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Banks Deal Means More Will Lose Their Homes

Tens of thousands of Bank of Americas most distressed borrowers could be evicted and lose their homes more quickly as a result of a proposed settlement between the bank, which is the countrys largest mortgage servicer, and investors in its troubled mortgage securities. While powerful investors stand to benefit from the $8.5 billion settlement over the banks bundling of shoddy mortgages as securities, the fallout for the nearly 275,000 borrowers who took out those loans depends greatly on how deep they are in the foreclosure process and whether they earn enough money to dig themselves out. Matthew Weidner, a Florida lawyer who represents borrowers facing foreclosure, said he was skeptical of promises by the deals architects that lower monthly payments would be easier to obtain. Its like giving aspirin to someone with cancer, he said of the proposed assistance. You had all the big players at the top of the pyramid negotiating but nobody was speaking for the homeowners who have far more at stake at the ground level. -New York Times Article , July 11, 2011

Government Programs Must Keep Homeowners in Homes

Communities in the city of Chicago got the City Council to approve an ordinance that will hold lending institutions responsible for the upkeep of properties they have foreclosed upon. This is largely due to agitated community groups who point to the deplorable state of foreclosed buildings as the cause of a recent upsurge in crime during the summer months. Residents say, not without reason, that the abandoned buildings act as a crime den for drug dealers and gang members and a home for squatters. -My Bank Tracker, July 12, 2011

Minority renters bear the brunt of rental foreclosures and illegal evictions
Lower-income, minority neighborhoods on the South and West sides of Chicago are disproportionately impacted by such practices, LCBH says. The group reports that renters from African American and Latino neighborhoods lodge the vast majority of the "most egregious" complaints about eviction practices. Renters' complaints to LCBH range from banks and their agents refusing to maintain building safety after a foreclosure to prohibiting tenants' access to their units by changing the locks. In 2008, The Chicago Reporter documented the impact of illegal evictions and the growing numbers of apartment building foreclosures in African American communities where they often happen. -Chicago Muckrackers July 8, 2011

Chicago Has Most Foreclosed Homes Of Any City In America

As a result, banks and real estate firms here take longer to dispose of the properties they seize when loans go bad. The Chicago metropolitan area had 118,776 homes in May 2011 that were either owned by banks or were in the process of being taken over by lenders because the owners could no longer afford their monthly mortgage payments, according to RealtyTrac. The Chicago area in the RealtyTrac data includes Cook and DuPage counties as well as parts of Indiana and Wisconsin that are part of the metropolitan areas used in U.S. Census tracts. I think its the banks; they are not willing to lower prices, said John Bouman, president of the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, an advocacy organization for lowincome people. So these properties just sit there empty because they dont want to sell it at a lower price and lose the money they have in it. According to a study done by Nicholas Bianchi of National Peoples Action, a national community rights organization, the nations five largest banks Bank of America, Wells Fargo Bank, J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, Citibank and US Bank are involved in three of every five foreclosures in Cook County. Bianchis study says most foreclosures also occurred in African-American and Latino neighborhoods. ChicagoNews July14, 2011

Foreclosure and renters: banks break the law

Banks routinely violate state and federal laws protecting tenants in rental buildings in foreclosure, particularly in a foreclosure belt stretching across the South and West Sides of Chicago, according to a new report. Lenders and their agents willfully ignore laws that protect tenants in foreclosures and have institutionalized in their practices the wholesale violation of tenants [legal] rights, according to a report from the Lawyers Committee for Better Housing. Banks generally ignore federal law requiring them to honor existing leases after foreclosure on a rental building, according to the report. Banks seek to vacate properties theyve acquired through illegal lockouts and through misleading, harassing and threatening communications with tenants in order to evade legal responsibilities under the citys tenant landlord ordinance, the report suggests. Common practices by banks include providing false information regarding tenancy status, misrepresenting the law, refusing to acknowledge that they are landlords, refusing to acknowledge responsibility for security deposits, and refusing to maintain buildings including basic utilities. Last year Wells Fargo, Chase, US Bank and Citimortgage each foreclosed on Chicago buildings totaling over 1,000 units; Bank of America foreclosed on buildings totaling over 2,000 units, according to the report. -NewsTips July 1, 2011