OCC">OCC</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/Fed">Fed</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/IFR">IFR</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/independent-foreclosure-review">independent foreclosure review</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/dual-tracking">dual-tracking</a></div>
<div class="stat-tumblr-tags">
</div>
</article>
<article class="stat-photo" id="post-47550116045">
<header>
<div class="stat-notes">
<a class="stat-bubble" href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47550116045/two-months-rent-in-a-storage-facility-sure-you#notes"><i> </i></a></div>
<div class="stat-notes">
<br /></div>
<time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""> </time></header><header><time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""> </time></header><header><time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""> </time></header><header><time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""><a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47550116045/two-months-rent-in-a-storage-facility-sure-you" rel="bookmark">April 9, 2013</a></time></header><header><time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""> </time>
<div class="stat-media-wrapper">
<a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/image/47550116045"><img alt="Two Months Rent in a Storage Facility!
Sure, you were wrongfully foreclosed on by a bank whose loan modification dept can&#8217;t comunicate with its foreclosure dept.
But come on! With your @USOCC settlement of $300, you can buy like 2.3 months of storage in DC!
BE GRATEFUL, OKAY?!" src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/3c91ec7b793854d16f82837c1e9e590d/tumblr_ml01cuPYHJ1snijlzo1_500.png" /></a></div>
</header>
<section><h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47550116045/sure-you-were-wrongfully-foreclosed-on-by-a-bank">Two Months Rent in a Storage Facility!</a></span></h2>
Sure, you were wrongfully foreclosed on by a bank <a href="http://www.ncbrc.org/blog/2013/02/04/new-cfpb-rules-fail-to-resolve-problem-of-dual-tracking-on-delinquent-mortgages/" target="_blank">whose loan modification dept can’t comunicate with its foreclosure dept</a>.<br />
<br />
But come on! <a href="https://twitter.com/alexisgoldstein/status/321650338845310977" target="_blank">With your </a><a href="https://twitter.com/alexisgoldstein/status/321650338845310977" target="_blank">@<b>USOCC</b></a><a href="https://twitter.com/alexisgoldstein/status/321650338845310977" target="_blank"> settlement of $300</a>, you can buy like 2.3 months of storage in DC!<br />
<br />
<b>BE GRATEFUL, OKAY?!</b><br />
</section>
<div class="stat-tumblr-tags">
Filed under <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/OCC">OCC</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/IFR">IFR</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/independent-foreclosure-review">independent foreclosure review</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/settlement">settlement</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/illegal-foreclosures">illegal foreclosures</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/dual-tracking">dual-tracking</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/SIFUABS">SIFUABS</a></div>
<div class="stat-tumblr-tags">
</div>
</article>
<article class="stat-photo" id="post-47549723302">
<header>
<div class="stat-notes">
<a class="stat-bubble" href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47549723302/a-dollhouse-a-homeowner-who-had-a-loan-mod#notes"><i> </i></a></div>
<div class="stat-notes">
<br /></div>
<time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""> </time></header><header><time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""> </time></header><header><time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""> </time></header><header><time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""><a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47549723302/a-dollhouse-a-homeowner-who-had-a-loan-mod" rel="bookmark">April 9, 2013</a></time>
<div class="stat-media-wrapper">
<img alt="A Dollhouse!
A homeowner who had a loan mod APPROVED, but was STILL FORECLOSED on gets $300-500. You may have lost your home, but don&#8217;t worry, you can still buy this nice dollhouse (if you borrow $5 extra bucks that is)!" src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/83bdf9c17a392be532fbc3966162eea8/tumblr_ml0113m6WX1snijlzo1_250.jpg" /></div>
</header>
<section><h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47549723302/a-homeowner-who-had-a-loan-mod-approved-but-was">A Dollhouse!</a></span></h2>
A homeowner who had a loan mod APPROVED, but was STILL
FORECLOSED on gets $300-500. You may have lost your home, but don’t
worry, you can still buy <a href="http://www.miniatures.com/The-Lancaster-Dollhouse-by-Real-Good-Toys-MP-P24080.aspx?mr:referralID=12e82b34-a13c-11e2-a969-001b2166c2c0&media=WGGSX3" target="_blank">this nice dollhouse</a> (if you borrow $5 extra bucks that is)!<br />
</section>
<div class="stat-tumblr-tags">
Filed under <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/OCC">OCC</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/IFR">IFR</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/Settlement">Settlement</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/independent-foreclosure-review">independent foreclosure review</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/bank-errors">bank errors</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/banks-got-bailed-out-we-got-sold-out">banks got bailed out we got sold out</a></div>
<div class="stat-tumblr-tags">
</div>
</article>
<article class="stat-photo" id="post-47549004554">
<header>
<div class="stat-notes">
<a class="stat-bubble" href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47549004554/an-iphone-5-uh-w-a-2yr-contract-you-can-buy#notes"><i> </i></a></div>
<time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""> </time></header><header><time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""> </time></header><header><time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""> </time></header><header><time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""> </time></header><header><time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""><a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47549004554/an-iphone-5-uh-w-a-2yr-contract-you-can-buy" rel="bookmark">April 9, 2013</a></time>
<div class="stat-media-wrapper">
<a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/image/47549004554"><img alt="An iPhone 5! (Uh, w/ a 2yr contract&#8230;)
You can buy a 32GB iPhone 5 if you are a homeowners who had a loan modification APPROVED, but are STILL BEING FORECLOSED ON because the banks do not have their shit together (one dept handles loan mods, another handles foreclosures; this is called &#8220;dual-tracking&#8221;)! Congratulations! It only took the pain and suffering of a foreclosure fight that wasn&#8217;t your fault to get the $ for your new phone! Enjoy!" src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/8d8c7f1bf8474c2d32792d3c6c650496/tumblr_ml00f3YmxR1snijlzo1_500.png" /></a></div>
</header>
<section><h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47549004554/you-can-buy-a-32gb-iphone-5-if-you-are-a">An iPhone 5! (Uh, w/ a 2yr contract…)</a></span></h2>
You can buy a 32GB iPhone 5 if you are a homeowners who had a loan
modification APPROVED, but are STILL BEING FORECLOSED ON because the
banks do not have their shit together (one dept handles loan mods,
another handles foreclosures; this is called “dual-tracking”)!
Congratulations! It only took the pain and suffering of a foreclosure
fight that wasn’t your fault to get the $ for your new phone! Enjoy!</section>
<div class="stat-tumblr-tags">
<br />
<br />
Filed under <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/OCC">OCC</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/IFR">IFR</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/settle">settle</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/independent-foreclosure-review">independent foreclosure review</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/bank-errors">bank errors</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/servicer-errors">servicer errors</a> </div>
</article>
<header>
<div class="stat-notes">
<a class="stat-bubble" href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47548779392/in-usocc-settlement-234k-homeowners-had-a-loan#notes"><i> </i></a></div>
<time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""> </time></header><header><time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""> </time></header><header><time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""> </time></header><header><time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""> </time></header><header><time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""><a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47548779392/in-usocc-settlement-234k-homeowners-had-a-loan" rel="bookmark">April 9, 2013</a></time>
<blockquote>
<b>In @USOCC settlement, 234K+ homeowners had a loan modification APPROVED, but were STILL FORECLOSED ON. They get a paltry $300</b></blockquote>
</header>
<section><a href="https://twitter.com/alexisgoldstein/status/321648266917867520">https://twitter.com/alexisgoldstein/status/321648266917867520</a></section><section> </section> </header><header id="stat-header">Filed under <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/IFR">IFR</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/OCC">OCC</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/Fed">Fed</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/independent-foreclosure-review">independent foreclosure review</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/settlement">settlement</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/bank-errors">bank errors</a><hgroup><br />
</hgroup><hgroup></hgroup><hgroup></hgroup><hgroup><br />
<br />
<time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""> </time></hgroup><hgroup><time datetime="2013-04-09" pubdate=""><a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47547924883/things-you-can-buy-with-the-you-got-for-having-your" rel="bookmark">April 9, 2013</a></time>
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47547924883/things-you-can-buy-with-the-you-got-for-having-your" rel="bookmark">Things you can buy with the $ you got for having your house stolen by the megabanks</a></span></h2>
</hgroup>
<section>
<div class="s-header">
<div class="s-description">
The OCC <a href="http://www.occ.gov/topics/consumer-protection/foreclosure-prevention/correcting-foreclosure-practices.html" target="_blank">announced on April 9th, 2013</a> the <a href="http://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2013/nr-ia-2013-60a.pdf" target="_blank">details of how much money the banks will pay homeowners</a> who were found to be wrongfully foreclosed on—or who suffered financial harm at the hands of the banks. </div>
<div class="s-description">
<br /></div>
<div class="s-description">
This is compensation for losing your home due
to ERRORS BY THE BANKS. This is not homeowners who were foreclosed on
because they didn’t pay. This is $ given to those WRONGFULLY FORECLOSED
ON because the banks messed up.</div>
<div class="s-description">
This settlement is a slap in the face for many
homeowners. This tumblr is dedicated to the things YOU CAN NOW BUY with
the compensation you received for having your home STOLEN BY THE BANK.</div>
<div class="s-description">
<br /></div>
</div>
</section>
Filed under <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/independent-foreclosure-review">independent foreclosure review</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/IFR">IFR</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/OCC">OCC</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/Fed">Fed</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/Settlement">Settlement</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/wrongful-foreclosures">wrongful foreclosures</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/bank-errors">bank errors</a> <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/tagged/illegal-foreclosures">illegal foreclosures</a><hgroup></hgroup><hgroup></hgroup><hgroup></hgroup><hgroup><br />
<br />
<br />
</hgroup><hgroup><a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/post/47547924883/things-you-can-buy-with-the-you-got-for-having-your" rel="bookmark">April 9, 2013</a><br />
<br />
<h2>
<a href="https://twitter.com/usocc">Thank the @USOCC</a> for this Hot Mess!</h2>
</hgroup>
<div class="stat-about-content">
The OCC announced on 4/9/13 <a href="http://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2013/nr-ia-2013-60a.pdf">how much $ homeowners that banks wrongfully foreclosed on will get</a>. Here's what they can buy! <br />
<br />
