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Mortgage Madness: Protest targets 'predator'
Posted on 02/09/2009
By AMANDA NORRIS anorris@thestamfordtimes.com STAMFORD -- Stamford and Greenwich became the stomping grounds of a grassroots campaign against corporate greed Sunday as part of a three day homeowners' workshop sponsored by the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America. Between 350 and 400 people, most of them members, staff or volunteers for the Boston-based nonprofit organization, converged outside the Greenwich home of William Frey, manager of Greenwich Financial Services, at around 1 p.m. Wearing bright yellow hats and t-shirts with pictures of sharks and the words "Stop Loan Sharks," protesters had already targeted the home of John Mack, CEO of Morgan Stanley, at 6 Club Road, Rye, N.Y. earlier in the day. At Frey's house, 10 Glenville Road, Greenwich, they chanted slogans such as "Fix our loans, save our homes." They placed furniture on the lawn to symbolize the dislocation felt by people who have had their homes foreclosed upon and been evicted, their belongings tossed outside by state marshals. "We did it to make them feel what it must be like for someone to have their home foreclosed upon," NACA mortgage counselor Carmen Orta said. Called the "Predators Tour" these actions were the start of NACA's "accountability campaign," an aggressive, confrontational protest aimed at several top executives of companies that refuse to allow NACA to renegotiate the terms of loans on behalf of members, according to NACA CEO Bruce Marks. Frey was targeted, Marks explained, because he has filed a class-action lawsuit against Bank of America on behalf of two of the bank's major investors alleging that the bank violated contractual law when it moved to modify hundreds of mortgages to make them more affordable. Marks said that despite the risk and controversy involved in confronting millionaire money brokers on their own turf, NACA's tactics were the only effective means of exerting pressure on an otherwise uncaring and oblivious elite. "It's a war out there. We have tried other means, and peaceful means don't work," Frey said. "It is personal. When homeowners are in danger of losing their homes, that is deeply personal to them." Queens, N.Y. resident Carl Waters said he was mobilized after NACA saved him from foreclosure. Of the Predators Tour, he said, "It was a wonderful experience. I've never seen something like that, to call the predators' attention to the fact that we are not going to take it anymore, that homeownership is our dream and we would not like to lose it." Marks formed NACA in 1988. A self-identified activist, he said he obtained an MBA from New York University and worked for the Federal Reserve of New York "to learn the enemy." According to Marks, NACA uses its clout with banks to get major lenders to restructure loans for homeowners, especially those who have second mortgages or adjustable rate mortgages. In a phone interview, Frey, who knew about the protest in advance from NACA Web publicity and was not home, said, "I could care less. It's really much ado about not much at all...They have a first amendment right to jump up and down and scream." About the lawsuit, which was filed in late 2007, Frey said, "I am not for or against modification. I am not a popular guy in today's political climate because I am sticking up for the contractual rights of investors." Greenwich police Lt. James Heavey said officers were dispatched after a passing motorist called 911 when the crowd blocked Glenville Road. No arrests were made, and there was no property damage. Meanwhile, from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., the Stamford Marriot Hotel, at 243 Tresser Boulevard, became the headquarters for about 150 NACA mortgage counselors. Seated behind laptop computers, they provided free consultations to distressed homeowners. The free workshop, called "Save the Dream," lasts through today.
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Posted by: anonymous | Feb 10, 2009
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Posted by: anonymous | Feb 10, 2009
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Posted by: Anonymous | Feb 10, 2009
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Posted by: Albert | Feb 10, 2009
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Posted by: pitbullstew | Feb 10, 2009
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Posted by: pitbullstew | Feb 10, 2009
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Posted by: pitbullstew | Feb 10, 2009
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they have all been warned....
Posted by: pitbullstew | Feb 10, 2009
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Posted by: An Average Joe | Feb 11, 2009
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Posted by: anonymous | Feb 10, 2009
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Posted by: anonymous | Feb 09, 2009
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Posted by: anonymous | Feb 10, 2009
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I would like to join in this effort only on a Nationwide scale and go to the Capital to plead our case.
Any thoughts on this?
Posted by: Pattie in California | Feb 11, 2009
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Posted by: Murph | Feb 12, 2009
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We were not going to agree to anything like that because it would eliminate their liability if something were to happen to us financially because of the theft of over 2 million customers personal information.
When we got that loan that time, we had not agreed to that loan. Interest only. It was when we went to sit down at the closing those details had been revealed that''s what we had to do and qualified for and we had no other options they said. We had to agree or leave. If we had not agreed we would have lost our home them. So of course we agreed. This wasn''t the first time conditions of loans we had applied for where the conditions up to the closing date were not set until closing. another tactic game I know they play.
How many other people have this interest only loan? I would actually like to know the percentage of loans broken down on all the banks out there as to how many interest only loans r out there.
