Monique White and Bobby Hull live in different neighborhoods, but they have one thing in common: The banks who held their mortgage refused to negotiate with them, and then sold their homes for pennies on the dollar to another bank. It's time for this to stop.
Today, on this national day of action, we're calling on the major banks - particularly US Bank and Wells Fargo, who hold the largest share of mortgages in our community - to start negotiating with families, rather than with other banks.
Here's Monique's story:
In her case, US Bank sold her house at auction to Freddie Mac, and now claims Freddie Mac is responsible. Freddie Mac, of course, points the finger at US Bank for failing to negotiate.
Here's Bobby's story:
In his case, Bank of America sold the house at auction to US Bank. Both banks claim the other is responsible for any solutions for Bobby and his family.
The shell game ends today. Here's our message to the banks: You can't escape responsibility by selling to another bank. You can't escape accountability by deferring to the servicer if you're the trustee, or to the trustee if you're the servicer. You are responsible for fixing what is in your power to fix. You're going to take losses - that's what happens in a market downturn. When you sell homes for pennies on the dollar, sell them to families, not to other banks. We're calling on banks to work with families to stabilize our neighborhoods and keep people in their homes. We won't stop until it happens.
Today at 1:00, we'll be rallying at Bobby's house, along with our allies in the foreclosure prevention fight and the whole nationwide Occupy movement, to ratchet up the pressure again on the banks who are tearing our neighborhoods apart.
We're already getting great coverage in advance of the action:
The Huffington Post put us on their front page.
We'll keep the pressure up as long as it takes. It's time for the banks to stop foreclosing on our community.
