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Permalink Reply by Diane Watkins on August 16, 2011 at 1:22pm

The whole mortgage foreclosure issue seems very complicated. How can we as citizens help straighten any of this out?

I feel bad for the RPD & the Marshall because they are ordered to enact this very terrible action.

My husband and I tried to be landlords years ago (we were terrible at it). We had to evict someone after not paying any rent for 3 months but we still felt like we didn't want to do it. We just couldn't carry the cost or we may have let them live for free for 3 more months.

I couldn't imagine if we had to force the person to move.

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Permalink Reply by DeWain Feller on August 16, 2011 at 10:51pm

The foreclosure issue is indeed very complicated, and we need to approach it honestly and objectively.  I'm afraid that it is simply beyond the scope of what one neighborhood group can deal with, especially when we have too much on our plate already.

Your story about the need to evict a tenant is very telling.  In many cases, people being evicted are angry because they expect that the landlord or mortgage agency must allow them to continue to live for free.  It is extremely unfortunate when someone cannot afford to live in their home, but they cannot put the burden on someone else.  It is reasonable to require mortgage agencies to offer tools to help keep people in their homes (i.e., renegotiate the terms of the mortgage, or short sell when that is not possible), but is not reasonable to expect that mortgage companies pay for free housing.

 

Now back to the original purpose of this thread...  There is no strong evidence of police misconduct in either the Ravenwood or Appleton eviction cases.  If there really is an issue, then let's let the new review process judge it fairly and objectively.  Until it is judged properly, let's not have inflammatory comments claiming that the RPD (or the marshals) are out of control.

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Permalink Reply by DeWain Feller on August 16, 2011 at 10:34pm

The information that I have received so far about the Ravenwood forcelosure is that it was NOT fraudulent.  Like I said before, there certainly are cases of fraud, but the claims of widespread fraud appear to be greatly exaggerated.  It is essential that the cases of real fraud are dealt with through legal due process... not a lynch mob mentality.  Just because some people in the real estate and financial industries are working against the interests of the neighborhood does not mean that everyone in those industries (or even a majority) are against our interests.

The stresses of the Great Recession have created a potential tinderbox of stress and emotions, and it is essential that those who are dedicated to our neighborhood work to reduce the heat of the discussion about evictions and foreclosures.

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Permalink Reply by Louise Wu on August 17, 2011 at 6:50am

Where are you getting your information Dewain? Are you willing to tell us?  I'm her neighbor and we are getting our information from the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a well respected national legal advocacy organization that has taken her case.  CCR defended the Immokalee Workers and many other worthy legal causes. It is their considered opinion that there has been a huge fraud on the part of the bank, the law firm handling this case for the bank and Fannie Mae, and on the part of the real estate firm that is representing Fannie Mae in Rochester.  They are not alone with this opinion.  It is shared by the people bringing the class action suits, the justice department, and NY State's attorney general Eric Schniederman.   I think saying that church groups like Spiritus Christi, and people like the members of Metro Justice, who are committed to helping with this problem, have a mob mentality is harsh, inflammatory, and unnecessary.  We never condemned the entire real estate industry. Were did you see that in this discussion?

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Permalink Reply by DeWain Feller on August 17, 2011 at 10:28pm

Since my sources were confidential, I am not at liberty to identify them publicly; however, they are very reliable and respected.

I have the greatest respect for Spiritus Christi and Metro Justice, and I know a number of people involved in both. 

What is a concern is that some people have exaggerated the issue, and have made a number of harsh anti-police comments.  Furthermore, there is a group that is advocating that people illegally seize and occupy vacant houses and to illegally interfere with valid evictions.  We simply cannot allow that.

With growing rancor and polarization in many discussions today, it is essential that we respect others, maintain civil discourse, recognize that there is a broad range of different opinions, and that we all work for the common good.

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Permalink Reply by Louise Wu on August 18, 2011 at 5:59am

Dewain,

I'm sure your convictions are thoroughgoing about this, but an appeal to an anonymous authority is not going to have sufficient weight to change minds.  I hope you realize that no one is monolithically condemning the police either, in case your unnamed sources have any connection there.  I can assure you the issue is anything but exaggerated.  Rochester is being very heavily predated by the banks, real estate, and law firms involved in what robo-signing attorney in my neighbor's case has actually had the hubris to refer to on record as the "foreclosure industry." This is just outrageous.  Rochester gets more than half of the foreclosures annually of a city the size of Boston, MA.  These predatory operators will have the Ward looking like abandoned sections of Detroit if these fraudulent foreclosures continue at this pace.  I have in my family attorneys, bankers, and real estate business people.  Just because this problem exists and we are talking about it, doesn't mean that any of them are making the leap that I, or anyone involved, believes that all of the people in these industries are bad or corrupt.  That would be black and white thinking.  If you are concerned about the issue being a powder keg, then it might be prudent for you to tell your anonymous friends that the police and the sherif's office may want to take a more critical look at their role in throwing legitimate homeowners out in the street without taking time to find out what the hideous abuses of some of the real estate dealers and law firms have been around here.  The supreme court is now doing exactly that.  At Tuesday's city council meeting, member's of council were very interested in the way RPD have been using (some would say wasting) the city's resources to put people out in fraudulent foreclosures as well.   

 

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Permalink Reply by Louise Wu on August 22, 2011 at 9:28am

Our neighbor Cathy Lennon in Daily Kos! Article is a good roundup of where it all stands: some of our city court judges pushing through sketchy evictions and all legal aid in Rochester afraid to represent Cathy.  Foreclosure mill law firm in Buffalo, still trying to put her out but haven't shown bank owns the house.  Why are Empire Justice and Rochester Legal Aid so afraid of representing her?  Foreclosure lawyer Baum has an anti-racketeering case (RICO) against him, so is legal aid scared because he is a real gangster maybe?

Daily Kos link:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/18/1008214/-Eviction-Defense:...

 

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Permalink Reply by Dan DeMarle on September 4, 2011 at 10:26pm

Just an update in case anyone missed it.

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