How CONvenient for the banks to have handed out so many interest only loans ( as I stress CON). It''s just like the adjustables they were handing out( Thank Mr. Bush) they knew people would loose their homes when the rates went up. They handed those out anyway they didn''t care. These were plans and their intent I''m sure. These r the types of loans we are going to offer period and just don''t offer anything else, let the customers believe they don''t qualify for anything else. It''s speculation but I''m sure there''s some truth to it.
I''m sure right there that was something the banks insisted on handing out back then. On the inside. That was their plan. Policy to loan officers to only offer that product and make the customer believe they had no other options but that. One big con! They would receive interest on all those loans that they new the majority of customers could never be able to pay down. Why because the loans they lent would remain as the same amount for them as debt for the banks in their books but they still received all that interest on those loans. We were definitely fleeced and conned by these people.
My husband just called our bank to inquire on refinancing a modification and we can''t the bank said. Why???? Because it will cost us $8,000 to refinance! This is so wrong. Most of us are flip flopped on our mortgages so there is no equity to use to pay to modify our loans so this modification crap is BS. Another scam in my eyes to the American public. Why do you think we need to refinance and they know if we have to we don''t have the extra cash to do so. It''s crazy!
I listened to the president the other day in Indiana and a gentleman in the audience told the President he was tired of the trickle down and wanted the trickle up. Give me the money and I will pay my own loan. Can''t agree more. I''m proud of that man for saying what he did. But of course the government would never agree to anytrhing like this because they want us to bleive we couldn''t handle it. We wouldn''t be trusted. What a joke. we can''t trust the ones who got the billions of bail out money who can they trust?
As for the woman in the audience that was sleeping in her car with her kids. She isn''t alone We all know that and the President gave her the (we all know this one to. The special kiss..take care of her we don/t want to look bad) I''m sure the President intentions in his heart are genuine no questions there but...I knew right then she would be taken care of and I''m very happy for her and her family but this is the state of our country and it is a shame that our government gave away how much to the banks and they did what with it and why? There were no conditions attached to that money. What did the banks do with that money? NOTHING! We know that and took care of their own.
They say they tried to loan it out! We know what words to use for them but but I wont use them here. Look at what we have been reading in the news these past few days about the disgusting bonuses handed out to all those banks CEO''s and the top 4 MY GOD! Who are these people? Do they think their poop smells any different than ours? Do they work for the DEVIL? If I had the opportunity to hop on that bus tour I would have if I could.
Why didn''t President Bush have restrictions or conditions placed on that first stimul-ass package? I am so baffled as to why they didn''t do that in the first place. How many eyes read that before it went out and no one person caught that or questioned the conditions or lack there of?
I demand that the government now do an investigation into the Bush administration for that one action and others and find out who slept with who in all this.What the heck happened? It''s criminal and we all know these CEO''s don''t
work any harder than other high level stressful positions out there in the industry. I think this is criminal and if any other package goes out there they better have major conditions attached with it because we are watching.
I''m disgusted in all this. They have made it so there is no way to climb out of the situations we are all in today. Is this another form of public control in history? Do you know my husbands father told us that his father during the depression the President handed out some kind of public assistance program to stimulate the economy. Do you know what that was? He dig holes one shift and another shift would come in and fill them in and get paid for it. sound familiar?
A family friend of ours who works for unemployment agency says she is seeing grown men standing on the sidewalks outside her office crying in despare. She said she has never in her lifetime seen this volume of unemployed and emotionaly devastated people. And she was my baby sitter who was a nurse during the Vietnam War and use to take me to the barracks to visit the Vets so she has seen a lot. The Vets I remember and that was devastating to me as a child but this is that with more on top of all that.
I believe that the banks that received this first installment from our government should be investigated and the numbers revealed. Where did the money go and I want a balance sheet and total transparency. A total disclosure of the money trail as to who received what and why amd where did it go!
I don''t want to wait a year to find out either. Do it now while the money trail still smells and let them pay for it. I think we already did that if I''m correct. It was our tax money that was suppose to bail us out not them!
I''m am so disgusted at this point in the state of our economy and you can''t tell me that the Bush administration was not aware of the criminal goings on.
I also want to mention an interview I had heard of an officer in the Army who was investigating the Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp and was taking inventory of the data on the prisoners there. He was so ashamed at the state of the information left behind for those who had to pick up where the others left off to rumage through by his previous comrades. Files were in drawers on the floor and
all around. There was no order. There was no system and no data base according to him. Some of the prisoners are the worst of the worst but there were some he could not associate any records or crimes too. So who the heck is going to be let through those cracks? The documentation they have to go by is just in total disorder.
There are just to many issues I would like to bring up right now that are now being disclosed which is also no surprise after an election. It''s the scope and the scale of the issues that scares me so much that I truely believe there''s been many crimes that need to be investigated.
Kathleen~
~A disgusted Mother & Housewife~
~I worked 17 years of my life and I''ve raised a family to only be taken by my own government with my own funds ~
Posted by: Kathleen | Feb 12, 2009
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