Detroit activists protest at Bank of America branch
Via Detroit Free Press:
Activists with Occupy Detroit and other groups say they’ll hold regular protests of what they call abusive lending practices and banks’ part in the mortgage crisis.On Thursday, they kicked off what they’re calling 99% Spring with a protest outside a Bank of America branch in the New Center Building in Detroit. Members said protests will continue until the Bank of America spring shareholders’ meeting. With 30 voices echoing through the lobby, the protest was organized by members of Occupy Our Homes, a spin-off of the Occupy movement that focuses on foreclosures and mortgage company practices.
“Banks got bailed out! We got sold out!” they chanted in the lobby at about noon, as onlookers stopped and took flyers from the group.
Leading the charge was Dave Kirby, 36, who lost his Lincoln Park home to foreclosure after losing his job during the economic downturn.
“I’m glad Bank of America can write off their losses,” Kirby yelled. “We can’t!”
Kirby said he bought his Lincoln Park ranch in 2000 for $68,000, put about $50,000 into it and had the home appraised at $142,000 in 2002. But Kirby lost his job. And by then, the bottom dropped out of housing market, leaving his home worth about $50,000.
But when he asked Bank of America for a loan modification, his payments only dropped by about $100 a month, he said. The home sold at a foreclosure auction about a month ago for $25,000, Kirby said.
“To say that I was underwater was an understatement,” he said. “I would have loved for them to work with me because I would have paid a lot more than $25,000 over the course of a 30-year loan.”
Beverly Peete, 57, of Detroit, who works upstairs in the Karmanos Cancer Center, applauded the protesters.
“They’re telling the truth,” she said, adding that she ran into issues having her parents’ mortgage modified. “They do, they sell you out. All of them. They’re all the same.”
The manager of Bank of America’s New Center office referred inquiries to the bank’s corporate office. Calls there weren’t returned Thursday.
It’s the second time this week that Occupy Detroit has helped support Detroiters who are losing their homes. On Tuesday, about 20 people stood outside the home of Bertha and William Garrett to prevent them from being evicted from the home they’ve lived in for 24 years.
William Garrett, 66, bought the home with proceeds from his beauty salon. He and his wife, Bertha, 64, were told they had to leave after an adjustable-rate mortgage ballooned and their family couldn’t make the payments.
But on Thursday, Bertha Garrett said their bank had agreed to sell them back their home for $12,000 — the amount the lender paid for the home at a recent foreclosure auction.
“I’m just elated, and thankful for everyone who was diligent and faithful,” she said. “I could not have stood alone.”
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