Foreclosure Help May Come Too Late For Homeowner
Governor Announces New Program
POSTED: 5:54 pm EDT October 15,
2007
UPDATED: 6:14 pm EDT October 15,
2007
BOSTON -- Gov. Deval Patrick wants to persuade mortgage lenders to accept losses so struggling homeowners can quickly sell. That would help them avoid total financial collapse.The governor said that he wants to use the program in cities with rising foreclosure rates, including Boston, Springfield and Worcester.NewsCenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported Monday that the move comes too late for one Brockton homeowner."I have this fear that someday I'm going to go out the door go to work, and I'm going to come back and find a lock on the door with everything here that is dear to me and them saying, 'you're all done,'" Mildred Murphy said.Murphy was informed in mid-September that her home would be auctioned off on Wednesday. It was foreclosed on after a series of loans aimed at keeping the house through financial hard times brought on by a divorce and a disabling work incident.There was also a loan for what she says were desperately needed repairs on the 27-year-old house, where she raised her kids and nursed her ailing father before he died. Every transaction was made through a local broker who connected with out-of-state lenders who never gave her what was promised."I think it's sick that the state of Massachusetts will allow predatory lenders to lend homeowners money but then when they've lied to us there's no law there to protect us," she said.Murphy has a stack of paperwork -- much of letters from agencies she's contacted for help who haven't been able to help her. Now, she's like a neighbor she saw lose the home she lived in for 45 years."Forty-five years, and the only thing she did wrong was she went to a predatory broker who went to a predatory lender. And she was 70," Murphy said. "Now it's happening to me. It's like a cancer that's spreading right through this city."Murphy said that she feels she's done nothing wrong. So on Wednesday when the auction is scheduled to start she said she'll sit on her front steps with her pride intact so that any prospective buyer will have to face her as she loses her home.
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