ESOP’s Countrywide Campaign

Behind the story… Ms. Gardner attempted a short sale with Countrywide Home Loans on her home of 37 years (she sold the home to her sons after she encountered health problems).  Countrywide accepted the offer, only to keep her money for 67 days and then send it back.  There is now a second short sale offer on the home, submitted in July of 2007.  Countrywide has stalled on providing an approval or disapproval, and instead prefers to respond by adding additional fees to the account.  There are 20 other vacant houses on the street, any other lender would see the logic in a short sale.  Now the home is destined to be the 21st vacant house on the street- there is a sheriff sale scheduled for Oct. 15.

Activists call for lenders to freeze home interest rates

Posted by Michael O’Malley September 26, 2007 14:49PM

Categories: Breaking News

Activists from five states, gathering in Cleveland Wednesday, called on the lending industry to freeze interest rates on adjustable-rate home mortgage loans.

The adjustable rates are expected to soar over the next few months, triggering yet another flurry of foreclosures and adding to a nationwide crisis.

A two-year moratorium on adjustable rates, the activists argued, would give foreclosure-bound buyers time to work with lenders to restructure their loans.

“Something has to be done,” said Inez Killingsworth, board president of the East Side Organizing Project, a Cleveland-based nonprofit group. “And we’re going to do it. We’re going to save the American Dream.”

Some lenders, looking to hold back the tide of foreclosures, have begun freezing adjustable rates. Countrywide Home Loans, the nation’s largest lender, has not, the activists charged.

About 60 people, mostly neighborhood activists, gathered for a news conference at the East 113th Street home of Marion Gardner whose Countrywide loan has gone to foreclosure. Gardner’s home sits within zip code 44105, which has the highest foreclosure rate in the nation, according to the National Training and Information Center, a national grassroots group based in Chicago.

The activists, represented grassroots groups from Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio, targeted Countrywide during the protest.

“The American Dream slayer is the unethical subprime lender,” shouted Barbara Anderson of the East Side Organizing Project. “A thug is a thug, whether a predatory-lending thug or a street thug.”

Officials from Countrywide could not be reached Wednesday for a response.

The activists also called for tougher criminal penalties on brokers and lenders who engage in abusive lending practices and for stronger regulations on mortgage companies.