Bank of America has decided to renegotiate the terms of a Minnesota homeowner’s mortgage just days before it was scheduled to be auctioned off following a week of action by activists with Occupy Our Homes MN and other groups. Ruby Brown began fighting the foreclosure more than five years ago. She found out last week that the bank had canceled a scheduled sheriff’s auction, according to OccupyOurHomes.org:
After a five-year battle over now-illegal lending practices, a bank error that dropped her from a loan modification program, and a campaign with Occupy Homes MN, north Minneapolis homeowner Ruby Brown has received a mortgage renegotiation from Bank of America, just days before her home was to be auctioned off.“This is an incredible victory for Ruby, who has been in the struggle for so long. It’s also something that can and should happen for everyone facing the loss of a home right now,” said Susan Kikuchi, an organizer with Occupy Homes MN.
Brown isn’t the only homeowner to face foreclosure over banking errors. Wall Street banks have used fraudulent documents to process foreclosures, illegally foreclosed on members of the military, and foreclosed on homes over small clerical errors. The biggest lenders were subject to a $25 billion mortgage fraud settlement with the federal government and state attorneys general earlier this year.
The victory is the latest in a string of successes for the Occupy Our Homes movement and Occupy Our Homes MN in particular, which has targeted Minneapolis’ hardest-hit neighborhoods and helped numerous homeowners — including the mother of one of its own organizers — stave off foreclosure.