Home Is Where The Vote Is

My same sex partner and I bought a house in the summer of 2005. In the San Francisco Bay Area, where we live, buying seemed the best option for us. We had—and have—excellent credit, and were tired of being at the mercy of landlords and rising rents. A house seemed the best way to both make an investment and get a stable housing bill. We did everything right. We went to a reputable nonprofit, and took homeowner education classes. We took out loans at a fixed rate, held by the state of California. We took on a debt load we could handle, and for the first couple of years, we cut out every luxury we could in order to make sure that payment was in on time, every month. To this day, we have never so much as been late on a payment. I managed to get myself a better job, and we began to make a few repairs. We couldn’t afford the big jobs, like the bad foundation, the retaining wall that is slowly failing, or the antiquated plumbing and kitchen, but we did the painting, put in a shower, and do the other sweat equity jobs we can handle on our own. Then the bubble burst. Just about the time that we had enough money coming in to start tackling the big jobs. Suddenly no one was lending money. Even with our great credit score, even our credit union was lending only at double digits. Now we’re underwater, our house is only worth about half what we paid for it. We are unable to refinance because under the terms of our loan, we are paying on only half of it. The other half is deferred, at the same 4.5% interest rate as our principal loan, for 30 years, when it becomes due in full with all its interest. We’re too damn proud to walk away, even though it’s what makes the most sense. But we’re basically renters with owners rights at this point. This isn’t fair, and it isn’t right. We played by the rules. We moved into a bad neighborhood—the same neighborhood, actually, that we finally fought our way out of in the late 1980s. We were hopeful when we first arrived. Every weekend the air was filled with the sounds of hammers and saws as we and our neighbors worked on our houses. Now many of those houses are foreclosures. Now we hear gunshots and throbbing cars again, as we did back in the ‘80s. It’s not easy to live this way, knowing that in 23 years, if we haven’t witnessed a miracle, we’ll be unable to pay all those silent mortgages. It’s not easy to watch the banks get bailed out and wonder why we’re still on the hook for those extra mortgages, and unable to refinance our principal. How can we ever climb out of that $160,000 hole we’re in? On top of that, we’ve got a friend living in our living room because this downturn has left her homeless. But I come from good stock. My grandfather was a steel worker. My uncles—and aunt—fought in World War II. After my grandfather died, my grandmother raised the rest of her kids alone, cleaning houses. My mother, the youngest, had her first job at 13, also cleaning houses. But my grandmother told my mother, “Hitch your wagon to a star, little girl. Even if you fall, you’ll end up higher than you were before.” My mother went to college. She was the first of her family to do so. She did it on her own. It took her ten years, but as she told me, she had a choice. She could work and go to college, or she could just work. She made sure I went too. She made sure I had the chance to follow my dreams. They aren’t lucrative. But I believe that everyone in this country deserves a good living. We need dreamers and poets as well as doctors and lawyers. I will continue to write music, and work, and pay my bills as I was raised to. I will continue to do my best to make my neighborhood a better place, and leave our little house better than it was when we bought it. For example, we’ve scraped together the money to put that retaining wall back together. Saving our tax returns. Making straw into gold. Next, we work on the electricals before they burn the house down. Because my wagon is hitched to that star. But there is only so much stone soup I can make, Mr. President. My loans are held by the state of California. We are not eligible for principal reduction unless we are foreclosed upon. Now why is that? We have kept our part of the bargain. Those silent loans are keeping us from getting the loans we need to fix the house and raise its value, and we can’t do it all on cash. Ever try to save $40,000 for a new foundation at $1,000 a year? As President Clinton said, ‘Do the math.’ Those silent loans, unless something changes, will never be paid. In 23 years, we will be forced to default, and, at 70, we’ll both be on the street. That is reality. Make principal reduction for underwater homeowners, particularly those of us who have paid on time, every time, a reality. We’ll make it worth the country’s while. Let us put contractors to work. We’ll start with a foundation, but heck, there’s the electricals, and the attic, and a kitchen we can enjoy cooking in, a bathroom where the walls aren’t peeling. We wouldn’t have to shiver through the winter because our furnace is unusable. When the house is in salable condition, and the housing market is back in gear, we’ll do what we intended to all along and move from our starter home into something large enough for our dreams. There’s a home right across the fence from us that would suit us just fine, in fact. Oakland has become our home by now, and we are already participating in its rebirth. We deserve that chance, as does every American. We’ll leave the place better than we found it, given a fighting chance. That’s all we’re asking for, Mr. President.

