por Jonathan Nathan‚
Reprinted from BeyondChron
A family protests unjust Wells Fargo Bank’s foreclosure.
It’s been three months now that ACCE activists, municipal politicians, and local residents have protested the major bank branches in the Persia Triangle over foreclosure and home loan practices. Three months of hearing nothing but platitudes and get-back-to-yous from the banks. Three months of no relief. But the struggle of home ownership has been a longer — and realer — fight for the residents under threat. Two of them spoke to the press on Tuesday about their experiences before taking their cases — one more weary time — to the bank responsible for their hardships.
Maria Villareal embarked on the journey that has been her current home 14 years ago. The loan for her Naples Street home was originally owed to Wachovia, but was taken over by Wells Fargo. When Villareal’s husband went on disability and the family’s income stream dwindled, Wells Fargo sold the family an adjustable rate mortgage, a dangerous proposition that has become so destructive that it’s illegal in parts of the country. Adjustable rate mortgages are frequently targeted at low-income populations, often groups with little formal education and/or a language barrier.
Wells Fargo eventually ratcheted the interest rate to 8%, bringing monthly payments up to $5000. Villareal’s husband was forced to get off disability and is working under duress. Her children are also working to support the family. Villareal’s home has entered into the foreclosure. She’s currently asking that Wells Fargo give her a lower interest rate, a lower monthly payment, and a reduced principle. She adamantly insists that she doesn’t want anything for free — just the opportunity to pay for her home. The sale date for her home has been postponed indefinitely, but could be scheduled at any time. Monica Kenney’s story doesn’t go back as far, but it’s even more fraught with pain. Kenney purchased her first home in July 2008. “I realized a dream,” she said.
The Vienna Street home was 582 square feet and cost $352,000. The starting monthly payments on her loan from Wells Fargo were $2700. Kenney got the payments modified down to $2400 per month in 2009, but unforeseen disaster struck in January 2010 when she lost her job.
Over the course of the next eight months, she emptied her two retirement accounts to pay her house note, but by September, she was out of resources and still out of work. The following January, Wells Fargo told her that her home was in foreclosure, but that they were willing to work through the process with her. By now the way this story ends is a familiar refrain to anyone who’s followed the foreclosure crisis, but no homeowner assumes that she’ll be the one to fall. Kenney worked with the bank for months to come up with a solution, constantly being referred back and forth from department to department, from desk to desk, from phone call to phone call, never getting anywhere. She got the distinct impression that there was very little communication among different units within the bank, that she was being victimized by the bureaucracy. Finally, in June of last year, Wells Fargo offered her a forbearance. Essentially, they offered to let her pay $600 per month until she got a job, at which time her payments would revert to normal. The agreement would allow her to stay in her home while she weathered the storm of unemployment.Kenney agreed, and the plan was formalized in writing. She made her first $600 payment.
The next day the bank put her house up for auction. Wells Fargo has not returned that first payment to Kenney, and has refused to work with her to resolve the situation. Kenney was a victim of “dual-tracking,” a process that ACCE members have attacked publicly before, by which a bank pursues loan modification and foreclosure processes simultaneously, often without communication between the two divisions, often resulting in a home being sold even as an agreement is being reached to prevent foreclosure. Kenney’s home is now owned by Fannie Mae. Kenney hopes to work out an arrangement with Fannie Mae to get them to honor the forbearance agreement.
Kenney and Villareal led a small cadre of ACCE members and upset residents into the local Wells Fargo branch. Unlike past demonstrations and sit-ins, this one was quiet. But all was not lost. The regional manager for San Francisco happened to be in the office on Tuesday, and spent about a half-hour on the phone with his superiors and in conversation with Kenney and Villareal about the specifics of their situations. He made no promises, but said higher-ups at the bank would be in contact with ACCE, with Kenney, and with Villareal, and held out the possibility of hope. After three months, after three years, after fourteen years, that possibility was good news.
