Long Beach Resident Refuses To Surrender To Foreclosure

November 28th, 2008

Delfa Robles is sixty-eight and a member of ACORN. A resident of Long Beach she is refusing to surrender to foreclosure. Last Tuesday (25th November 2008) ACORN stood beside one of their members in trouble. The house she has been living in for the last thirteen years is now being foreclosed upon.

Robles tried her hand at restaurant business but was not successful. It led to financial problems and she fell behind in her mortgage payments. Foreclosure loomed large. There were two options before her – either to sell the house or to file bankruptcy. The latter was anathema to her, said David Mazariegos of ACORN. Robles as well as her husband are both retired and living on a fixed income. This makes it difficult, if not impossible for them to be current on their mortgage payments.

The Robles couple had taken a risky mortgage from Wachovia Bank. The latter has allowed them time to catch up on their dues. The bank has given Delfa a year to clear the backlog as well as continue with the current ones. This has increased her payments by $800 per month. She has a year to dwell on it and meanwhile she will talk out matters with Wachovia. ACORN has given the bank the title of being the ‘Turkey of the Year’ for not working with the foreclosure victims. Robles acknowledges what the bank has so far done but goes on to add that they can easily do something more to ease the pressure.

The California branch of ACORN wants the state to enforce 90 days moratorium on foreclosures so that many like Robles get some time to work out a solution so as to continue to stay in the houses that are their homes. ACORN is also putting pressure on lenders to be more visible in their efforts to speedily modify loans. Mazariegos commented, “ACORN members are calling on all mortgage lenders and servicers to implement a 90 day foreclosure moratorium and to use this time to modify loans to affordable terms for homeowners. The state of California and its lenders should heed (Presdient-elect Barack) Obama’s call for a 90 day moratorium.”

ACORN has its branches all over America being a community based national organization. It takes up the cause of low and modest income families on issues like local safety, registration of votes, health services, affordable homes and other social matters. Recently a charge had been brought against it for fraudulently enlisting voters to support Obama in eleven states, excluding California.