I purchased my home in Feb. 2007 for $96,000… now my home is worth $35,000 (if I am lucky). I was offered a loan for 3x as much, passed on the loan with plans of this place being temporary. Now I am stuck in this crappy little property that I’m supposed to pay 30 years on :(

Last summer, my daughters’ father was desperately ill, awaiting a kidney transplant that would keep him alive. During this time, he fell behind on his bills, including his mortgage payment. Though he had some money in the bank and a regular job, the bank did not work with him so he could keep his home. Instead, they foreclosed on the house, and my daughters and I moved his things out. Because of he was now homeless, he was taken off the transplant list. Fortunately we helped him secure housing, and he received the operation he needed. But my daughters and their father lost him home and all his equity.

I purchased my home in Feb. 2007 for $96,000… now my home is worth $35,000 (if I am lucky). I was offered a loan for 3x as much, passed on the loan with plans of this place being temporary. Now I am stuck in this crappy little property that I’m supposed to pay 30 years on :(

http://avenue-s.us/change.gov.htm">http://avenue-s.us/change.gov.htm

have a mortgage discrimination case before us hud region ten fair housing office against chase and emc mortgage case no 10-12-0032-8 us hud fair housing office seattle washington john.k.chung@hud.gov us hud investigating attorney. this is for predatory lending to me a permanent and total disabled Vietnam era vet .I tis about $ 600000 DOLLARS IN HIDDEN INTEREST CHARGES NOT REVEALED B YTHE LENDER CHASE EMC IN VIOLATION OF THE FAIR HOUSING ACT. US HUD REGION TEN PERSONNEL HAVE STONEWALLED ME AND ARE PREVENTEING ME FROM HAVING M YCASE HEARD BEFORE AN ARTICLE III FEDERAL UIS HUD JUDGE PURSANT TO TITLE 49/TITLE VIII CFR 24. PLEASE ASK THE PRESIDENT FOR HELP IN THIS MATTER SINCE THIS LAW MAY BE A WAY FOR KEEP WE DISABLED VETERANS IN OUR HOMES THAT WERE SUBJECTED TO PREDATORY LENDING BY EMC CHASE IN LEWINSVILLE TEXAS RIGHT NOW THE CASE IS ON HOLD LIKE IN SOMEONE’S POCKET LIKE ASSISTANTE US HUD FAIR HOUSING SECRETARY LA TRAINA WHO REFUSES TO CHARGE THE DEFENDANTS WITH MORTGAGE DISCRMINATION THAT VIOLATES US FEDERAL LAWS AND OFFICIAL USHUD FAIR HOUSING POLICY AS PROMULGAGTED BY US SECHUD DONOVAN. THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP I N THIS MATTER

I was sold a predatory loan. I have filed complaint with federal andstate agencies and no one reponds. I have case numbers

I was sold a predatory loan. I have filed complaint with federal andstate agencies and no one reponds. I have case numbers

ITS IMPORTANT TO LET THE BIG BANKS KNOW THAT WE STAND UP AGAINST CORPORATE GREED AND THE 1% LEADERSHIP OF OUR ECONOMY!!! My case has been open with the OCC since April of 2009. WAMU/J.P.Morgan Chase stole our home in 2009 by “ROBO STAMPIMG” documentation. While trying to work out a Modification with the bank, our paperwork was lost on several ocassions.., our home was stolen!!! JP Morgan recently stated to the OCC, that I had no “ownership interest” in my home, the correct and “recorded” Deed states that I have “equal ownership interest” in the State of California, as a joint tenant. JP Morgan repeatitvly requested our importaint personal and financial documentation, which they claimed to have lost or to have never received. Two days before our home was foreclosed on, JP Morgan Chase stated they couldnt help. I’ve received help from Congress, Senators Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein and the State of California Attorney General Kamila Harris, my OCC case #886751 (updated to #1845908 in 2011) is still “under review…..” and has been since April 2009. www.helpwithmybank.gov http://www.change.org/petitions/chasing-jp-morgan-chase">http://www.change.org/petitions/chasing-jp-morgan-chase

http://www.change.org/petitions/chasing-jp-morgan-chase?share_id=mKcawEZRAF&utm_campaign=petition_creator_email&utm_medium=im&utm_source=share_petition">http://www.change.org/petitions/chasing-jp-morgan-chase?share_id=mKcawEZRAF&utm_campaign=petition_creator_email&utm_medium=im&utm_source=share_petition

My situation isn’t explicitly linked to the forclosure crisis, but because housing prices are historically higher than most people can afford, I too m affected by the price of housing. I must utilize HUD Section 8 housing due to the fact that the rental and housing market is unaffordable to me.

The entire mortgage crisis is riddled with fraud and must be prosecuted. In the meantime, use eminent domain to take over distressed mortgages, pay the banks nothing because they’ve broken the chains of title, and then then use the papers being held by counties (ideally) as capital with which to start public county banks.