For complete background, see this Storify, "<a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/page/storify.com/alexisgoldstein/insults-and-injuries-in-the-occ-foreclosure-settle/">Insults & Injuries in the OCC Foreclosure Settlement Payouts</a>"</div>
<hgroup><br />
<h2>
</h2>
</hgroup>
</header>NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-21649969920253405222013-04-10T17:41:00.000-07:002013-04-10T18:04:57.462-07:00Things you can buy with the $ you got for having your house stolen by the megabanks<h2>
</h2>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.salon.com/">
SALON
</a></span></h2>
<br />
<br />
<span class="dateline">
<span class="toLocalTime" data-tlt-epoch-time="1365542100">Tuesday, Apr 9, 2013 9:15 PM UTC</span> </span>
<br />
<h1>
<a class="gaTrackLinkEvent" data-ga-track-json="["navigation", "click", "Bank stole your house? Have 10 pitchforks’ worth of compensation"]" href="http://www.salon.com/2013/04/09/bank_stole_your_house_have_10_pitchforks_worth_of_compensation/">
Bank stole your house? Have 10 pitchforks’ worth of compensation </a>
</h1>
<h2>
Alexis Goldstein is listing items victims of
wrongful foreclosure can afford with piddling OCC settlement sums </h2>
<h2>
<span class="hasSlideShow"> </span></h2>
<h2>
<span class="hasSlideShow">SLIDE SHOW</span> </h2>
<span class="byline">By <a class="gaTrackLinkEvent" data-ga-track-json="["author", "click", "Natasha Lennard"]" href="http://www.salon.com/writer/natasha_lennard/" rel="author">Natasha Lennard</a>
<a class="shareButton facebookFollow " data-headline="Bank stole your house? Have 10 pitchforks’ worth of compensation" data-screen-name="1" data-service="facebookFollow" data-share-url="http://www.facebook.com/tash.lennard" data-thumbnail="http://media.salon.com/2013/04/shutterstock_51518569-300x200.jpg" href="http://www.facebook.com/tash.lennard">
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<div class="topics">
Topics:
<a class="gaTrackLinkEvent" data-ga-track-json="["topic", "click", "slideshow"]" href="http://www.salon.com/topic/slideshow">slideshow</a>,
<a class="gaTrackLinkEvent" data-ga-track-json="["topic", "click", "forclosure"]" href="http://www.salon.com/topic/forclosure">forclosure</a>,
<a class="gaTrackLinkEvent" data-ga-track-json="["topic", "click", "occ"]" href="http://www.salon.com/topic/occ">occ</a>,
<a class="gaTrackLinkEvent" data-ga-track-json="["topic", "click", "u_s_government"]" href="http://www.salon.com/topic/u_s_government">U.S. Government</a>,
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<div class="topics">
<br /></div>
<div class="topics">
</div>
<div class="featuredMedia">
<a class="lightBox" href="http://media.salon.com/2013/04/shutterstock_51518569.jpg" title="Bank stole your house? Have 10 pitchforks' worth of compensation"><img alt="Bank stole your house? Have 10 pitchforks' worth of compensation" height="425" src="http://media.salon.com/2013/04/shutterstock_51518569.jpg" title="Bank stole your house? Have 10 pitchforks' worth of compensation" width="640" /></a><span class="caption"> <span class="photoCredit"> </span></span></div>
<div class="featuredMedia">
<span class="caption"><span class="photoCredit">(Credit: Shutterstock/Andy Dean Photography)</span></span></div>
<div class="featuredMedia">
</div>
<div class="featuredMedia">
</div>
<div class="articleContent">
First
as tragedy, then as farce. The Office of the Comptroller of the
Currency (OCC) announced Tuesday details of how much money the banks
will pay homeowners who were found to be wrongfully foreclosed on, or
who suffered financial harm at the hands of the banks. Just as a
sampling, individuals who had loan modifications approved by banks but
were still foreclosed upon will receive a paltry $300. Six hundred
seventy-nine people were faced with foreclosure even though they were
never once in default; they will be compensated $5,000.<br />
<br />
Former
Wall Street V.P. and current Occupy Wall Street activist and member of
Strike Debt Alexis Goldstein took it upon herself Tuesday to put the
payouts in a little context. She created a site detailing <a href="http://forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com/">“What You Can Buy for Having Your House Stolen,”</a>
on which she lists a varied taxonomy of items the compensation can
afford wrongfully foreclosed individuals — all the items that are <i>not your house back. </i>Goldstein
told Salon via email, “I’m hoping to (1) draw attention to the OCC, one
of the lesser-known banking regulators who are completely captured by
the banks. (2) point out how egregiously low these settlement numbers
are.”<br />
<br />
We thought we’d pick out some of Goldstein’s choice examples
to drive the message home in the following slideshow. (All slideshow
text from Goldstein’s forhavingmyhousestolen.tumblr.com)<br />
<br />
<a class="toggle-group toggleOnScroll trigger remember refreshAds gaTrackPageEvent" data-toggle-group="story-13266161" href="http://www.salon.com/2013/04/09/bank_stole_your_house_have_10_pitchforks_worth_of_compensation/">
</a> </div>
<div class="writerMeta">
Natasha Lennard is an assistant news editor at Salon,
covering non-electoral politics, general news and rabble-rousing. Follow
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<br />NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-62898361513250796592012-08-09T08:11:00.003-07:002012-08-09T08:11:46.248-07:00Time to REBEL! 5 Ways We Can Break the Big Banks' Death Grip on the Economy<br />
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<a href="http://www.alternet.org/time-rebel-5-ways-we-can-break-big-banks-death-grip-economy?paging=off" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Time to REBEL! 5 Ways We Can Break the Big Banks' Death Grip on the Economy</a></h1>
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Wall Street’s incredible greed and arrogance may have finally handed us the tools and leverage we need.</div>
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<em>
<span class="field field-name-field-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"><span class="field-items"><span class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single" content="2012-08-08T05:37:00-07:00">August 8, 2012</span></span></span></span></em> | </div>
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<cite>Photo Credit: Lily Rothrock via Flickr</cite></div>
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Let’s
be honest. Many people are feeling a little hopeless and cynical about
whether anything can change how Wall Street banks run roughshod over the
economy and our democracy. We’ve marched, rallied, sat-in and thousands
have been arrested--and yet bankers have remained unrepentant,
unpunished, unindicted and seemingly untouchable. But the wheels of
history are turning and Wall Street’s incredible greed and arrogance may
have finally handed us the tools and leverage we need to challenge and
break the death grip Wall Street has on struggling people and
communities around the country.<br />
<br />
Two critical tools--the LIBOR fraud scandal and the potential to start exercising <a href="http://business.time.com/2012/07/12/should-eminent-domain-be-used-to-save-underwater-homes/%20">eminent</a> <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/07/13/156683302/county-considers-eminent-domain-as-foreclosure-fix">domain</a> to
seize bank-owned properties--can supercharge the ongoing campaigns
focused on Wall Street. For the first time we can align moral and legal
arguments with real leverage to demand that banks renegotiate the debt
that is bankrupting communities and drowning homeowners around the
country. The single most important step we can take to address local
budget deficits is to force banks to renegotiate toxic deals held by
local government and to rewrite mortgages for underwater homeowners.
Combined, this would pump hundreds of billions into local economies.<br />
<br />
First some definitions:<br />
<br />
<strong>The LIBOR fraud scandal </strong>may
seem confusing, but it is really pretty simple. Over $800 trillion in
loans, derivatives and other financial deals are based on LIBOR (the
London Interbank Offered Rate). The banks fixed the rate to increase
their profits at our expense and now everyone all over the world is
trying to figure out how much it has cost the rest of us.<br />
<br />
Whatever
the ultimate number is (there are estimates of hundreds of billions in
damages), this scandal has permanently torpedoed the notion that there
is “moral hazard” in debt relief for regular folks. We can now prove
what we’ve always suspected--that the big banks have rigged the game in
their favor and that our deals with them are inherently unfair and
should be renegotiated. Oakland, California has taken a first step by
demanding Goldman Sachs renegotiate a toxic swap the city is trapped in,
saying it will boycott Goldman Sachs in the future if the bank won’t
renegotiate.<br />
<br />
<strong>Eminent Domain. </strong>Government has long
seized property to create room to build shopping malls and stadiums.
Those same laws can be used to seize underwater mortgages from banks and
then rewrite them at their real value so homeowners can stay in their
homes at greatly reduced mortgage costs. If banks are unwilling to reset
mortgages at fair market value, then local governments can lawfully
seize their property for the common economic good. They would merely
have to pay the banks fair market value for the mortgages, which would
force the banks to take significant writedowns. <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/07/13/156683302/county-considers-eminent-domain-as-foreclosure-fix">San Bernardino County</a> and <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/business/bottomline/article/Eminent-domain-plan-gaining-support-3751091.php">Berkeley, California</a> have already started down this road.<br />
<br />
It
is time to REBEL, against Wall Street and the big banks and to start
fixing the economy and reclaim our democracy. There are five steps to
this:<br />
<strong>1. Renegotiate public and housing debt. </strong>We
need to lift up the demand loud and clear that we want to renegotiate
public debt and that it is unfair and illegal to hold local governments
and public services hostage to Wall Street’s toxic loans. It is
estimated that banks have already sucked more than $50 billion out of
local communities through toxic loans, fees and tricky deals that cities
are locked into.<br />
<br />
<strong>2. Exercise eminent domain. </strong>There are 16 million underwater homes, worth $2.8 trillion, that are <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/24/business/la-fi-mo-zillow-underwater-20120524">$1.2 trillion</a>
underwater. Resetting those mortgages to fair market value would save
the average underwater homeowner $543 per month, pumping $104 billion
into the national economy every year. This would create 1.5 million jobs
nationally.* If just five of the most severely underwater cities used
eminent domain they could seize $140 billion worth of underwater homes
from banks, forcing banks to take a $30 billion haircut on underwater
loans.<br />
<br />
<strong>3. Boycott big banks and move public money. </strong>One
of the key profit centers for banks is their government business. And
it isn’t just LIBOR they cheated on. There are investigations and
growing scandals around <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-scam-wall-street-learned-from-the-mafia-20120620">price fixing on municipal bonds</a> as well. Furthermore, banks are holding cities hostage on <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704062604576106282512683312.html">Letters of Credit (LOC’s)</a> by
ratcheting up the cost knowing if cities refuse to pay they may be
forced to pay huge termination fees. If increasing numbers of cities,
pension funds and other holders of public capital chose to boycott
certain big banks and moved money out of those banks, it could be a huge
financial hit for them.<br />
<br />
<strong>4. Enact resolutions at local governments and pension funds. </strong>There
is a simple way to get started that will send chills down Wall Street
banks’ spines. Let’s start moving resolutions in cities and counties big
and small around the country, demanding that local government and
pension funds explore suing banks over LIBOR and prepare to use eminent
domain to seize underwater mortgages from banks if they won’t
renegotiate debt. <a href="http://www.calorganize.org/stopcommunitydebt">This sample resolution</a>
is a first step in raising the issue locally and starting to build a
campaign to force local governments to hold Wall Street accountable.<br />
<br />
<strong>5. Litigate and legislate. </strong>But
it isn’t enough just to pass resolutions--that is only a first step. If
the banks refuse to renegotiate the debt than we need to litigate and
legislate in our local communities. Our pension funds need to sue to
recoup their losses. Local government needs to sue to get out of bad
deals and claw back money banks unfairly made off of local taxpayers.
