CHICAGO—(ENEWSPF)—July 10, 2013. As Cook County Sheriff’s evict Patricia Hill and her tenants a second time, her neighbors and supporters across the city are currently rallying to keep them in their home. What had been planned as a 62nd birthday party for this community leader has turned into a public demonstration.
“This is crazy,” exclaimed Patricia Hill. “How are they going to put me out of my home a second time? On my birthday?”
After more than a year of seeking to resolve a dispute with her mortgage modification, Ms Hill, found she had been foreclosed on and that her house had been sold at Sheriff’s Sale for $170,000, nearly half of what she owed on it. In spite of her best efforts to challenge this determination and prove her claims of fraud, Ms. Hill found that the bank had only held out the possibility of a negotiated settlement while aggressively seeking her eviction.
On March 9th, 2012, Bank of New York Mellon had Cook County Sheriffs evict her and her tenants from her home. However, with support from the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign and Occupy Our Homes Chicago, more than fifty people mobilized to keep the family in their home (see: http://youtu.be/P5MNGwt5LiI). For two months, the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign coordinated a 24-hour eviction vigil to protect the Hill family and their tenants. At the same time, the family has prepared a federal court suit against the mortgager, drawing in part on this month’s landmark ruling by the Seventh Circuit court of Appeals’ in the case of Wigod v. Wells Fargo Bank, N. A.
“We’re not going to roll over and let them put us out of this house,” explained John Newman, one of the tenants and a Marine veteran. “This family helped me find a place to stay when I needed help getting on my feet, so I’m not going to let them get taken advantage of by the banks like so many families already have.
However, since the first facing down the first eviction, the Hill family has been trapped in a catch 22. When they offered to repurchase the home from the Bank of New York Mellon, they were refused, only to find that their bank had sold it to a third party, Ocwen Financial Services. Yet, when they contacted Ocwen, they were informed that only after the home was empty, would Ocwen be able to consider a purchase offer. For months they have been trapped in this scenario as the bank has moved again to put them on the street.
Source: Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign
