NEW: Family Sit-in Fights Wells Fargo Foreclosure
Friday, April 01, 2011
A Providence family and the RI Bank Tenant and Homeowner Association, a project of Direct Action for Rights and Equality, planned to protest a foreclosure auction scheduled by Wells Fargo.
The event will be held at the home of Bernadette Blanding and her family on Burnett Street in Providence, which is facing foreclosure due to an unpaid bill on a reverse mortgage with Wells Fargo. Her mother, who passed away over a year ago, willed the home to Ms. Blanding.
An Exhausting Fight
“I am so exhausted and frustrated. I have been asking Wells Fargo for over a year to let me pay and keep my home, and they won’t work with me. I’m not going to just let my family be pushed into the streets. I’m going to fight back,” said Bernadette Blanding.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTRecent reports and census data shows that foreclosures continue to plague Rhode Island. Housing Works Rhode Island’s special report on foreclosures in Rhode Island stated that one in every 10 mortgaged homeowners were in foreclosure or delinquency in the fourth quarter of 2010, ranking RI highest in foreclosures in New England.
In 2009-2010 Providence alone suffered 1,213 foreclosures. Not only do property values decrease around foreclosed properties, large numbers of vacancies lead to general community rot as buildings are vandalized, stripped of piping, and collecting trash.
Wells Fargo is part of an investigation and pending settlement with several others of the nation’s largest servicers by 50 Attorney Generals and multiple federal agencies. The new settlement will include a large sum of money along with new regulations to address rampant abuses by large lenders including Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citibank and JP Morgan Chase.
“When we are at the end of the line, lenders refuse to compromise, and federal programs aren’t doing enough its time to fight back in a new way. We shall not be moved,” said Chelsea, member of the BTHA.
Fighting Foreclosures in RI
The BTHA began two years ago in response to the rapid increase in foreclosures and evictions in Rhode Island. The association is made up of people facing foreclosure and their allies and works to stop foreclosures and post foreclosure evictions through legal and direct action campaigns. They focus on holding banks accountable for the homes and mortgages they own and are promoting “Just Cause” legislation at the RI State House that will enable people in foreclosure to stay in their homes.
“This is an organization of community people who know that this crisis is the creation and fault of the banking industry. We refuse to let their failures and greed fall on the backs on working families,” said Luther Allen of BTHA.
Related Articles
- Foreclosures Up 19 Percent
- HousingWorks RI: State Has Highest Foreclosure Rate in Region
- RI Loses $5.6 Billion to Foreclosures
- Taveras Promises to Tackle Providence Foreclosure Crisis