And we need to follow the lead of Oakland, Los Angeles and other cities
that have passed laws saying they will divest from banks that engage in
unfair banking practices.<br />
<br />
Since the financial crisis hit in 2008,
community groups like National People’s Action, ACCE, New York
Communities for Change, the New Bottom Line, the Alliance for a Just
Society and Right to the City, to name a few, have joined with unions,
Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Our Homes and hundreds of thousands of people
who have stood up to Wall Street greed. Wall Street and banking royalty
are no longer untouchable. We have the tools and we have the
leverage--let's start using them to start winning for our communities
and families. It is our responsibility to REBEL. All of our futures
depend on it!<br />
<br />
*<em>These figures represent updated estimates from last year's report, <a href="http://www.newbottomline.com/download_report_the_win_win_solution">The Win-Win Solution, from the New Bottom Line</a>, which investigated the effects on the economy of writing down all underwater mortgages to current market value. </em><br />
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<div class="author-bio">
Stephen Lerner is a labor and community organizer and the architect of the Justice for Janitors campaign. </div>
</div>
</div>NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-74797553611995646972012-08-06T07:00:00.001-07:002012-08-06T07:00:26.312-07:00Very Bad Things Happen When We Depend on the Same People Who Caused the Foreclosure Crisis to Track Its Destruction<br />
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<span class="white">Investigations </span>
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<h3>
<span class="field field-name-field-sources field-type-node-reference field-label-hidden"><span class="field-items"><span class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/">AlterNet</a></span></span></span> / <em>By</em> <em><a href="http://www.alternet.org/authors/sam-jewler-0">Sam Jewler</a>, <a href="http://www.alternet.org/authors/chris-herwig">Chris Herwig</a></em></h3>
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<a href="http://www.alternet.org/investigations/very-bad-things-happen-when-we-depend-same-people-who-caused-foreclosure-crisis-track?paging=off" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Very Bad Things Happen When We Depend on the Same People Who Caused the Foreclosure Crisis to Track Its Destruction</span></a></h2>
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<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">There
is not a single federal agency that has tracked foreclosures
comprehensively, a massive information gap that prevents the work of
journalists, advocates and policymakers alike. </span></h3>
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<span class="field field-name-field-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"><span class="field-items"><span class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single" content="2012-08-06T01:00:00-04:00">August 6, 2012</span></span></span></span></em> | </div>
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It’s
a simple set of questions: “How many foreclosed properties are there in
the country? What zip codes are they in? What factors sent people’s
homes underwater?” For policy makers, journalists or anyone trying to
size up or address the years-old housing crisis, these questions present
the natural place to start. But their answers don’t quite exist. <br />
<div>
In
Chicago, for example, the city’s official vacant property count, which
relies on the banks’ reporting, hovers just under 5,000. The <em>Chicago Tribune</em> estimates 18,000. Housing activists say there are well over 100,000. </div>
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<div>
Vacant
homes in Chicago are so destructive to their neighborhoods and wider
communities—dragging down property values, preventing the stabilization
of markets and becoming havens for violent crime—that Mayor Emanuel
recently announced that the city would spend $4 million finding and
demolishing just 200 foreclosed properties.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Foreclosures
are happening en masse all over the country, and Chicago is not unique
in having absolutely no comprehensive list of in-progress or completed
foreclosure properties, hampering any attempts to rehabilitate vacant
homes or aid people being hit by the crisis.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Nationally,
there is not a single federal agency that has taken the initiative to
track foreclosures comprehensively, a massive information gap that
prevents the work of journalists, advocates and policymakers alike. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The
government is instead relying on the expensive, potentially biased and
seemingly inaccurate information amassed by mortgage bankers, real
estate hawks and credit reporting agencies. How this happened is a story
of congressional warnings and broken promises, of lack of funding, and
ultimately, the increasing dependence on the for-profit sector to
quantify and analyze our lives. In this sense, it’s not only a story of
the government’s failure, but also of Wall Street’s almost unquestioned
power to determine not only value, but reality itself. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The
story begins in March 2009, near the peak of the foreclosure crisis,
when the government admitted that it was being blindsided.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
"The
failure of federal banking and housing regulatory agencies to gather
and analyze quality market intelligence is striking,” the Congressional
Oversight Panel reported. “Absent more complete and accurate
information, legislators, regulators, and market participants are flying
blind."</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
At this point, the government was still
scrambling to collect information about how the crisis had happened in
the first place and relying on for-profit information providers;
companies such as RealtyTrac and industry insiders like Mortgage Bankers
Association of America. For the public, that meant it was nearly
impossible to access information about the housing crisis without
pulling out a credit card, since the majority of these third-party
providers charge high fees for their information and withhold their raw
data, precluding any public accountability.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
“Housing data in general is a huge problem,” says Bill McBride, who writes the blog Calculated Risk. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
For
one thing: none of the available sources match up, making it impossible
to aggregate the data into a comprehensive set or to make comparisons
across different databases. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
A piece <a href="http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/03/corelogic-almost-65000-completed.html">McBride posted in March </a>quoted
one company’s estimate of 91,000 January foreclosures along with
another company’s estimate of 71,000 for the same month, exemplifying
the information gap.</div>
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</div>
<div>
“Centralized data on
foreclosures would help,” McBride says, “but that would just be a start.
I was hoping we’d see a new emphasis on housing data following the
housing bubble, but it hasn’t happened.”</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Richard Neiman, a member of the Congressional Oversight Panel, <a href="http://www.dfs.ny.gov/about/speeches/sp100429.htm">stated the problem</a> explicitly
in 2010: “Improved intelligence on the mortgage market is critical to
preventing future crises… Currently, Congress, banking regulators,
consumer advocates, and other policymakers are left with incomplete or
unreliable data purchased from third-party vendors or with limited data
provided voluntarily by the industry.”</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/?&dbname=cp111&sid=cp111NCKu8&refer=&r_n=hr517.111&item=&&&sel=TOC_2681847&">Part of the</a>
Dodd-Frank Act, signed almost exactly two years ago, mandated the
creation and maintenance of a foreclosure database. But the project
seems not to have started in any meaningful way.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
“Currently,
HUD lacks the funding necessary to create the database and lacks the
statutory authority to compel reporting to HUD of information necessary
to compile the data,” said Lemar Wooley of HUD. “Congress has not
appropriated funds for this project.”</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
A
spokeswoman for the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could not
report any updates on the foreclosure database mandated two years ago,
which came with no legislated deadline.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Meanwhile,
the government’s vision of the foreclosure crisis might be on the verge
of going even blinder. The House of Representatives <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/01/census-american-community-survey-senate_n_1563389.html">recently voted to end</a> the
American Community Survey, used by the Census to help the federal
government decide how to distribute some $450 billion per year in
funding. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Rather than holding predatory mortgage
lenders and industry actors accountable, the House legislative response
to budget shortfalls -- exacerbated by the economic collapse caused by
Wall Street and the government’s inability to regulate it -- was to turn
to that same private sector to measure that very sector’s failure.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The
majority of what foreclosure data is available comes from private
vendors, many of which stand to profit from foreclosures and some of
which, the facts suggest, may have engaged in practices that contributed
to the housing crisis in the first place. These include Realtytrac,
which calls itself “the leading online marketplace of foreclosure
properties,” <a href="http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2012-06-21/news/florida-protects-banking-giant-lender-processing-services-ignores-hurting-homeowners/">Lender Processing Services</a>, CoreLogic, and the Mortgage Bankers Association of America.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<a href="http://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2011/nr-occ-2011-47a.pdf">Several agencies recently took enforcement</a> actions
against Lender Processing Services, which provides HUD with mortgage
delinquency rates. A standing cease-and-desist order remains in effect
by the Federal Reserve, the FDIC and other agencies against LPS since
April 13, 2011, for, among other things, "<a href="http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/enforcement/enf20110413a11.pdf">executing assignments</a>
of mortgages containing inaccurate information”—probably not a quality
one looks for in their data provider. Two months ago, the Federal
Housing Administration <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-05-31/fha-foreclosures-jump-73-percent-in-april">publicly questioned</a>
an LPS report showing 63,000 April foreclosures when FHA’s data showed
19,000. A HUD staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity said LPS
sells the agency information covering about 80 percent of the market for
around $300,000 each year.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
RealtyTrac, used by
the likes of National Public Radio, HUD and even people testifying to
the House of Representatives on behalf of homeowners, has received a <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/business/abg/articles/2009/02/19/20090219abg-tyson0219.html">series of complaints</a> for defrauding customers and <a href="http://www.la.bbb.org/business-reviews/Real-Estate-Information-Services/Realtytraccom-in-Irvine-CA-13159967">providing inaccurate data.</a></div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Another
popular source of information is the HOPE Now Alliance, a group of
lenders representing about two thirds of outstanding mortgages in the
United States. In 2008 the group said they had helped one million
homeowners save their homes; the Office of the Comptroller of Currency
said that HOPE had vastly overstated their work and helped less than
200,000. Given the lack of an authoritative housing information
database, <a href="http://www.housingwire.com/news/occs-dugan-takes-aim-hope-nows-workout-claims">experts simply threw up their hands</a> at the discrepancy.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Nationally,
homeowners continue to suffer an average of 40,000 foreclosures every
month (or so the industry says), and accurate information is necessary
for states to allocate the aid from the recent $26 million settlement to
underwater homeowners. Meanwhile, urban planners and local governments
are struggling to save hard-hit neighborhoods without having
comprehensive pictures of the problem.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
“It’s like
this secret they just don’t want you to know about,” said Kathryn Clark,
a former urban planner and artist who was so astonished by the lack of
foreclosure data that she has begun mapping the foreclosures onto quilts
in order to represent the crisis. “It’s crazy what you have to pay to
access it. It’s frustrating. It’s shocking. It amazes me.”</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Citizens
used to be able to look to the USPS Administrative Data On Address
Vacancies, made available through HUD for vacancy data; however, USPS
and HUD <a href="http://www.huduser.org/portal/datasets/usps.html">decided to renegotiate </a>their
data sharing agreement -- right in the middle of the housing crisis --
and as a result, now only allow official governmental entities and
non-profit organizations to access the data. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
“I
think it would be good if the government itself could actually collect
loan performance data,” said the HUD staffer. He said he has hope that a
Dodd-Frank regulation requiring the use of universal loan identifiers
will make it easier to merge databases and create a clearer picture of
the crisis. The CFPB is currently writing rules for this tool, but the
enforcement mechanism is unclear.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
More than simply
helping us to cope with the crisis, accurate housing information is
necessary if we are to avoid another bubble.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The
HUD staffer explained that predicting housing bubbles relies on the
government knowing whether homes are being purchased for immediate
residential purposes or for future, speculative profits. By 2005, for
example, nearly 30% of all houses were being purchased as unused
investments, not homes. Had the government known that, perhaps it could
have predicted the spectacular collapse only three years later.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
At this rate, the government won’t be able to predict the next time, either.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
“To
get a handle on when growth in prices in a housing market is not due to
actual demand for housing to be lived in, or supported by growing
incomes – that’s the hard thing to detect,” said the HUD staffer. “And
that’s kind of the definition of a bubble.”</div>
<div>
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Sam Jewler and Chris Herwig are two Occupy activists and journalists in based in Washington, DC.<br />
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</div>NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-10521862759104495912012-08-03T14:27:00.001-07:002012-08-03T19:25:11.579-07:00"F" The Bureaucracy! The White House Can Help Homeowners Right Now<br />
<a href="http://www.opednews.com/index.php"><img border="0" height="189" src="http://www.opednews.com/images/oenearthlogo.gif" width="192" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<span class="wwscontent"><b>August 2, 2012 at 17:41:47</b></span> <br />
<br />
<h1 class="articletitle">
<a href="http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/F-The-Bureaucracy-The-W-by-Richard--RJ-Esko-120802-930.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"F" The Bureaucracy! The White House Can Help Homeowners Right Now</a></h1>
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2578008506186209311"><i><span class="wwscontent">By </span></i></a><i><a class="wwscontent" href="http://www.opednews.com/author/author77715.html" rel="author">Richard (RJ) Eskow</a> <a class="wwscontent" href="http://www.opednews.com/author/author77715.html">(about the author)</a></i><br />
<br />
<br />
<img class="populumcaption" src="http://www.opednews.com/populum/uploadnic/economy--underwater-homes-jpg_11_20120802-966.jpg" width="225" /><br />
<br />
<br />
A recent <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2012/05/24/negative-equity-more-widespread-than-previously-thought-report-says/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">study</a>
showed that more homes are underwater than originally believed. Roughly
16 million borrowers owe the banks $1.2 trillion (with a "t") for real
estate value value that no longer exists. We did some <a href="http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2012062307/40-million-strong-what-if-underwater-homeowners-organize-strike-and-fight-back" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">projections</a>
from that date to come up with the full scope of the problem and found
that more than 40 million people live in those homes, with total
mortgages outstanding of roughly $4.8 trillion.<br />
<br />
Major principal reduction would reduce the monthly burden for
millions of families. It would free up tens of billions of dollars -- or
hundreds of billions -- reducing monthly payments substantially.
