Wall Street wrecked the economy and banks are still refusing to work with people who are trying to stay in their homes. The Campaign for a Fair Settlement, along with other partners, is calling on President Obama over the next 100 days to champion an agenda that would:

1. Hold bankers accountable for their crimes.

2. Keep people in their homes by resetting their mortgages.

Sign the petition here. 

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Beverly Jones shared this story of how Wells Fargo hurt her family. Read more from 100 Stories of What Wall Street Broke:

My brother was a homebuilder in North Carolina. He and his wife, both in their late 60s, purchased a modest brick home on an acre of land and spent some months totally reworking the home as their retirement home, adding an extra bath and a sunroom, etc. The appraised value of the property when completed was just over $400,000. After that was completed, my brother had some health issues (possibly related to stress with the falling economy?) 

They applied for a modification with Wells Fargo, which took two years to accomplish and was a total farce—(“Oops, we lost your payment send us another one—Oops, we lost that payment, send us another. Oops we lost your papers, etc.”)

During that time they put the home up for sale and eventually dropped the price to $270,000. The home finally sold in 2010 and my brother just happened to contact Wells Fargo just days before the closing on the home. Well Fargo’s response was, “Oh, you cannot sell that home, we are foreclosing on it.” My brother [received] no foreclosure notice at that time. 

Wells Fargo would have received every penny owed to them on the mortgage. They refused to budge and even had someone break a window to break into the home and change the locks. (My brother was able to gain entrance through a back door and remove the balance of his belongings.) 

All of the efforts of my brother’s attorney were unsuccessful in averting the foreclosure. What this tells us is that these banks are reaping a small fortune on these foreclosures. (The bank sold the home immediately thereafter. The attorney researched and said………I do NOT know the accuracy of this statement……..that a foreclosure immediately becomes a FHA deal and the bank can receive a payoff from FHA.)

Then the bank can sell the home (which they did) and reap that money also. If this is true, that would explain the great interest by these banks in the foreclosure process!  I suggested to my brother that they send a report to the Consumer Protection Agency, which I do not think he has done. They just felt they had to walk away with nothing but their 899 credit score dropped to who knows what. They are now living in government-subsidized housing in another state. Another horror story told.