Last Tuesday, Debbie and Ron Austin—two of Portland’s longest-tenured foreclosure resisters—finally got the dreaded doorknocking from the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office and were rousted, along with their kids, from their Southeast Portland home in the pre-dawn dark.
The Austins’ story, however, is especially worth reading. Yes, they got behind on their mortgage payments because of medical bills. But they also successfully obtained a loan modification and got to keep their home. Or so they thought. Months of payments weren’t counted by their lender because of a bureaucratic error—restarting the countdown to foreclosure. And then? The legal system, they say, failed them.
In a lengthy letter posted on Facebook this weekend, Debbie Austin wonders why the family’s bankruptcy lawyer didn’t step in. (I’ve left him a message seeking comment.) She also singles out Multnomah County Judge Karin Immergut (a controversial, Bush-appointed ex-US attorney ) for ignoring the canceled checks and receipts Austin held up as proof her family had been fulfilling their legal obligation.
The heartbreaking story proceeds from there. And now there’s a security guard sitting inside the Austins’ house.
Well, I hope all my friends see this and share it with everyone they know…
As most of you know, we have been fighting this ILLEGAL FORECLOSURE AND EVICTION that HomeStreet Bank, MERS and FNMA (Fannie Mae) filed against us.
This nightmare started back in 2008 when Ron got a pay cut at his work and his second job was taken away from him.
Shortly thereafter he was diagnosed with cancer and in the same month I had a 2nd back surgery which crippled my right foot. We filed bankruptcy in 2009 and I was diagnosed with rectal cancer.
We applied for a “loan modification” which we were granted and looked forward to getting our lives back on track.
Keep reading…
When lo and behold our bankruptcy attorney, Todd Trierweiler, forwarded a letter to us from HomeStreet Banks’ attorney stating we were three months behind in our mortgage payments!
I immediately called the bank to see what was going on because we had MADE ALL THE MORTGAGE PAYMENTS!
The bank refused to talk to us….
I called our attorney who said he had nothing to do with “post bankruptcy” accounts, which confused me because we were still making Chapter 13 payments AND the bankruptcy HAD NOT been discharged!
Had Todd Trierweiler (our bankruptcy attorney) done his job and and been the advocate a good, moral attorney should be, this is where he could have stopped all this at this point!
HomeStreet Bank succeeded in being granted a “motion of stay” and proceeded in the foreclosure.
Now, there are many details in all this, but I don’t want you to lose interest…
Chemotherapy has damaged my memory and speech and this hindered a lot of my communication skills disabling me from putting up a better fight… BUT we teamed up with a non-profit organization called “We Are Oregon,” who has taken up the fight against illegal foreclosures.
Together we have fought gallantly against our foreclosure.
I filed a lawsuit against HomeStreet Bank, MERS & FNMA and so I could present my proof that all payments were made BUT JUDGE IMMERGUT REFUSED TO ACCEPT MY PROOF BECAUSE IT WAS NOT ON AN AFFIDAVIT!
Mind you, I was holding up my canceled checks, bank statements and HomeStreet’s receipts showing the payments were made…. She ALLOWED the foreclosure AND ALLOWED FNMA the order of eviction!
Today at 6 am, 10 to 12, sheriff’s deputies banged on our door with their “billy clubs,” waking us all out of our sleep, forced their way in, and demanded we leave the house “NOW”—I was in my panties and T-shirt and that was it! It was 32 degrees outside and I looked at them and said I wasn’t going outside naked!
They knew Ron left for work at 5 am and that “We Are Oregon” house sitters arrive at 8 am so they had to move quick to get us out!
Also, at 6 am, our neighbor supporters would all be asleep and under the cover of dark, less would be seen…
I grabbed as much as I could putting things in a suitcase with a very rude, callous female officer literally 1 foot away from me -prodding me in a loud voice continually saying…”hurry up” “just get your stuff -come on, come on…” and the like…
Just three minutes earlier I was sound asleep, combined with my “chemo brain” and her continual prodding—I just couldn’t think of what to pack or what to do!
I told every officer I saw that we made all our payments and this was wrong! I am not the crook here! The kids and I were continually prodded and pushed out the MY front door in which the locksmith was changing the lock…
Again I state that this is MY house and I made all the mortgage payments and can prove it. “It’s not our business, we’re just here to get you out!” …and like comments!