Struggling households would then spend most of that money for things
other than the unjust enrichment of wealthy bankers -- consumer goods and
services, mostly.<br />
<br />
A broad principal relief plan would be the equivalent of a massive
stimulus program, one that could create millions of jobs and help
jump-start economic growth. And it would do it without costing the
Federal government a cent.<br />
<br />
<b>Stop That Bureaucrat!</b><br />
<br />
The Administration's actions for struggling homeowners have generally
run the gamut from ineffectual or inept to downright cynical. Now the
White House says it wants to do more, but there's a problem: Edward
DeMarco. DeMarco's the Acting Director of the FHFA, the agency which
took control of government-backed lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
after their bipartisan-backed "privatization" led to an orgy of
executive greed and incompetence.<br />
<br />
Whether out of ideology or bank coziness, DeMarco has refused every
entreaty for principal from detailed economic analyses to heartfelt
moral appeals. As Paul Krugman notes today in a post called "<a href="http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/31/fire-ed-demarco/" rel="nofollow">Fire Ed DeMarco</a>,"
DeMarco's latest move is outrageous. He's gone well beyond his agency's
mandate to justify his inaction. As Krugman says, "deciding whether
debt relief is a good policy for the nation as a whole is not DeMarco's
job."<br />
<br />
DeMarco's now the Administration's target of choice, with Tim Geithner <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/business/bloomberg/article/Geithner-Vows-to-Press-for-Writedowns-for-3754195.php" rel="nofollow">playing</a>
the "good cop" role. "I urge you to reconsider this decision,"
Geithner wrote to DeMarco in genteel public memo whose mildness brought
to mind Groucho Marx's remark to a gangster who was about to kill him:<br />
<br />
"I'm not in the habit of making threats, Sir, but there'll be a letter about this in the <i>Times</i> tomorrow morning!"<br />
<br />
<b>Bizarro Jimmy Stewart?</b><br />
<br />
Can one bureaucrat's intransigence stymy an entire Administration?
If so then DeMarco's the Bizarro World version of Jimmy Stewart in <i>Mr. Smith Goes to Washington</i>, tie askew and sweat pouring down his brow, staging a one-man holding action against decent government.<br />
<br />
The so-called "independence" of regulators is a complex topic for
another day. What that usually means is that agencies become captive to
the industries they regulate, leaving them "independent" only from the
public that created them. But some doubt the whole story and say
DeMarco's merely a foil.<br />
<br />
Yves Smith <a href="http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/07/why-firing-ed-demarco-is-no-solution-to-fhfa-refusal-to-engage-in-principal-modifications.html#xyIvFz4WfX0tyG7Z.99" rel="nofollow">says</a>
"Obama has never been serious about helping homeowners," and nothing in
his Administration's performance refutes that. "DeMarco knows he won't
be fired," <a href="http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/08/01/why-ed-demarco-wont-be-fired/" rel="nofollow">writes</a>
David Dayen. "He's become the symbol in the story, and the
Administration is much more interested in symbolism when it comes to
housing."<br />
<br />
Paul Krugman, on the other hand, <a href="http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/more-demarco/" rel="nofollow">argues</a>
that while "the uncomfortable truth... is that the administration --
and Tim Geithner in particular -- seemed indifferent or even hostile to
debt relief for a long time."<br />
<br />
"That was a big mistake," adds Krugman. "But it's also in the past, and the administration has now seen the light."<br />
<br />
So who's right ? The only one way we'll ever know one way or the
other is if the Administration does something meaningful about principal
reduction.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Quit "F"-ing Around</b><br />
<br />
It can certainly do a lot more than write scolding letters. First,
the President can fire DeMarco. Actually he doesn't even need to <i>fire</i> him, since he's only an <i>Acting</i>
Director. He can simply make a recess appointment. The President
might even be able to fire DeMarco for cause: DeMarco has willfully
neglected a number of his agencies' responsibilities, which are clearly
laid out on Fannie Mae's website and include "Reduce the number of
foreclosures" and "Help families keep their homes."<br />
<br />
Fire him for cause, Mr. President, and let the "CEO Candidate" try to
tell the people why you shouldn't. Then turn your attention toward <i>all</i> underwater homeowners, not just those who would be helped by current proposals for FHFA-centered delinquent borrower programs.<br />
<br />
That means addressing HAMP, the Administration's cynically-nicknamed "extend and pretend" program, so it provides relief
to more homeowners and no longer allows <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/how-banks-win-big-from-obamas-new-refinancing-program/2012/03/23/gIQAzWMpVS_blog.html" rel="nofollow">banks</a> to manipulate, mislead, and provide usurious rates to their victims.<br />
The White House can work with the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau or another appropriate agency to implement an aggressive "name
and shame" policy toward banks that continue to rip off their customers,
either through HAMP or independently.<br />
The Administration must also shift the focus of its debt relief
efforts away from delinquent borrowers and begin promoting broader
solutions aimed at the wide universe of underwater homeowners. One of
DeMarco's few legitimate criticisms of White House policy hinges on the
fact that homeowners reap benefits from falling behind on their
payments, which could encourage more of them to do the same.<br />
<br />
That's true. it also feeds into popularly-held biases against
principal reduction, and discriminates against those who have kept up
with their payments. Helping delinquent homeowners is arguably another
way of helping banks in the guise of helping ordinary people, whereas
broader relief might force the banks to step up.<br />
<br />
Which leads to another important job for the President, one that
doesn't require the approval of any "F"-in' bureaucrat: He can make the
moral case for America's homeowners in a clear, strong voice. So far he
hasn't done that -- partly because some key members of his team buy into
the unfair notion that underwater homeowners, unlike Wall Street
bankers, don't deserve to be helped.<br />
<br />
<b>The Undeserving</b><br />
<br />
You can skip this section if you like, but it might be worth a quick
refresher course on how we got here: A home is "underwater" when the
borrower owes more than the house is worth on today's market.<br />
<br />
How did that happen to so many people? Banks knowingly pushed home
loans on people who couldn't afford the "balloon" payments hidden in the
fine print. Other borrowers were suckered by deceptive techniques that
ranged from general proclamations ("a home is your best investment") to
individual scams (i.e., using crooked adjusters to inflate the home's
values, burying unaffordable provisions in massive and unreadable loan
documents, encouraging the falsification of loan documents).<br />
<br />
The banks then packaged these junk loans into "mortgage-backed
securities," often fraudulently misrepresenting them as higher-grade
investments. Then they made massive profits from the ensuing bubble in
housing value -- a bubble which, given their legions of paid economists
and analysts, they should have would collapse. Instead they kept
loosening their standards, writing riskier and risker loans, bundling
more and more loans into deceptive securities -- and collecting bigger
and bigger bonuses.<br />
<br />
When the entire edifice came crashing down, the banks took trillions
in loan relief in a way that amounted to billions in outright gifts from
the taxpayer. They then entered into a massive wave of foreclosure
fraud to evict those same borrowers from their homes -- fraud which
included mass perjury, forgery, and other crimes. The executives who
had supervised this entire process all kept their jobs -- and their
bonuses.<br />
<br />
But when it came time to offer principal reduction to their victims --
the chance to reduce the amount owed to something closer to market
value -- they and their Washington friends cried that this assistance,
which would provide great relief from the damage they inflicted on the
economy, would be "unfair."<br />
<br />
The billionaire bankers and those who rescued them even said -- get
this -- that asking them to adjust these debts would "reward the
undeserving."<br />
<br />
<b>Brought To You by the Letter "F"</b><br />
<br />
So there's something else the President can do without Edward
DeMarco's permission, and its importance shouldn't be minimized: He can
clearly and forcefully explain the massive injustice that's been done to
these homeowners. (See our "Moral Hazard Scorecard" for more <a href="http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010104218/foreclosures-and-guilt-home-loan-moral-hazard-scorecard" rel="nofollow">details</a>.)<br />
<br />
The President can demand justice. He can tell Wall Street he'll do everything in his power to restore justice -- and we mean <i>everything</i>. Many people remember Franklin D. Roosevelt's heated war of words with Wall Street. ("<a href="http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/od2ndst.html" rel="nofollow">I welcome their hatred!</a>")
Far fewer recall how bankers stung by FDR's rhetoric and fearful of
public rejection voluntarily pledged to do more -- and did. Rhetoric
matters.<br />
With or without Edward DeMarco, the White House can take concrete
steps to help homeowners -- and it can use the President's "bully pulpit"
to fight back against the bullies. The only way homeowners will know
that the<br />
Administration's doing something for them is when it does
something -- <i>really</i> does something.<br />
<br />
If the President and his team move aggressively on principal
reduction, their actions won't just help underwater homeowners: they'll
also help the whole economy. That could prevent the President and his
party from getting the grade that all politicians dread at election time
-- an "F."<br />
<br />
So there's something else the President can do without Edward
DeMarco's permission, and its importance shouldn't be minimized: He can
clearly and forcefully explain the massive injustice that's been done to
these homeowners. (See our "Moral Hazard Scorecard" for more <a href="http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010104218/foreclosures-and-guilt-home-loan-moral-hazard-scorecard" rel="nofollow">details</a>.)<br />
<br />
The President can demand justice. He can tell Wall Street he'll do everything in his power to restore justice -- and we mean <i>everything</i>. Many people remember Franklin D. Roosevelt's heated war of words with Wall Street. ("<a href="http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/od2ndst.html" rel="nofollow">I welcome their hatred!</a>")
Far fewer recall how bankers stung by FDR's rhetoric and fearful of
public rejection voluntarily pledged to do more -- and did. Rhetoric
matters.<br />
With or without Edward DeMarco, the White House can take concrete
steps to help homeowners -- and it can use the President's "bully pulpit"
to fight back against the bullies. The only way homeowners will know
that the Administration's doing something for them is when it does
something -- <i>really</i> does something.<br />
<br />
If the President and his team move aggressively on principal
reduction, their actions won't just help underwater homeowners: they'll
also help the whole economy. That could prevent the President and his
party from getting the grade that all politicians dread at election time
-- an "F."<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/the-dumbest-bipartisa</span><br />
<br />
<div class="wwscontent">
Host of 'The Breakdown,' Writer, and Senior Fellow, Campaign for America's Future </div>
<div class="wwscontent">
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<i>The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author<br />and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/the-dumbest-bipartisa</span><br />
<br />
<div class="wwscontent">
Host of 'The Breakdown,' Writer, and Senior Fellow, Campaign for America's Future </div>NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-40621304782030004532012-05-17T08:36:00.001-07:002012-05-17T08:36:19.747-07:00States Diverting Foreclosure Relief Money to Pay Down Debt<div id="header">
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<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="imgon2">
<img alt="Protesters staged a rally against home foreclosures in California on Tuesday outside the State Capitol in Sacramento. (photo: Max Whittaker/NYT)" border="0" height="195" src="http://readersupportednews.org/images/stories/article_imgs6/6693-states-diverting-mortgage-settlement-money-051612.jpg" style="border-image: initial; border: 0px initial initial;" title="Protesters staged a rally against home foreclosures in California on Tuesday outside the State Capitol in Sacramento. (photo: Max Whittaker/NYT)" width="430" /> <br />Protesters
staged a rally against home foreclosures in California on Tuesday
outside the State Capitol in Sacramento. (photo: Max Whittaker/NYT)</div>
<div class="noslink">
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/business/states-diverting-mortgage-settlement-money-to-other-uses.html?_r=1&hp" target="_blank"> <img alt="go to original article" border="0" src="http://readersupportednews.org/images/stories/rsn_gotoarticle.jpg" title="go to original article" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1899411975"><br /></a>
<h1 class="txttitle">
<a href="http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/427-foreclosure/11470-states-diverting-foreclosure-relief-money-to-pay-down-debt" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">States Diverting Foreclosure Relief Money to Pay Down Debt</a></h1>
<div class="txtauthor">
By Shaila Dewan, The New York Times</div>
<div class="date">
17 May 12</div>
<br />
<img border="0" src="http://readersupportednews.org/images/stories/alphabet/rsn-H.jpg" />undreds
of millions of dollars meant to provide a little relief to the nation’s
struggling homeowners is being diverted to plug state budget gaps.<br />
<br />
<div class="indent">
In a budget proposed this week, California joined more
than a dozen states that want to help close gaping shortfalls using
money paid by the nation’s biggest banks and earmarked for <a class="meta-classifier" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/f/foreclosures/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" target="_blank" title="More articles about foreclosures.">foreclosure</a>
prevention, investigations of financial fraud and blunting the ill
effects of the housing crisis. California was awarded more than $400
million from the banks, and Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed using the bulk
of that sum to pay the state’s debts.</div>
<div class="indent">
<br /></div>
<div class="indent">
The money was part of a national settlement valued at
$25 billion and negotiated with five big banks over abuses in their
mortgage and foreclosure processes.</div>
<div class="indent">
<br /></div>
<div class="indent">
The settlement, reached in February after a year of
talks and intervention by the Obama administration, was the
second-largest in history involving the states, trailing the tobacco
industry settlement, and represented the first large-scale commitment by
banks to provide direct aid to borrowers.</div>
<div class="indent">
<br /></div>
<div class="indent">
As part of the settlement, the banks agreed to pay the
states $2.5 billion, money intended to help homeowners and mitigate the
effects of the foreclosure surge. But critics complained that this was
the only cash the banks were required to pay — the rest comes in the
form of “credits” for reducing mortgage debt and other activities. Even
that relatively small amount has proved too great a temptation for
lawmakers.</div>
<div class="indent">
<br /></div>
<div class="indent">
Only 27 states have devoted all their funds from the banks to housing programs, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/05/16/business/16mortgagesettlement-document.html/#document/p32" target="_blank" title="Report by Enterprise Community Partners.">according to a report</a>
by Enterprise Community Partners, a national affordable housing group.
