Support!: [CAEC] Fwd: Latina Homeowners stand up against foreclosures at JPMorgan Chase Bank
Crystal Vance Guerra
Latina Homeowners stand up against foreclosures at JPMorgan Chase Bank
Contact: Albany Park Autonomous Center | 3460 W. Lawrence Avenue | Chicago, Il 60625
Tel: 773-583-7728 Cell: 612-991-8584 (Roberto) Alternate Cell: 773-208-0500 (Tom)
What: Protest in front of JPMorgan Chase bank – 4824 N Pulaski Rd., corner of Lawrence and Pulaski, Chicago
When: Friday, May 11 at 2:00pm
Chase Bank wants to foreclose on two properties, leaving two elderly families homeless. Already one in six of our neighbors are in foreclosure or pre-foreclosure. The neighborhood is full of distressed properties, often left vacant for months or years. Today, we present Chase with two cases of distressed elderly residents that can be quickly resolved, saving the bank’s shareholders money by avoiding legal battles and real estate management costs, while KEEPING SENIOR CITIZENS IN THEIR HOMES. CHASE, DO THE RIGHT THING!
Beatriz and Bolivar Uriarte
My name is Bolivar Uriarte. I have lived at 3228 W. Belle Plaine for more than ten years with my wife Beatriz. We are active members of the Ecuadoran community in Chicago. We work with the Foundation of Ecuadoran women, a non-profit organization that helps poor children in Ecuador, and we are leaders at the Centro Autónomo de Albany Park. Since we moved to our house in 2002, we always paid our mortgage on time. The monthly payments were $2,578.
In 2008 I got sick and lost my job, and by 2009 we were unable to pay the mortgage. For several years we depended on my wife’s modest income plus rent from the two rooms on the second floor. I have since recovered and am working again, though we lost several of our renters because of the uncertainty caused by the foreclosure process.
We tried to work with Chase on a loan modification that would reflect today’s much lower interest rates and home values, but Chase responded negatively. So we contracted with an attorney, who turned out to be unethical, charging us thousands of dollars while doing virtually nothing. Since that experience, we have come to find out that many lawyers, or people posing as lawyers, are taking advantage of many of our fellow Spanish-speaking neighbors.
We are not young anymore and we cannot start all over again. We have suffered in our marriage and we have been confronted with uncertainty about the house and the terror of what is going to happen, to the point where my wife was hospitalized for nervous tension. But we have not lost hope that we can come to an agreement with the bank based on a loan modification. The Centro Autónomo has agreed to help us find new renters to help pay the mortgage, and we can also depend on family members to assist in keeping us in our home. Our family and our community stand at our side in this difficult moment.
Vicente and Estela Gutierrez
We have lived in our home at 5111 N Avers for sixteen years and in the city for 22 years. We moved here from Mexico in January of 1990 because my mother had a heart attack and I wanted to be with her in the US. I stayed here for four years after I moved, finished school and found a great job in the United States.
Today, it would be really hard for me to find a new home because I am disabled with many health issues. I do not want to leave this community. My daughter went to school in at Edmonson High, and later attended Columbia and Wright Colleges in Chicago. We have other family members that also live in this community and my son’s children attend Volta elementary. We go to church at Hefzi-ba on Pulaski.
I retired from work on June 28, 2007. I worked at Temple Steel as a machine operator. We stopped making mortgage payments because my income was reduced and I was suffering from very bad spinal problems. We tried to get a modification four times and they were all rejected. We owe $255,000 on the house and we have paid on the house for 12 years. Right now the house is valued at $140,000. We feel very sad because everything is falling apart after working for more than 30 years. We put a lot of investment into this house and we do not want to see it go. We need to survive and we would like to stay in the house and rent parts of the house to be able to make the payments. We just need a little more time so that my health can recuperate and that Estela can begin working again. She is currently at home treating me in my illness. We would like to repurchase the house at current market rate. I am in the process of seeing a housing counselor as well as waiting for my Illinois Hardest Hit application to be accepted.
As residents of Albany Park, Chicago, we are fed up with government bailouts for banks that lie, cheat and steal, while hard-working families reaching their retirement years are forced to start all over with nothing! We join communities across Chicago to defend housing as a human right! Enough is enough! Nearly 5,000 homes in Albany Park are in the process of foreclosure or are already bank-owned. It's time to defend homeowners, stop bank abuse, and demand an immediate moratorium on foreclosures.
BANKS GOT BAILED OUT WHILE PEOPLE GET THROWN OUT!STOP THE FORECLOSURES, NO MORE EVICTIONS!
DEFEND OUR SENIORS!
Albany Park Autonomous Center
Communities United Against Foreclosure and Eviction
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