Our Victories

District 10 has been the hardest hit by foreclosure, totaling approximately 3500 from 2008 to the end of this year, according to RealtyTrak.   Despite efforts to push for solutions through the AG Settlement and State Legislation, Wall Street Bank opposition increases and foreclosures are getting worse. Dual tracking, when banks put a homeowner in trial modification or forbearance agreement AND a foreclosure process at the same time, has expedited foreclosures as well as provided false hope to homeowners seeking assistance from their lender.

However, residents have taken a more aggressive and more effective approach to save homes one at a time, and in December 2011, each won a victory for their homes and communities

CAROLYN GAGE, San Francisco

On Nov 1st Carolyn Gage moved back in to the home she had been evicted from early in the year. The property was still sitting vacant, and owned by the bank. Carolyn's father built the house and the family had been living there for 50 years. Carolyn was a Deputy Sheriff for 17 years until she was injured on the job in 1996.

She was supported byover 60 Foreclosure Fighters, unions, and community groups gathered and marched down Quesada Ave. in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco to support Carolyn Gage and the re-occupation of her home. Carolyn was evicted from her home of 50 years in January by Bayview Mortgage Capital, a Florida based mortgage company.

After a number of actions and press events, a month and two weeks after Carolyn Gage re-occupied her home, she received a letter from Bayview Mortgage Capital saying they are going to re-open her case and work with her to keep her in her home.

She is currently in negotiations for a fair and permanent modification,

VIVIAN RICHARDSON, San Francisico
Vivian has lived in her Bayview home for 13 years. She had a foreclosure eviction pending and she announced in November that she is not leaving- she would resist any efforts to move her out of her home. Vivian and fellow home defender Carolyn Gage live on a block in Bayview Hunters Point where 11 homes have been, or are in the process of being, foreclosed upon.

Vivian and her supporters generated over 1400 emails and 100 calls to CEO Theodore Janius asking that Aurora Loan Services, based out of Delaware, to work with Ms. Richardson to re-open her case and offer a modification after her home was foreclosed and sold back to the bank earlier in May.

On December 16th, Vivian Richardson received word from VP of Aurora Loan Servicing that they were voiding the foreclosure, rescinding the sale of the house, and begining modification negotiation to restructure the loan.

JOSEPHINE TOLBERT, SAN FRANCISCO
On November 30th, Josephine Tolbert, 75 year old grandmother, great grandmother, childcare provider, and cancer survivor was locked out of her home of 38 years. She had taken her grandson and two children (ages, 3, 2, and 6 month old infant) to the park and returned to find Ash Gujral, owner of True Compass - investment group that engages in land speculation as well as other investments - and his partners changing the locks on the front door.

In 2006, Josephine was diagnosed with cancer. She was unable to work. Although the house was paid off in 2002, she had to take out a loan 2006 in order to pay off bills, support herself while she couldn't work, and rebuild her life. Unfortunately, the loan was at 11.9% and the payments began to increase.

She had fallen behind several times, trying to catch up, until Bank of America refused to accept payments. For the last 2 years she has been trying to get Bank of America to work with her to help modify her loan. Progress was slow, but she was shocked to hear from True Compass LLC, who informed her that they were the new owner and that she needed to leave.

Josephine, although a senior, continues to support herself. She is a licensed childcare provider. When she lost her home on Nov. 30th, she also lost her only means of supporting herself.

After being evicted, Josephine and her supporters moved quickly. On December 12th, after two aggressive actions on True Compass, LLC at their office and at the restaurant of the one of the investors, True Compass and Josephine worked out an agreement that has allowed Josephine back into her home and agreed to sell the property back to BofA in order to negotiate a modification.

Josephine's victory is not yet complete.  She is still fighting to get Bank of America to complete the agreement and offer her a permanent modification with principal reduction.