So far about 15 states have said they will use all or most of the money
for other purposes.</div>
<div class="indent">
<br /></div>
<div class="indent">
In Texas, $125 million went straight to the general
fund. Missouri will use its $40 million to soften cuts to higher
education. Indiana is spending more than half its allotment to pay
energy bills for low-income families, while Virginia will use most of
its $67 million to help revenue-starved local governments.</div>
<div class="indent">
<br /></div>
<div class="indent">
Like California, some other states with outsize
problems from the housing bust are spending the money for something
other than homeowner relief. Georgia, where home prices are still
falling, will use its $99 million to lure companies to the state.</div>
<div class="indent">
<br /></div>
<div class="indent">
“The governor has decided to use the discretionary
money for economic development,” said a spokesman for Nathan Deal,
Georgia’s governor, a Republican. “He believes that the best way to
prevent foreclosures amongst honest homeowners who have experienced hard
times is to create jobs here in our state.”</div>
<div class="indent">
<br /></div>
<div class="indent">
Andy Schneggenburger, the executive director of the
Atlanta Housing Association of Neighborhood-Based Developers, said the
decision showed “a real lack of comprehension of the depths of the
foreclosure problem.”</div>
<div class="indent">
The $2.5 billion was <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/05/16/business/16mortgagesettlement-document.html?ref=business#document/p12" target="_blank" title="Settlement agreement, with states’ terms for payment.">intended to be under the control</a>
of the state attorneys general, who negotiated the settlement with the
five banks — Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and
Ally. But there is enough wiggle room in the agreement, as well as in
separate terms agreed to by each state, to give legislatures and
governors wide latitude. The money can, for example, be counted as a
“civil penalty” won by the state, and some leaders have argued that
states are entitled to the money because the housing crash decimated tax
collections.</div>
<div class="indent">
<br /></div>
<div class="indent">
Shaun Donovan, the federal housing secretary, has been
privately urging state officials to spend the money as intended. “Other
uses fail to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the
settlement to bring real, concerted relief to homeowners and the
communities in which they live,” he said Tuesday.</div>
<div class="indent">
Some attorneys general have complied quietly with
requests to repurpose the money, while others have protested. Lisa
Madigan, the Democratic attorney general of Illinois, said she would
oppose any effort to divert the funds. Tom Horne, the Republican
attorney general of Arizona, said he disagreed with the state’s move to
take about half its $97 million, which officials initially said was
needed for prisons.</div>
<div class="indent">
<br /></div>
<div class="indent">
But Mr. Horne said he would not oppose the shift
because the governor and the Legislature had authority over budgetary
matters. The Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest has said it
will sue to stop Mr. Horne from transferring the money.</div>
<div class="indent">
<br /></div>
<div class="indent">
In California, Attorney General Kamala D. Harris had <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/business/how-kamala-harris-finessed-a-foreclosure-deal-for-california.html" target="_blank" title="A related Times article.">played hardball</a>
in the settlement negotiations, holding out until the very end for a
deal guaranteeing that a large share of the benefits would go to
California, and then trumpeting her success in a news conference and a
flurry of interviews with national news outlets. So Mr. Brown’s revised
budget put her in an awkward position.</div>
<div class="indent">
<br /></div>
<div class="indent">
“While the state is undeniably facing a difficult
budget gap,” she said in a statement, “these funds should be used to
help Californians stay in their homes.” Both officials are Democrats.</div>
<div class="indent">
<br /></div>
<div class="indent">
When asked if Mr. Brown could legally appropriate the
money, which is supposed to be held in a special fund “for the benefit
of California homeowners affected by the mortgage/foreclosure crisis,” a
spokesman for Ms. Harris declined to comment.</div>
<div class="indent">
<br /></div>
<div class="indent">
Just last week, Ms. Harris announced plans to give
about half the money to groups that provide housing counseling and legal
assistance to homeowners — groups whose budgets have shrunk while
demand for their services grows. The other half would be used primarily
for investigation of mortgage-related crime.</div>
<div class="indent">
States using some or all of their money for housing
have designated it for a wide variety of programs, like a small fund for
low-interest loans to build housing in low-income neighborhoods, in
Virginia, and Ohio’s sweeping plan to demolish abandoned property.</div>
<div class="indent">
<br /></div>
<div class="indent">
In New York, Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman
stepped in with $15 million in settlement money for housing counseling
and legal assistance when state support ran out last month, and plans to
spend the bulk of its $130 million on similar programs. North Dakota
will use its tiny allotment, $1.9 million, to provide housing to police
officers and emergency responders in its booming oil-field counties,
where shelter is scarce.</div>
<div class="indent">
<br /></div>
<div class="indent">
Using the money for other purposes is shortsighted,
housing advocates warn. “If you leave homeowners hanging out there to
dry, then in the short term maybe you help to meet the budget gap this
year,” said Maeve Elise Brown, the executive director of Housing and
Economic Rights Advocates, based in Oakland. “But in the long term the
more people we have going through foreclosure, the worse it’s going to
be for our economy as a whole.”</div>
<div class="indent">
<br /></div>
<div class="indent">
In some states, redirecting the money could have a
racially discriminatory effect, said Alan Jenkins, the executive
director of the Opportunity Agenda, which supports homeownership,
because in some cities black homeowners disproportionately lost their
homes, Mr. Jenkins said.</div>
<div class="indent">
<br /></div>
<div class="indent">
“If you dump all of these funds into the general
coffers, the African-American homeowners are not going to benefit in any
real way because they represent such a small percentage of the larger
state,” Mr. Jenkins said.</div>
</div>
<span class="article_separator"><br /></span>NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-59756106297772171662012-05-10T18:49:00.000-07:002012-05-10T18:49:02.583-07:007 Foreclosure Horror Stories (And One Possible Win)<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/">AlterNet.org</a></span></h2>
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<b><a class="anylink" href="http://www.alternet.org/">AlterNet</a>
/ <em>By</em>
<em><a class="anylink" href="http://www.alternet.org/authors/5191/" title="View all stories by Sarah Jaffe">Sarah Jaffe</a></em></b>
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<h1>
<a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/155344/7_foreclosure_horror_stories_%28and_one_possible_win%29/?page=entire" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">7 Foreclosure Horror Stories (And One Possible Win)</a></h1>
</div>
<div class="teaser">
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Around the country, families are being tossed out of their
homes with astonishing regularity, with local law enforcement enlisted
to do the bidding of big banks. </span></h3>
</div>
<div class="body_" id="the_body">
<div class="story-date">
<em>May 9, 2012</em> | </div>
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This week, Christine Frazer and her family were thrown
out of the Atlanta home they'd lived in for 18 years, at gunpoint in
the dead of night.<br />
<br />
They were not set upon by robbers, but by the Dekalb County Sheriff's
department, which evicted the family at the request of Investors One
Corporation. As <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/155292/dozens_of_police_evict_georgia_family_at_gunpoint_at_3am/">Steven Rosenfeld reported for AlterNet</a>, it was the fourth company to buy the family's mortgage in eight months.<br />
<br />
The Frazers' eviction is horrifying, but sadly their story is all too
common. Senator Sherrod Brown, who's introduced legislation aiming to
curtail the worst practices, called it “a longstanding ugly pattern of
homeowner abuse.”<br />
"You can basically throw a dart off a building and hit someone with a foreclosure horror story,” said Matt Browner Hamlin of <a href="http://occupyourhomes.org/">Occupy Our Homes</a>.
“This is the whole point -- that the crisis is being driven by fraud
and criminality by the banks. Three million people didn't wake up one
morning and decide to just stop paying their mortgages."<br />
<br />
Around the country, families are being tossed out of their homes with
astonishing regularity, with local law enforcement enlisted to do the
bidding of big banks that own and resell the mortgages, utterly detached
from the people whose lives are turned upside-down in the process. It's
easy to just look at statistics and forget the human stories behind the
numbers, so here are six stories of families who've had to fight all
sorts of shady tactics to try and stay in their homes—and one family
that might just beat the bank and get to keep their home, with the help
of local activists.<br />
<br />
<b>1. Harried into Health Crisis in Hempstead, New York</b><br />
<br />
Charles Pollydore worked on Wall Street, not as a trader, but in IT.