I am carrying Tink (my dog), a huge, heavy suitcase, my purse (a suitcase in itself…lol) and my court file box!
I have a pet squirrel named Simo that comes in and out all day long and to please not hurt him as he is tame and domesticated…. “it’s not our concern, just get out”
Stumbling out the door with my bad foot and back, holding suitcase, purse, dog and big file case, my son Andrew runs up to the porch yelling “you couldn’t help her carry anything? Her foot obviously doesn’t work and she’s 57 years old!” ….
As I look at him I see three to four Portland Police cars BLOCKING Mason Street and three to four blocking Skidmore Street! Which means approximately eight or more Portland police officers are also here in addition to the deputies… There was only four of us: A 57-year-old woman, my 20-year-old daughter, a college student, my 23-year-old son, a security officer himself, and a 19 year old friend of the family…
A security guard paid by FNMA (Federal National Mortgage Association) is now stationed in MY home and will arrest us if we return!
I hope you understand this:
FNMA, a federally paid program, designed to loan people money to buy a home, is now stealing our house from us! FNMA is funded by taxpayer’s money… The police and deputies are funded by taxpayer’s money; the McRobert’s Security officers HIRED BY: ‘ FNMA’ is paid out of taxpayer money; Judge Immergutt is paid by taxpayer’s money…
WE MADE ALL OUR PAYMENTS! WE EVEN PROVED WE MADE THE PAYMENTS!
We’ve lived in this house at 4207 NE 77th for 26 years—working, helping and paying taxes… WE ARE NOT DEADBEATS!
If you have a mortgage—regardless of which bank or lending institution—you are in danger of having your home stolen away from underneath you! And it’s happening to thousands upon thousands of people in America!
My father fought in the Korean War and WW2, my grandfather fought in WW1, both my great-great -great grandfather’s fought to free the slaves in the Civil War (yes that makes me a “Daughter of the Revolution”) and my stepson has fought in Aftghanistan and will be deployed there again within the month -while his hard working father has been evicted from his home!
America has become the tyranny our forefathers fought against in the American Revolution…
…with Liberty and Justice for all who can afford it!
It is lucky that Joseph Rose didn’t write this story, otherwise there would probably be quite a bit of blame discussing the lack of protective equipment the dead person was wearing and pointing out that they could have used better lights and… oh wait they were walking and not on a bicycle, well I guess that explains why the Oregonian isn’t rushing to blame the victim…
weird this posted to a different article…
Is this another case of We Are Oregon filing people’s heads with unrealistic outcomes? If I recall the last article on this issue, the family that got evicted ended up in a motel (on their dime). Has We Are Oregon made arrangements for the Austins?
At least the Austin’s sought bankruptcy protection. It seems that the Austins, through their attorney, stipulated to the relief from stay that allowed Home Street to foreclose and conceded (in the bankruptcy court paperwork) that they were in arrears on their payments. Are they alleging that their lawyer lied then because now they seem to say that they weren’t behind in payments? That seems a very serious accusation.
I’m also curious about the state court action. State court judges usually bend over backwards to accommodate pro se parties on technical / procedural requirements. I imagine that this was some sort of summary judgment process in the Austin’s suit against Home Street where the Austins needed to submit evidence to counter Home Street’s affidavit. Did the Austins receive any sort of legal guidance or training from We Are Oregon?
I cannot pass a verdict on the legality of this foreclosure, because the relevant facts were not presented in this letter.
Instead, the author painted a picture of her family as victims of external circumstances. “Ron got a pay cut”, “second job was taken away from him”, and “surgery which crippled my right foot” are all blame-placing sentences. She also emphasized that both her and her husband had cancer, to make sure we felt sympathetic.
Next, she describes a scenario in which their bankruptcy attorney may or may not have made a mistake, but does not discuss how they tried to correct that mistake. Did they?
Then, when they sued the bank, they filed their paperwork incorrectly, so the “proof” of payment was not admissible…
Why does this family think they deserve to keep their house? They got behind in payments, they filed bankruptcy, they failed to catch up on their mortgage and/or follow up to ensure that the payments had been received and then filed a lawsuit incorrectly.
