Fed Up, Giving Up
by Karen Weise at propublica.org | fed up
Based on stories from hundreds of homeowners, we’re showing what it has been like to seek a mortgage modification through the government’s program. Earlier, we detailed what 373 homeowners told us about their experiences. To put a face on those numbers, we’re also profiling homeowners who represent common situations. This is the third of five.
Wallace Farmer of Baltimore recently moved out of his row house after giving up on the government’s loan modification program.
On a recent Friday morning, Wallace Farmer packed up and moved out of his Baltimore row house. After over a year of confusion and delays, JPMorgan Chase told Farmer that he made too much for a mortgage modification through the government’s foreclosure relief program. That made no sense to Farmer — he’d lost around $500 a month from two rental properties — but he was done fighting. He recalls finally saying, “To hell with it.”
Farmer is one of many homeowners who have given up on the government’s mortgage modification program, which tries to help struggling homeowners by reducing their monthly payments. They say they’re trapped in a bureaucratic nightmare, and even if they are offered a modification, it doesn’t help enough. They stop sending checks and instead face foreclosure.
“I have been traumatized,” says Farmer of his process trying to get help from Chase. “I couldn’t get any closure. Nobody would tell me anything. They kept saying, ‘It’s in the mail. It’s in the mail.’” Chase spokeswoman Christine Holevas says the bank was giving Farmer “assistance and advice about options” when he moved out.
Farmer’s frustration at the delays and the runaround are common among people trying to get help through the government program. More than three-quarters of the homeowners who responded to our questionnaire said they did not trust their servicers to make a good-faith effort to evaluate them for a modification. The Treasury Department has acknowledged that the stress and confusion of the process has caused some homeowners to give up.
Read all of this story at propublica.org | Loan Mod Profiles