He was laid off when the markets collapsed, but kept paying his $4,200
monthly mortgage to Bank of America. “I used my 401k, I used everything I
had, emergency funds, everything to keep the mortgage going under the
pretext that I was going to get a job soon,” he told AlterNet. “I had to
get on welfare, get on food stamps, to get my light and my gas to stay
on. I needed Medicaid because I need medical coverage badly.”<br />
<br />
But he didn't find a job, and his diabetes worsened—he's legally
blind and is facing the amputation of a second toe after losing one--and
he wound up on disability. “My doctors said 'We're not going to allow
yourself to jeopardize the health you have right now to keep looking for
a job,'” he said. His health has dramatically deteriorated since his
fight with the bank began.<br />
<br />
Pollydore, a member of the group New York Communities for Change,
has been repeatedly applying for a mortgage modification to no avail,
sending documentation, bank statements, hardship letters, and more, but
over and over the bank claims it hasn't received the information. BofA
refused to offer him a principal reduction despite being presented with
proof of his disability income. “Their strategy is to break the backs of
homeowners so that you give up and you walk away,” he said.<br />
<br />
He's reached out to his congresswoman, Carolyn McCarthy, and to the
attorney general's office, but was told he had to work with Bank of
America. “What protection is there for people like myself?” he asked.<br />
<br />
“I told one of the [bank] executives, 'You guys are going to have to board the house up with me inside and let me rot and die.'”<br />
<br />
<b>2. Fabricated Documents in Rochester, New York</b><br />
<br />
Leonard Spears is 5-feet, 6 inches tall, balding and African
American, but Wells Fargo, when serving a summons to foreclose on the
Rochester home he'd been fixing up, apparently served a 6-foot man with
blond hair. Spears, of course, says he was never served, and Wells Fargo
has a history not only of predatory lending (it paid an $85 million
fine for pushing borrowers who were qualified for better loans into more
risky subprime loans) but of <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/04/20/468442/wells-fargo-insider/">foreclosure fraud</a> as well.<br />
<br />
“It took me three years to convert it into the way it looks now, I
did a lot of wiring, tore down all the walls, gave up my social life
completely because I was dedicated to do this, because this is like the
American Dream, to own property, so it was very exciting,” Spears said.<br />
<br />
To make matters worse, it turns out that Wells Fargo <a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/37032660/TBTL/Spears/2011-10-24%20-%20Affirmation.PDF">wasn't even the owner of the note</a>, but merely the servicer. And then, when the foreclosure did go through, the <a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/37032660/TBTL/Spears/2011-11%20-%20Deed%20--$500%20to%20Freddie%20Mac.pdf">home was sold</a>
to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (commonly known as
Freddie Mac) for all of $500. Yet Spears wasn't able to modify his
mortgage to stay in his home. “I was willing to pay way more than $500,”
Spears said. “What kind of justice is that?”<br />
<br />
Take Back the Land Rochester, Occupy Rochester and others are fighting to get Spears back in his home—there's a <a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/wells-fargo-and-freddie-mac-withdraw-the-foreclosure-and-eviction-of-leonard-spears-in-rochester-ny?source=ooh_blog_story">petition you can sign</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>3.</b><b> Threatening Phone Calls in Waterford, Michigan</b><br />
<br />
After a car accident <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7LeRGdybdM">Kathryn Nava</a> wound
up on disability and had trouble making her mortgage payments. She had a
friend who was willing to help her make her back payments, but that
friend wanted to see a payment history before giving her the money.
Nava called her mortgage lender to request that history—and was told it
would cost her $50 per hour, and take 90 days to receive it.<br />
<br />
So she tried again, calling the president of the company. She got a
voicemail response that shocked her so much she recorded it and saved
it.<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
“Let me enlighten you, Kathy. First of all, there's nothing in your
contract with us says we owe you any history, now, next year, five years
from now or the next time...I've begun foreclosure today. I bet you're
sorry now that you made that phone call. I don't need to put up with
your crap, OK?...Bottom line, I'm doing nothing for you now.”<br />
</blockquote>
Indeed, she did end up losing her home.<br />
<br />
<b>4. Illegal Eviction in Los Angeles</b><br />
<br />
Eduardo Acosta and his family had won their case—a judge ruled that
Green Century Investment Group/IndyMac had no right to foreclose on the
family, that they'd filed fraudulent paperwork.<br />
<br />
A month later, the local sheriff posted an eviction notice to the family anyway.<br />
This came on the heels of an audit of California foreclosures by the San Francisco County Recorder, which found that <em>99 percent</em> of the foreclosures examined had “<a href="http://www.dsnews.com/articles/san-franciscos-foreclosure-audit-turns-up-irregularities-and-illegal-activity-2012-02-17">irregularities</a>,” and there were clear violations of state law in 84 percent of them.<br />
<br />
Acosta had applied for a <a href="http://occupyourhomes.org/blog/2012/feb/22/occupy-la-rowland-heights/">mortgage modification</a>
after his payment shot up to $2,000 a month, his wife fell ill, and his
monthly income plummeted. But while the bank reviewed his modification
request, it also began foreclosure proceedings—a common enough process
that it has a name, “dual tracking.” There's a <a href="http://www.brown.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/FFHAPA%20Explanation2.pdf">bill in the Senate</a>
that aims to ban the practice and only allow lenders to proceed with
foreclosure after working with borrowers. This process all-too-often
allows for “accidental” foreclosures, where one side of the company
forecloses on a home that another department is ostensibly working to
help the family keep.<br />
<br />
Occupy LA <a href="http://occupylosangeles.org/?q=node/8456">posted a call for help</a>
for the Acosta family after their eviction notice. “I’m sure there are a
lot of people going through this,” Acosta said. “Let’s step up and help
each other out.”<br />
<br />
The Acostas are still in their home as of the <a href="http://losangelesga.net/2012/03/emergency-proposal-for-reimbursement-of-travel-expenses-to-fight-foreclosures/">latest report,</a> but keeping them there has required a constant fight.<br />
<br />
<b>5. Sent to the Psychiatric Ward in Lodi, Wisconsin</b><br />
<br />
An Associated Bank representative helped send Bill Schroeder to a
psychiatric ward for 72 hours after a telephone argument over
Schroeder's missed mortgage payments.<br />
<br />
Schroeder told the <a href="http://host.madison.com/wsj/business/article_3aeb8416-0dc4-11df-a94d-001cc4c002e0.html">Wisconsin State Journal</a>
that during their conversation the bank rep called him “worthless” and
said the bank didn't care what happened to him as long as it got its
money.<br />
<blockquote>
"I made an offhand response," Schroeder said. "I said, ‘Maybe I'll
just go get my gun and shoot myself and you can have my life
insurance.'"<br />
They hung up and Schroeder made a trip to the grocery store. When he
got back, a police car was in his driveway to take him to the hospital.<br />
</blockquote>
The bank rep was apparently slightly more concerned about Schroeder's
health than he let on and had called the police. Yet it didn't seem to
occur to the bank that perhaps the way to show real concern for
homeowners' mental health would be to not make threats in the first
place.<br />
<br />
The Schroeder family wound up selling their home in a short sale,
which left them still owing the bank $31,256 to make up the difference
between their mortgage and the sale price of the home, which was down
$66,000 after the bursting of the housing bubble. They estimated to the <em>State Journal</em> that they'll be making payments on a house they don't have anymore for the next seven years.<br />
<br />
<b>6. Disappearing Documents in Ohio</b><br />
<br />
Gina Brooks and her husband applied for their first mortgage
modification with Wells Fargo's ASC Mortgage servicer when they were
only a couple of months behind on their payments. They were denied the
first time and chose to go through a Chapter 13 bankruptcy—which would
allow them to keep their home and keep paying their mortgage. “I had
lived in this house for 14 years,” she said. “I didn't want to lose my
home.”<br />
<br />
In July 2010, after the bankruptcy, she submitted another
modification request and was again denied. The money she and her husband
were paying on their mortgage alone was leaving them little to live on,
and they finally decided to switch to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which
would leave them without their home. In a last-ditch effort, she wrote
to her mortgage company, and then called in when she didn't hear back.<br />
<br />
“I was told at that time they had no record whatsoever of anything I
had ever sent in since I started in 2009,” Brooks said. No record of her
repeated denials, her requests, her bankruptcies. Nothing. No one was
familiar with her case.<br />
Brooks had already started packing her home when a friend suggested
she contact her senator. Through an intervention by Sherrod Brown
(D-OH)'s office, she was offered a full refinance on her home by Wells
Fargo—but after two years of fighting with the lender, her refinance
added $31,000 to her mortgage. Brooks said she's grateful to have her
home, but frustrated to be paying interest on interest. “Why did it take
me two years, two bankruptcies and all of this headache when they
could've done it in one month?”<br />
<br />
<b>7. Possible Victory in Minneapolis</b><br />
<br />
Monique White's home was the site of one of the first Occupy-related
foreclosure defenses last November, when she refused to be bought off by
Freddie Mac's “cash for keys” offer. That would've given her a small
reimbursement for voluntarily giving up her home after it had been
repossessed by U.S. Bank and sold to Freddie Mac—without her knowledge.<br />
<br />
Neighborhoods Organizing for Change had already been working with
White, but they reached out to Occupy and the group responded, <a href="http://www.alternet.org/occupywallst/153347/the_next_frontier_for_occupy:_protesters_take_over_vacant_homes,_rally_to_protect_those_facing_eviction_and_foreclosure_/?page=2">sending occupiers</a> to camp out on White's property to prevent eviction.<br />
Now, thanks to tireless action by a team of lawyers, activists, and
White herself—who traveled to U.S. Bank's shareholder meeting to
personally ask the bank's CEO, Richard Davis, for help—she's got a
tentative deal to modify her mortgage to allow her to stay in her home.<br />
The <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2012/05/07/monique-white-occupy-helps_n_1498137.html">Huffington Post</a> reported:<br />
<blockquote>
It took US Bank a matter of days to come up with a principal
reduction that allowed White to pay $686.36 a month to stay in her home.
White, who works two part-time jobs and is in training for a full-time
union position, said it was a little steep, but she could make it work.<br />
</blockquote>
Occupy Homes Minnesota activist Nick Espinosa told the Huffington
Post, "It does show that when we shine a light on these cases and bring
them to the public eye, that the bank is more than capable of
negotiating -- even though they've said all along that that is not their
responsibility. It's a huge victory, and it represents exactly the kind
of deal that every homeowner in America should be getting from the
banks."<br />
<br />
<div class="bio-new body_">
Sarah Jaffe is an associate editor at AlterNet, a rabblerouser and frequent Twitterer. You can follow her at @sarahljaffe.</div>
</div>NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-92202011160325771132012-05-06T19:41:00.000-07:002012-05-06T19:41:40.315-07:00Dozens of Police Evict Georgia Family at Gunpoint at 3am<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/">AlterNet.org</a></span></h2>
<br />
<div class=" story-body-container">
<div class="byline">
<b><a class="anylink" href="http://www.alternet.org/">AlterNet</a>
/ <em>By</em>
<em><a class="anylink" href="http://www.alternet.org/authors/4682/" title="View all stories by Steven Rosenfeld">Steven Rosenfeld</a></em></b>
</div>
<div class="headline">
<h2>
<a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/155292/dozens_of_police_evict_georgia_family_at_gunpoint_at_3am?page=entire" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Dozens of Police Evict Georgia Family at Gunpoint at 3am</span></a></h2>
</div>
<div class="teaser">
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">
The eviction might have been another anonymous descent into
poverty were it not for Occupy Atlanta activists who tried to help the
family stay. </span></h3>
</div>
<div class="body_" id="the_body">
<div class="story-date">
<em>May 5, 2012</em> | </div>
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<img class="story-image" src="http://images.alternet.org/images/managed/storyimages_1336229518_6liefrazerfamily.jpg_640x426_310x220" style="width: 310;" />
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<div class="article_insert_separator">
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<div class="article_insert_separator">
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<div>
Four generations of a Georgia family were evicted at
gunpoint by dozens of sheriffs and deputies at 3am last week in an
Atlanta suburb. The eyebrow-raising eviction, a foreclosure action,
might have been another anonymous descent into poverty were it not for
Occupy Atlanta activists who tried to help the family stay in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BvY6_hpxlE&feature=youtu.be">Christine Frazer’s</a> home of 18 years. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The eviction came as Frazer, 63, who lost her husband and then job
in 2009, had been challenging the foreclosure in county and federal
courts by seeking to restructure the terms of a delinquent mortgage.
