[StBernard] Those Foreclosure "Victims" Deserve No Sympathy

[Westley Annis]

Those Foreclosure "Victims" Deserve No Sympathy
by Michelle Malkin

It shouldn't be long before ACORN recruits "Octomom" 
Nadya Suleman to serve as the radical left-wing group's 
foreclosure poster child. The jobless, unmarried mother 
of 14 faces eviction from her home in two weeks. 
Suleman's mother, who owns the residence, hasn't sent 
a mortgage check in 10 months and owes $23,000 in back 
payments. Nonetheless, the plastic surgery-enhanced, 
welfare-dependent Octomom was photographed this week 
at a video store splurging on games for her brood.

 With her warped financial priorities, Suleman fits 
right in with the militant moochers at the Association 
of Community Organizations for Reform Now. As I report-
ed last week, ACORN launched a lawless "civil dis-
obedience" campaign across the country to demand their 
housing entitlement rights. With this well-oiled prop-
aganda campaign buoying his efforts, President Obama 
used his State of the Nation address last night to 
advance his push for a massive government home fore-
closure plan that will help "responsible homeowners 
avoid foreclosure."

But a closer look at ACORN's sob stories shows that 
the prototypical foreclosure "victims" don't deserve 
an ounce of sympathy -- or a cent of our money.

Earlier this week, ACORN activists broke into a fore-
closed home in Baltimore. With a mob cheering and 
camera crew taping, Baltimore ACORN leader Louis 
Beverly busted a padlock and jimmied the door open 
at 315 South Ellwood Ave. The home once belonged to 
restaurant worker Donna Hanks, who assailed her evil 
bank for raising her mortgage by $300 and leaving her 
on the street. "This is our house now," Beverly de-
clared with Hanks by his side at the break-in.

What ACORN didn't tell you: Hanks' house was sold in 
June 2008 for $192,000. She bought the two-story home 
in the summer of 2001 for $87,000. At some point dur-
ing the next five years, she refinanced the original 
home loan for $270,000. Where did all that money go? 
(Hint: Think house-sized ATM.)

The property initially went into foreclosure proceed-
ings in the spring of 2006. Hanks soon filed for bank-
ruptcy and agreed to a Chapter 13 plan to pay back 
her bank and other creditors. In September 2006, the 
bankruptcy court ordered Hanks' employer to deduct 
$340/month from her salary to pay down the debt. Hanks 
did not comply with the legally binding plan. In 
December 2007, the loan servicer issued a notice of 
default on nearly $7,000 past due.

While she was reneging on her mortgage IOUs, she some-
how managed to collect rent on her basement (for which 
she was taken to court) and rack up a criminal record 
on charges of theft and second-degree assault. The 
house was sold seven months ago after two years of 
court-negotiated attempts to allow Hanks to dig her-
self out of her debt hole.

Beverly, who claims to be a foreclosure victim himself, 
was charged with burglary for the break-in and released. 
He is literally a housing thug -- having been separately 
charged with second-degree assault and property des-
truction earlier this year; battery, assault, handgun 
possession and possession of a deadly weapon with intent 
to injure in 1992; and slapped with a peace order issued 
against him in 2006.

The Washington Post spotlighted Beverly's and Hanks' 
activism without following up on their criminal records 
and financial negligence. The paper also shilled for 
ubiquitous ACORN foreclosure "victim" Veronica Peterson 
of Columbia, Md., recycling uncritically her accusation 
that she had been tricked into buying a $545,000 home 
by a broker who inflated her income and misrepresented 
her assets. "These loans were weapons of mass destruct-
ion," the single mom of three and home day care provider 
who couldn't keep up with her mortgage bills told the 
Post reporter. "They destroyed our credit, our lives, 
and they blew up in our face."

But a look at court and real estate records exposed the 
truth. Edward Ericson Jr., a reporter for the independent 
Baltimore City Paper, discovered that the "victim" -- 
who took out a full mortgage with no down payment on a 
house she couldn't afford -- looks more like a predatory 
borrower. And amazingly, Peterson lived in the home more 
than year without paying rent or mortgage.

"The online court and land records show that Peterson 
closed on the house on Nov. 3, 2006, with two loans 
from Washington Mutual. The main mortgage, for $436,000, 
had a starting interest rate of 8.5 percent, adjusting 
in December. . The second loan, often called a 
'piggyback,' totaled $109,000 with an interest rate of 
11.25 percent. . Those two payments together would have
totaled $3,386.17 per month. That's before property taxes, 
upkeep, utilities, etc. Peterson would have to earn at 
least $50,000 per year just to make her house payments."

The foreclosure was filed in July 2007. "The balance on 
the main note then was $435,735.86," Ericson reported,
plus unpaid interest and late fees -- suggesting she 
made at most one payment on the house. "Had she made all 
of her payments, Peterson would have spent about $64,335 
so far. Had she rented a similar place, she would have 
been charged around $2,500 per month -- a total of $47,500 
-- since January 2007. Instead, she apparently paid 
nothing."

Who are the real suckers? Who are the true victims? If 
only the reporters swallowing their stories were half 
as diligent about background checks of ACORN thugs as 
they were with Joe the Plumber.