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Fighting Foreclosure

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Fighting Foreclosure

By Gina Ford

Story Published: Jun 19, 2008 at 6:03 PM CDT

Story Updated: Jun 19, 2008 at 7:42 PM CDT

Mortgage foreclosures are plaguing the nation, and locally an advocacy group is fighting for one couple to keep their home.

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Valeria Armour was given a house in 1995 that was paid-in-full.

But when she and her husband Vernell fell on hard times, they were given what they describe as a predatory loan.

Central Illinois Organizing Project organizers held a rally in front of the Armour's Bloomington home.

The Armours say in 2005 a loan company convinced them there was enough money in their home to take out a 96-thousand dollar loan.

Now they are about to lose their house.

CIOP organizer Julie Buckles said, "It was misrepresented, it was falsified it was not done correctly at all."

At the time this loan was approved, Vernell's only income was social security and a pension, and his wife was working part time at Wendy's.

Their loan was supposed to go to home repairs but the Vernells said they received a fraction of the amount they now owe.

Vernell Armour said, "We only received six-thousand...there's 90 thousand we can't account for."

Countrywide now owns the loan and threatens to foreclose on their home if the full amount is not paid.

Protester Willemina Esenwein said, "I think these people are being treated unfairly."

But when protesters walked into the local Countrywide office, employees were unaware of the problem.

They attempted to contact their corporate offices.

Protesters also put in calls to the corporate offices, but left the building 15 minutes later.

Police showed up as protesters dispersed, and no one was arrested.

Although no headway was made, protesters say they will be back.

A spokeswoman from Countrywide contacted News 25 and said they are putting the foreclosure on hold. They will be contacting the investor to see what they can do.

View Oldest Comments First

Tuesday, Jun 24 at 11:44 PM Grace from Cali wrote ...

Bank should give homeowners back their house and forgive the penalties on their mortgage late. Bank should give homeowners to pay what they can afford without sacrificing basic way of living.Bank should be responsible for this mess anyway they are the one who funds all bad loan they should know better than the greedy home owners, loan agents, mortgage brokers, appraiser and escrow officers. Bank should take a full responsibility for all this mess.

Monday, Jun 23 at 8:33 AM william lucero wrote ...

oh please! how is it someon elses fault if you cant pay your bills. no one broke there arm and said do this load or else. dont get me wrong I hate countrywide. but for different reasons. whatever happen to dont borrow what you cant pay

Friday, Jun 20 at 10:49 PM Bill wrote ...

Are you kidding? Everyone knows that many of these loans WERE predatory and misrepresented by agents. This is people power at its finest. Let's take back our homes and our communities! Go CIOP!

Friday, Jun 20 at 1:27 PM David wrote ...

How can you not know where $90,000 dollars went? There is more to this story than is being reported. Its easy to say the lender is wrong, nobody wants to see people lose their home but there has to be some personal responsibility. Know and understand what you sign before doing it, if not dont blame the lender for the outcome.

Friday, Jun 20 at 4:44 AM marina wrote ...

Home foreclosure can be due to various reasons such as sub prime crisis, losing job, non affordable house with huge mortgage payment etc., but Ignoring foreclosure in the initial stages & assuming it's not going to affect you will only diminish the chance of not only closing the many options of avoiding foreclosure but also makes you panic & frustrated to make wrong decisions. http://www.mortgagebuyerbasics.com/foreclosure-assistance-solutions

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