However, the latest holder of her loan, Investors One Corporation—the
fourth company that bought her mortgage in an eight-month period—allowed
the eviction to proceed even thought it was "negotiating" new loan
terms with her attorney one day before the police raid.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
DeKalb County Sheriff Thomas Brown <a href="http://atlanta.cbslocal.com/2012/05/02/too-much-truth-exclusive-sheriff-thomas-brown-gives-his-side-on-dekalb-eviction/">told</a>
an Atlanta talk radio show a day after the raid that a dozen squad cars
and dozens of deputies were needed for the dead-of-night raid because
Occupy Atlanta had set up tents on Frazer's property, and his perception
of the Occupy activists in other cities led him to believe they could
be armed. He also said he timed the eviction to avoid media coverage.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
“I made the decision that we were going to do this at 3am for a
couple of reasons,” he told WAOK’s Derrick Boazman. “Number one, I have
seen the various Occupy groups in various cities operate before. It was
an ugly scene in Oakland. I have seen them firsthand in Washington. I’ve
seen them on Wall Street. I’ve seen them in Atlanta.”</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
“I will not participate in a mass demonstration arrest with
television cameras when I am not sure I can trust the people who say
they will offer passive resistance,” Brown said. “Our intelligence told
us that there were at least 10 Occupy Atlanta folks there on the
property; that turned out not to be the case. Our intelligence told us
that the family had vacated the house; that turned out not to be the
case… We made the decision to have enough resources there to make sure
it would not get out of hand.” </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
But out-of-hand does not even approach how Christine Frazer
described the raid, saying in the days since the eviction she and her
family, including her 85-year-old mother, daughter and 3-year-old
grandson, have been split up and forced to rely on charity. Frazer also
described how she had been exploring every legal avenue to refinance her
debt, but the lenders had no intention of doing anything but evict her,
presumably to sell the home. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
“It has been really unsettling,” Frazer said. “When something like
this happens, it breaks up the family. Me and my mom are staying one
place. My grandson is someplace. My daughter is staying someplace else.
It just feels really strange. I have lived in that home for 18 years.
That is where I am used to waking up every morning. It’s just… I am
grateful that I am not under a bridge, but I miss home.”</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Frazer said that she did not expect the sudden eviction, because
she had been challenging the foreclosure in federal court and her
attorney had been negotiating with the lenders.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
“No, I didn’t, because I currently have a case in federal court for
a wrongful foreclosure,” she said. “And also the opposing or
foreclosing attorney was in a negotiation process with my attorney. As a
matter of fact, that Monday, I talked with them and they had talked
about possibly reinstating the loan. But, of course, I was concerned
about the principle [amount]. And they previously said they were looking
for the eviction. It happened the next morning at 3am.”</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Frazer’s descent in home loan hell had been going on for months,
she said, but nothing in that arduous effort prepared her for being
awakened and evicted at gunpoint. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
“They came to my home like I was a drug dealer,” she said. “At 3am
in the morning, they knocked on my door. The Dekalb Sheriff’s Department
knocked on my door. They opened my door. I knew my rights that I didn’t
have to open the door. They came with a locksmith, drilled off the
locks, came into my house, with a flashlight in one hand and pistol in
the other, [shouting] ‘Who’s in the house? Who’s in the house?’”</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Frazer said the sheriff’s department knew exactly who was
there—three generations of women in one family and a toddler grandson. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
“Who do you think was in the house?” she asked. “My picture and my
story have been in the local DeKalb paper. They knew exactly who. Yes,
they knew Occupy was there. But Occupy is a nonviolent movement.
Nonviolent. These people came at me like I’m a drug dealer and I am
doing something wrong. I am just a homeowner.” </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Frazer said she was ordered by sheriffs to dress and then vacate the building.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
“They told me to pack up as if I just had a fire at my home and
take my immediate possessions. And I had to leave immediately. I said,
‘Can I take a shower?’ ‘No, just throw on some clothes.’ It took them
seven hours to get that stuff out of my house. They were going to be
there anyway. Why couldn’t I take a shower?”</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Frazer said the sheriff brought men to empty the house of its possessions. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
“They hired some off-the-wall great big jerks to come into my
home,” she said. “My daughter had a little piggy bank. She was saving
those gold dollar coins. They broke it on the floor and took that. I
have no idea where some of my jewelry is—stuff I bought when I was 30
years old. I am 63. They just threw everything everywhere,
helter-skelter on the front lawn in the dark. I have to tell you, I
worked hard all my life. At one point, I had a moving company. I know it
is against the law in Georgia to move anyone at night.”</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The sheriffs closed off the street and had at least a dozen police
cars present. There was one Occupy Atlanta member in a tent on the
property at the time, said Tim Franzen, an Occupy member active in
housing issues. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
“Chris does have a place to stay,” Franzen said, when asked where
she and her family are now. “We have moved all of her stuff, 18 years
worth of stuff, into storage. And Chris still has plenty of fight in her
and we are going to fight alongside of her.” </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<strong>Invisible, Unaccountable Moneymen</strong></div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Frazer’s foreclosure woes are hardly unique. It is typical for
single women to earn less money than men. It is very difficult for women
over age 60 to find gainful employment. Meanwhile, her mortgage has
been sold and resold in a financial industry game of pass the hot
potato, where buyers and sellers pay a fraction of its face value but
either cash out by finding a new buyer or evicting the borrower and
selling the house. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
“My loans were securitized, there is no doubt in my mind about
that,” Frazer said, explaining that every time she sought to identify
who was the actual holder of her mortgage she ran into brick walls and
opaque companies where it was all but impossible to even speak to
someone with authority to negotiate on the phone.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Frazer said one firm she contacted, claiming to be in the business
of helping distressed borrowers, came back with an offer—pay $20,000 in
cash and then the loan would be reinstated. That option, of course, was
impossible, because if she had that kind of cash, she said she would
have been making her mortgage payments. Frazer also had hopes that
President Obama’s program to help distressed borrowers would offer a way
to keep the home. But that also fell through because only borrowers who
are caught up with all their payments are eligible for restructuring
their loans. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
“You are not a distressed homeowner if you are current on your mortgage,” she said. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Frazer said she has tried to negotiate a new loan—starting with her
balance, not including nearly $30,000 in penalty and legal fees tacked
onto the principle. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
“I sat down one day as I was going through this, and looked at what
we have paid,” she said. “I have already have paid over $240,000 for
the house… The banks have gotten the money. The banks got a [government]
bailout. That document that the bank sent me that said my house is now
worth $40,000. That is called depreciation. That is a tax write-off for
them. Their bread got buttered on both sides. But me and my family; what
kind of justice is that?”</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Dekalb Sheriff Brown told the talk radio listeners there was
nothing unusual about Frazer’s foreclosure and eviction—apart from
bringing in 10 times the number of law enforcement officers typically
involved because of the presence of Occupy Atlanta.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
“Mrs. Frazer lost her home evidently because she could not make
payments,” he said. “As I understand it, she tried to get a loan
modification, but she did not qualify for a loan modification because
she did not have a source of income.”</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
“Mrs. Frazier and her attorneys exhausted every legal means to save
her home,” Brown said. “They took it all the way to the DeKalb Superior
Court… The judge sitting on the bench ruled that she could still not
keep her home and issued an order to the sheriff to execute the
warrant….” </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Frazer’s attorney, Joshua Davis, said the sheriff’s descriptions
and knowledge of the case was not accurate. Davis said Frazer was
scheduled to go before a county court to seek a temporary restraining
order preventing the foreclosure while the case was in litigation.