As a final criticism, why the heck was her son Andrew hanging out on the porch when she was carrying all of that stuff this morning, and why wasn’t HE helping her carry anything? Good grief!
P.S. – You have a pet squirrel? Really? That isn’t even legal. Why would you mention that?
@hank – I hope your family is evicted or that the cops break your door in and put you and your family at gun point – not because you did anything wrong, but simply because they had the wrong house.
Who knows? Maybe they’ll come tonight?
@f_a – Gunpoint, huh? I must have missed that part…Oh, wait, it’s just another knee-jerk reaction by the anti-cop, anti-bank crowd.
My favorite part of this letter is when she emphatically refers to the house as “MY home”. Ummm, it was mortgaged, so the bank owned it even if they hadn’t foreclosed. Maybe you should take a financial literacy course…
Maybe you should go shit in your hat.
This is Debbie Austin the homeowner. We were in our mpartage payments! Neither am I seeking your sympathy because we had cancer… I was telling you our history to show how our finances declined. We filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy in which we pay back many of our debts and to protect our home from foreclosure! We then applied and was granted a loan modification and as far as we knew, we were on the slow road to financial recovery… According to my records our first payment of the loan mod., after the 3 mth trial period, was November -which we paid! The Dec payment was late but paid in full plus the late fee and sent in on Jan 6th. On Jan 10th we rec’d a letter from HomeStreet Bank’s. Attys (forwarded to us from our bankruptcy atty, Todd Trierweiler) stating we were 3 mths behind! I immediately called the HSBank who refused to talk to me, they said because we were in bankruptcy, all communications have to be made through the arts, I called our atty who stated he has nothing more to do with it because it was ‘post’ bankruptcy -yet it had NOT been discharged AND we were still making payments into it! This is where Todd should have been our advocate and got things straightened out, instead he faxed a waiver to the bank saying he gives them permission to speak to us directly! I’m sure the bank got a laugh out of that!
In Feb we rec’d another forwarded letter from their attys that included the check and payment coupon that was sent in Jan…they had actually put it through their system, spit it out and put white stickers over their writing on the back showing it went through system!
We couldn’t afford an atty so we spoke for ourselves thinking justice and truth would prevail. I hand delivered the documents to the clerk myself! There is no free legal help… No legal aide, no law college will help…nothing! The laws favor the mortgage lenders, not the homeowners and attys won’t take cases they know they haven’t got a chance to win.
As for my son, Andrew, not helping me… He had already been drug out of the house! Once out, those brave law enforcement officers who are hired to ‘protect and to weren’t will not let you back on ANY part of the property…he was on the sidewalk and saw me stumble out.
As for my squirrel, my neighbor found him on the ground where birds were trying to get him. She watched over him for 4 hours scaring the birds away but his mama never came for him. He was so tiny & helpless, eyes not even open… She knew I could take care of him, which I did, bottle feeding him every 3 hours, kept him clean and warm. I got u used to the outside as he would climb anything in the house -but when put in a tree he wouldn’t budge! But eventually he became quite the outdoors ‘man’… But still, he came in and out as he pleased and he usually slept outside at night though the window was always open for him. Every morning he woke me up by nuzzling next to my ear, playing in the covers or swinging on his swing. I didn’t want anyone freaking out if they saw him coming toward them to say ‘hello’!
And yes, it is MY house! I was not behind in any payments!
As far as ‘gunpoint’, Heather Sirotek had a gun pointed at her while she was in her nightgown and slipper holding a cup of tea when she was drug out of her house in their eviction!
I used to be a staunch republican and believed blindly what the government and media reported, I would have NEVER believed this could happen in America…not until it happened to me.
I would be glad to meet with ANYONE and show my paper work so come on you bonehead, put your money where your mouth is or Shut Up!
Debbie:
I am sorry this happened to you. Hopefully, you were able to plan ahead and secure housing and make moving arrangements for most of your possessions.
You mention a three month trial period after your loan modification was approved. And, since the bank claimed in the bankruptcy that you were three months in arrears, it begs the question of whether you made payments during that trial period or if there was some confusion about whether you were required to make payments. And why your bankruptcy attorney agreed with the bank that you were in arrears (if they did so without your consent, then that is eggregious on their part).