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"We want to keep as many of our neighbors as possible and make sure the banks do the right thing. We are losing families everyday because of the type of loans these banks flooded into our communities, "says Vivian Richardson, Foreclosure Fighter, "We have to stop blaming foreclosure victims and start demanding that the banks fixed what they destroyed and work with families. The only people that gamed the system were the institutions that were in the position to do so: the banks. We have to change that system and that attitude."

Fed up and facing foreclosure, Tyrone visited attorney Kathryn LaTour at Community Legal Services of East Palo Alto. Kathryn helped Tyrone apply for a loan modification. At that point they heard back that Tyrone "didn't qualify" for a loan modification. Kathryn then got in touch with folks from San Jose ACCE's Home Defenders League. ACCE members organized an action on a Bank of America branch in San Jose. During the action Tyrone was able to speak with a senior manager in Bank of America's loss mitigation department who promised to cancel his sale date and take a second look at Tyrone's loan modifcation appliction. A few months later Tyrone was finally approved for a permanent, affordable loan modification. "If I had just been by myself I would never have gotten anywhere with the bank." said Tyrone "By having a big group of people go with us to the bank, ACCE was able to help us finally get the bank's attention and ultimately helped us save our home from foreclosure."

A group of home owners and community members who care about keeping their neighbors and families in their homes, joined together to rally at a US Bank branch in downtown Oakland, forced the Bank to postpone Lynette's sale. "I just want more time", said Lynette,a small business owner, and major contributor to City of Oakland's Small Business Task Force. She had tried all types of avenues to modify the loan. A 20+ year Graphic Designer, she's suffered the grips of hard economic times, and closed her business. Temporary jobs have helped her somewhat, but do not seem to satisfy the US Bank's requirements. Born to be resourceful, and a former school teacher, she quickly moved into substitute teaching to make ends meet, and was successful. She landed a few freelance jobs and gained her economic strength. She's on the mend, but needed the bank to give her an affordable loan modification with a principal reduction. She's worked very hard in her community of Maxwell Park, where she's been a Neighborhood Block Captain, helping to be a unifying presence for the 70+ neighbors and bringing her lively creative solutions to building community.

Last December, after a series of actions, emails and phone calls, Lynette finally won a permanent modification with her lender.  Read the article about her victory by clicking here.

You can also listen to Lynette and another ACCE member, Beverly Williams, speak about the action and ACCE's campaign to stop foreclosures and hold banks accountable on KPFA by clicking here. (NOTE: The interview begins at about 33:50).

There was plenty of press coverage by Channel 2 KTVU, KRON 4, KCBS 5, and 14 Univision! We gathered in front of our member Maximo Rivera's house and were not surprised to see that Richmond Code Enforcement had worked overtime over the last 48 to cleaned up the surrounding properties and most of the properties on our tour. Deborah Price, our new Chapter Chair lead us in a chant to get us started. TJ shared her concern with the illegal dumping and blight and how it has been contributing to the decay and crime in Richmond. Maximo highlighted how not only the bank blight was affecting the neighborhood but there is also a huge issue with the Railroad needing to clean and board up their property from residents. We started the tour walking pass countless empty lots, foreclosed homes, and abandoned homes sharing stories. The cleaner properties actually fueled community members who marched the streets with blown up pictures of dozens of the worst blighted properties pre clean up. City council members walked the neighborhood and got to ask questions and share stories with other officials and community members. Richmond already has an ordinance that penalizes owners for not maintaining their vacant and blighted properties, but members asked for a stronger enforcement and creatively for more permanent solutions.

The Code Enforcement Director promised to work with ACCE and other organizations to put pressure on the Railroad to fence up their properties from residential areas. The City Manager was excited to share that the city had been applying for a grant that could finalize the gated alleyway program within the next two months. City Council members Jovanka Beckles and Corky Booze supported our Youth Blight Brigade and wants to continue to work together with ACCE to create this youth training program. And Mayor McLaughlin and Mr. Higares agreed to having quarterly reports from Code Enforcement televised during city council meetings for all Richmond residents. Members were happy how the tour turned out but warned officials that they would be following up within the next weeks to continue working to clean up Richmond!