However, lawyers for the lender took the case to federal court, because
of the loan amounts involved, where the TRO proceeding became voided and
the case had to commence again. That was a tactic, Davis said to strip
away the legal obstacles and proceed with a foreclosure eviction, which
under Georgia law is a 30-day process.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
“We were about to have a hearing on the temporary restraining
order,” Davis said. “Right before we were about to have a hearing but
the opposing counsel moved it to federal court. What that does is it
basically nullifies the hearing that we hope to take place in [county]
Superior Court. And then everything is supposed to be sent to federal
court and then the judges from there will move on it. But everything in
federal court moves a lot slower.” </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
There is one legal scenario under which Frazer might regain her home and get a modified mortgage she could afford.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Davis said the lender that pursued the eviction, Investors One
Corp., was not the holder of her latest mortgage in the DeKalb County
assessor’s office. Apparently, an Indiana bank that sold the loan to
Investors One is still listed as the last lender of record on the
property. That discrepancy in property records might prove to be enough
legal grounds to reverse the foreclosure and entitle Frazer to punitive
damages—because Investors One executed the eviction without legal
standing as the recorded loan holder. If a federal judge accepts that
argument or allows a trial to proceed based on it, then a settlement
might be possible in which Frazer could obtain a new affordable 30-year
mortgage. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
When asked if that was what she was seeking, she replied, “Exactly. Work with me.”</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
In the meantime, DeKalb Sheriff Brown is unrepentant about Occupy
Atlanta, saying he does not trust their claims of being nonviolent.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
“What I didn’t want to do was to put a whole lot of people in my
jail who wanted to be in my jail, at $53.50 a day, which is a burden to
the taxpayers,” he said, “because somebody wants to make a statement
that in their minds that corporate America controls 90 percent of the
wealth in these United States of America. Whether that is true or not, I
don’t know and I don’t care. I have a constitutional responsibility to
uphold the peace.”</div>
<br />
<div class="bio-new body_">
Steven Rosenfeld covers democracy
issues for AlterNet and is the author of "Count My Vote: A Citizen's
Guide to Voting" (AlterNet Books, 2008).</div>
</div>
</div>NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-78824123205789093522012-02-23T20:44:00.001-08:002012-02-23T20:46:05.492-08:00Obama Sells Out Homeowners Again: Mortgage Settlement a Sad Joke<h1 id="logo"><a title="CommonDreams.org" href="http://www.commondreams.org/"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.commondreams.org/images/common-dreams.png" alt="CommonDreams.org" /></a></h1>Published on Thursday, February 23, 2012 by Common Dreams<div class="node-header"><span class="submitted"><a href="http://www.commondreams.org/"></a> </span> <div class="node-title"> <h2 class="title"><a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/02/23-3">Obama Sells Out Homeowners Again: Mortgage Settlement a Sad Joke</a></h2> </div> <div class="author"> by <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/ted-rall">Ted Rall</a> </div> </div> <p>Joe Nocera, the columnist currently challenging Tom Friedman for the title of Hackiest Militant Centrist Hack--it's a tough job that just about everyone on The New York Times op-ed page has to do--loves the robo-signing settlement announced last week between the Obama Administration, 49 states and the five biggest mortgage banks. "Two cheers!" shouts Nocera.</p> <p>Too busy to follow the news? Read Nocera. If he likes something, it's probably stupid, evil, or both.<span class="image-right" style="width:325px"><img src="http://www.commondreams.org/sites/commondreams.org/files/imce-images/foreclosure-sign.top_.jpg" style="width:325px; height:210px" title=" CNN)" height="210" border="0" width="325" /><span class="caption">(Photo: CNN)</span></span></p> <p>As penance for their sins--securitizing fraudulent mortgages, using forged deeds to foreclose on millions of Americans and oh, yeah, borking the entire world economy--Ally Financial, Bank of America, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo have agreed to fork over $5 billion in cash. Under the terms of the new agreement they're supposed to reduce the principal of loans to homeowners who are "underwater" on their mortgages--i.e. they owe more than their house is worth--by $17 billion.</p> <p>Some homeowners will qualify for $3 billion in interest refinancing, something the banks have resisted since the ongoing depression began in late 2008.</p> <p>What about those who got kicked out of their homes illegally? They split a pool of $1.5 billion.<br />Sounds impressive. It's not. Mark Zuckerberg is worth $45 billion.</p> <p>"That probably nets out to less than $2,000 a person," notes The Times. "There's no doubt that the banks are happy with this deal. You would be, too, if your bill for lying to courts and end-running the law came to less than $2,000 per loan file."</p> <p>Readers will recall that I paid more than that for a speeding ticket. 68 in a 55.<br />This is the latest sellout by a corrupt system that would rather line the pockets of felonious bankers than put them where they belong: prison.</p> <p>Remember TARP, the initial bailout? Democrats and Republicans, George W. Bush and Barack Obama agreed to dole out $700 billion in public--plus $7.7 trillion funneled secretly through the Fed--to the big banks so they could "increase their lending in order to loosen credit markets," in the words of Senator Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican.</p> <p>Never happened.</p> <p>Three years after TARP "tight home loan credit is affecting everything from home sales to household finances," USA Today reported. "Many borrowers are struggling to qualify for loans to buy homes…Those who can get loans need higher credit scores and bigger down payments than they would have in recent years. They face more demands to prove their incomes, verify assets, show steady employment and explain things such as new credit cards and small bank account deposits. Even then, they may not qualify for the lowest interest rates."</p> <p>Financial experts aren't surprised. TARP was a no-strings-attached deal devoid of any requirement that banks increase lending. You can hardly blame the bankers for taking advantage. They used the cash--money that might have been used to help distressed homeowners--to grow income on their overnight "float" and issue record raises to their CEOs.</p> <p>Next came Obama's "Home Affordable Modification Program" farce. Another toothless "voluntary" program, HAMP asked banks to do the same things they've just agreed to under the robo-signing settlement: allow homeowners who are struggling to refinance and possibly reduce their principals to reflect the collapse of housing prices in most markets.</p> <p>Voluntary = worthless.</p> <p>CNN reported on January 24th: "The HAMP program, which was designed to lower troubled borrowers' mortgage rates to no more than 31% of their monthly income, ran into problems almost immediately. Many lenders lost documents, and many borrowers didn’t qualify. Three years later, it has helped a scant 910,000 homeowners--a far cry from the promised 4 million."</p> <p>Or the 15 million who needed help.</p> <p>As usual, state-controlled media is too kind. Banks didn't "lose" documents. They threw them away.</p> <p>One hopes they recycled.</p> <p>I wrote about my experience with HAMP: Chase Home Mortgage repeatedly asked for, received, confirmed receiving, then requested the same documents. They elevated the runaround to an art. My favorite part was how Chase wouldn't respond to queries for a month, then request the bank statement for that month. They did this over and over. The final result: losing half my income "did not represent income loss."</p> <p>It's simple math: in 67 percent of cases, banks make more money through foreclosure than working to keep families in their homes.</p> <p>This time is different, claims the White House. "No more lost paperwork, no more excuses, no more runaround," HUD secretary Shaun Donovan said February 9th. The new standards will "force the banks to clean up their acts."</p> <p>Don't bet on it. The Administration promises "a robust enforcement mechanism"--i.e. an independent monitor. Such an agency, which would supervise the handling of million of distressed homeowners, won't be able to handle the workload according to mortgage experts. Anyway, it's not like there isn't already a law. Law Professor Alan White of Valparaiso University notes: "Much of this [agreement] is restating obligations loan servicers already have."</p> <p>Finally, there's the issue of fairness. "Underwater" is a scary, headline-grabbing word. But it doesn't tell the whole story.</p> <p>Tens of millions of homeowners have seen the value of their homes plummet since the housing crash. (The average home price fell from $270,000 in 2006 to $165,000 in 2011.) Those who are underwater tended not to have had much equity in their homes in the first place, having put down low downpayments. Why single them out for special assistance? Shouldn't people who owned their homes free and clear and those who had significant equity at the beginning of crisis get as much help as those who lost less in the first place? What about renters? Why should people who were well-off enough to afford to buy a home get a payoff ahead of poor renters?</p> <p>The biggest fairness issue of all, of course, is one of simple justice. If you steal someone's house, you should go to jail. If your crimes are company policy, that company should be nationalized or forced out of business.</p> <p>Your victim should get his or her house back, plus interest and penalties.</p> <p>You shouldn't pay less than a speeding ticket for stealing a house.</p> <div class="copyright-info">© 2012 Ted Rall</div> <div class="author-image" style="float:left;padding:1px 15px 15px 0pt;"> <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/ted-rall"><img src="http://www.commondreams.org/sites/commondreams.org/files/imagecache/author_photo/ted_rall.jpg" alt="Ted Rall" title="Ted Rall" class="imagecache imagecache-author_photo" height="97" width="90" /></a> </div> <div class="author-brief-article"> <p>Ted Rall is the author of the new books "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1561634549?tag=commondreams-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank">Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle East?</a>," and "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1583229337?tag=commondreams-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank">The Anti-American Manifesto</a>" . His website is <a href="http://tedrall.com/" target="_blank">tedrall.com</a>.</p> </div>NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2578008506186209311.post-49343558643390107792012-02-15T14:04:00.000-08:002012-02-15T14:06:33.426-08:00Why the Foreclosure Deal May Not Be So Hot After All<span style="font-size:180%;"><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.rollingstone.com/"> Rolling Stone </a></span><br /><br /><br /><div class="header-image"> <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog"><img alt="" src="http://assets.rollingstone.com/assets/images/blog/70x608/3637acd81588ec9aafbcd714821f89d3e740b408.png" height="70" width="608" /></a> </div><a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/why-the-foreclosure-deal-may-not-be-so-hot-after-all-20120209"><br /></a><div id="teaser"> <div class="subcolumns"> <div class="c65l"> <div class="subcl"> <h1><a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/why-the-foreclosure-deal-may-not-be-so-hot-after-all-20120209"><span>Why the Foreclosure Deal May Not Be So Hot After All</span></a></h1> </div> </div> </div> <p class="dateTime blogDetail"> POSTED: <span class="post-date">February 9, 12:58 PM ET </span></p> </div> <div class="blog-post-content"> <div class="assetContainer imageStandard floatLt"> <img alt="New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and California Attorney General Kamala Harris" src="http://assets.rollingstone.com/assets/images/embedded/1000x600/e07ae3b368ab1c7d614157b11dd6785e5b76ae11.jpg" width="600" /> <div class="imageCaption" style="width:598px;">New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who agreed to join more than 40 other states in a nationwide settlement, announced today.</div> <div class="imageCredit" style="width:584px;"> Mark Wilson/Kevin Winter/Getty Images </div> </div> <p>So the <a href="http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/02/08/49-state-foreclosure-fraud-settlement-will-be-finalized-thursday/">foreclosure settlement is through</a>.</p> <p>A few weeks back, <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/a-big-change-on-the-foreclosure-front-20120128">I was optimistic about it</a> – I had been worried that it was going to contain broad liability waivers for all sorts of activities, and I was pleasantly surprised when I heard that its scope had essentially been narrowed to robosigning offenses. </p> <p>However, now that the settlement is finalized, and I've had time to think about it and talk to people who know far more than I do about this, I'm feeling pretty queasy.</p> <p>It feels an awful lot like what happened here is the nation's criminal justice honchos collectively realized that a thorough investigation of the problem would require resources they simply do not have, or are reluctant to deploy, and decided to accept a superficially face-saving peace offer rather than fight it out.</p> <p>So they settled the case in a way that reads in headlines like it's a bite out of the banks, but in fact is barely even that. There will be little in the way of real compensation for stuggling homeowners, and there are serious issues in the area of the deal's enforceability. In fact, about the only part of the deal we can be absolutely sure will be honored in full is the liability waiver for the robosigning offenses.</p> <p>With the rest of it -- collecting on the settlement, enforcement of the decrees, all the stuff put in there to balance the deal in the consumer's direction -- there will be an uphill battle from this point forward to get the banks to comply. The banks meanwhile have no such uphill battle. They will get the full benefit of the deal (a release from costly litigation) from the moment the ink is dry.</p> <p>Really this looks like America's public prosecutors just wilted before the prospect of a long, drawn-out conflict with an army of highly-paid, determined white-shoe banker lawyers. The message this sends is that if you commit crimes on a large enough scale, and have enough high-priced legal talent sitting at the negotiating table after you get caught, the government will ultimately back down, conceding the inferiority of its resources.</p> <p>I think the best summation of the settlement is probably Yves Smith's,<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yves-smith/mortgage-settlement_b_1264806.html"> which can be found here</a>. The piece lists the 12 things that suck the most about the settlement. The most painful is probably #12:</p> <blockquote> <p>12. We'll now have to listen to banks and their sycophant defenders declaring victory despite being wrong on the law and the facts. They will proceed to marginalize and write off criticisms of the servicing practices that hurt homeowners and investors and are devastating communities. But the problems will fester and the housing market will continue to suffer. Investors in mortgage-backed securities, who know that services have been screwing them for years, will be hung out to dry and will likely never return to a private MBS market, since the problems won't ever be fixed. This settlement has not only revealed the residential mortgage market to be too big to fail, but puts it on long term, perhaps permanent, government life support.</p> </blockquote> <p>My mistake in looking at this deal a few weeks ago, when details of it first leaked out, was in focusing on how much worse it could have been, instead of thinking about how bad it still is. The only acceptable foreclosure deal had to bring about a complete end to robosigning and the other similar corrupt practices that grew up around it (like for instance <a href="http://www.longislandlawyerblog.com/lawsuit-over-process-server-fraud-seeks-to-vacate-100000-debt-collection-judgments">gutter service</a>, the practice of process servers simply signing affidavits <em>saying </em>they delivered summonses, instead of really doing it).</p> <p>But this deal not only doesn't end robosigning, it officially makes getting caught for it inexpensive. Shame on me for ever thinking that might be a good thing.</p> </div><div style="overflow: hidden; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: left; text-decoration: none; border: medium none;"><br />Read more: <a style="color: #003399;" href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/why-the-foreclosure-deal-may-not-be-so-hot-after-all-20120209#ixzz1mUTvUiJ1">http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/why-the-foreclosure-deal-may-not-be-so-hot-after-all-20120209#ixzz1mUTvUiJ1</a><br /></div>NOTES FROM THE WILDSIDEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499454400310101800noreply@blogger.com0