Network to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions
2011 N. Charles St. Lower Level
Phone: 410-218-4835
For Immediate Release: March 22, 2010
Contact Person:
EMERGENCY PROTEST: SAVE RENEE'S BALTIMORE HOME!
WHAT: PICKET LINE & PRESS CONFERENCE
Save Renee’s Baltimore Home
Stop Bank of America
Protest the Actions of Foreclosure Attorneys Cohn, Goldberg & Deutsch.
WHEN: Wednesday, March 23, 2010, 12 Noon
WHERE: Offices of Cohn, Goldberg & Deutsch
600 Baltimore St. , Towson , Maryland 21204
WHO: Renee Washington DeFreitas and supporters
Sharon Black an organizer with the Network to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions, stated,
“We will be picketing the foreclosure attorneys in Ms. DeFreitas?s case because we feel
they have been unscrupulous in rushing to foreclose on her home even before the process
of reviewing a home modification has been made. In addition, Bank of America has not
even had a face-to-face mediation meeting as stipulated by state law.”
She continued, “What we are seeing is a pattern borne out by government statistics that
points to a silent bank bailout that is not only costly to taxpayers but has resulted in countless
foreclosures. In Renee DeFreitas?s case we are demanding that the attorney?s at this law
firm cease the foreclosure process.”
“”””
Finding in Foreclosure a Beginning, Not an End
By John Leland
New York Times - March 22, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/22/us/22foreclose.html
its value rise slowly, rise rapidly and, when the housing
bubble burst, plunge at a sickening pace that left her owing
$400,000 on a house worth closer to $250,000. Last June, her
lender foreclosed on the property. The family received
notices of eviction and appeared in housing court.
Then they discovered a surprising paradox within the
nation's housing crisis: Their power to negotiate began
after foreclosure, rather than ending there.
In December Ms. Petion signed a new mortgage on her house
for $250,000, with monthly payments of less than half the
previous level. She and her husband now have a mortgage they
can afford in a neighborhood that benefits from the
stability they provide. A nonprofit lender made the deal
possible by buying the house from her original mortgage
company and selling it to her for 25 percent more than its
purchase price - a gain to hedge against future defaults.
"It was exactly what we needed to get back on our feet,"
said Ms. Petion, who works for a state agency. "We have
income. But another bank, it would have been easy to look at
our foreclosure and say, `I'm sorry, we have nothing for you now.'"
This counterintuitive solution - intervening after
foreclosure rather than before - is the brainchild of
Community Capital, a nonprofit community development
financial institution, and a housing advocacy group called
City Life/Vida
professors at
Though the program, which started last fall, is small so
far, there is no reason it cannot be replicated around the
country, especially in areas that have had huge spikes in
housing prices, said Patricia Hanratty of
Capital. "If what you've got is a real estate market that
went nuts and a mortgage market that went nuts, what you've
got is an opportunity."
Two years into the nation's housing meltdown, and after
hundreds of billions of dollars of federal rescue programs,
government officials and housing advocates denounce the
unwillingness of lenders to adjust the balances on homes
that are worth less than the mortgage owed on them.
Research suggests that such disparity, rather than exotic
interest rates, is the main driver of foreclosures, in
tandem with a job loss or another financial setback. The
financial industry lobbied aggressively to defeat
legislation that would empower bankruptcy judges to adjust
mortgage balances to properties' market value.
That reluctance, however, eases after foreclosure, when
lenders find themselves holding properties they need to
unload, Ms. Hanratty said.
"We found, frankly, the industry wasn't ready to do much
pre-foreclosure," she said. "But once it was either on the
cusp of foreclosure or had been taken into the bank
portfolio, banks really do not want to hold on to these
properties because they don't know how to manage them, don't
know what to do with them."
Working with borrowed money,
homes after foreclosure and sells or rents them to their
previous owners, providing new mortgages and counseling to
the owners, who typically have ruined credit. During the
process the families remain in their homes. Since late fall
it has completed or nearly completed deals on 50 homes, with
an additional 20 in progress, Ms. Hanratty said. The
organization is now trying to raise $50 million to expand
the program.
Steve Meacham, an organizer at City Life/Vida Urbana, is one
reason banks may be willing to sell their foreclosed
properties to
receive eviction notices, his group holds demonstrations or
blockades outside the properties, calling on lenders to sell
at market value. It also connects the residents with the
Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, whose students work to pressure
lenders to sell rather than evict by prolonging eviction and
"driving up litigation costs," said Dave Grossman, the
clinic's director.
"So they're being defended legally, and we're ramping up the
pressure publicity-wise," Mr. Meacham said. "And B.C.C. came
in; they had a part that buys properties and a part that
writes mortgages. It wouldn't work without all three."
A focus of the program has been the working-class
neighborhood of
percent between 2005 and 2007, compared with a 20 percent
drop statewide, according to research by the Federal Reserve
Bank of
more than twice the state average, the bank found.
In such neighborhoods, lenders and residents are hurt by
evictions, which often leave vacant properties that invite
crime and drive down values of neighboring houses, Ms.
Hanratty said. "So it's in the lenders' interest to get fair
market value as quickly as possible, and in the interest of
the community to have as little displacement as possible."
The program is not a solution for all lenders or distressed
homeowners. After months of post-foreclosure negotiations
with her bank, Ursula Humes, a transit police detective, is
waiting for her final 48-hour eviction notice. Her
belongings are in boxes.
Mrs. Humes owed $440,000 on her home; her lender offered to
sell it to
assessing Mrs. Hume's finances, the nonprofit asked for a
lower selling price, and the lender refused.
On a recent evening, Mr. Grossman of the Harvard law clinic
counseled Mrs. Humes on her options. "This is a case that
doesn't have a happy ending," Mr. Grossman said.
Mrs. Humes said, "I depleted my retirement account and
everything I owned, but I'm still going to lose it."
Many commercial lenders, similarly, would shy away from such
a program because it involves writing mortgages for
borrowers who have already defaulted once - a high risk for
a small reward.
For other homeowners, though, the program is a rescue at the
last possible second. Roberto Velasquez, a building
contractor, lost his home to foreclosure last November,
owing the lender $550,000. After extensive wrangling, during
which his family stayed in the house, he bought it again in
March for $280,000, a price he can afford.
On the night after he closed, he joined other members of
City Life/Vida
A group of artists projected videos on sheets in the
windows, showing silhouettes of families re-enacting their
last 72 hours before eviction. Garbage filled one of the
units. Mr. Velasquez said it hurt to stand amid such loss,
but he was jubilant at his own perseverance.
"We've been fighting for so long," he said, "and we win,
because we're still in the house."
A version of this article appeared in print on March 22,
2010, on page A12 of the
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