rep Marcy Kapture: SQUAT your own homes! 02/02/09

Rep: Foreclosed owners should squat in their own homes

David Edwards and Stephen C. Webster
Published: Friday January 30, 2009

If you're poor and the bank is coming for your home, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur has a plan for you.

Just squat, she says.

Yes, this Ohio Democrat is actually encouraging her financially distressed constituents whose homes have been foreclosed upon, to simply stay put.

In a Friday report, CNN's Drew Griffin explored the case of Ohioan Andrea Geiss, whose home was foreclosed upon in April.

"Behind in payments, out of work, a husband sick, she had nowhere to go," said Griffin. "So, she decided to follow the advice of her Congresswoman and go nowhere."

In Lucas County, Ohio, over 4,000 properties were foreclosed upon in 2008, reports CNN.

"So I say to the American people, you be squatters in your own homes," said Congresswoman Kaptur before the House of Representatives. "Don't you leave."

She's called on all of her foreclosed-upon constituents to stay in their homes and refuse to leave without "an attorney and a fight," said CNN.

"If they've had no legal representation of a high quality, I tell them stay in their homes," Kaptur told Griffin.

Kaptur is a high-profile advocate of an increasingly popular mode of fighting foreclosures best known for it's key phrase: "Produce the note."

By telling a bank to "produce the note," a homeowner can delay foreclosure by forcing the lender to prove the suing institution is actually the same which owns the debt.

"During the lending boom, most mortgages were flipped and sold to another lender or servicer or sliced up and sold to investors as securitized packages on Wall Street," explains the Consumer Warning Network. "In the rush to turn these over as fast as possible to make the most money, many of the new lenders did not get the proper paperwork to show they own the note and mortgage. This is the key to the produce the note strategy."

And Friday's segment on this growing foreclosure fighting "movement" was not the network's first. Earlier in January, CNN explored one person's strategy in demanding her bank "produce the note," only to find that the lender had "lost or destroyed" the evidence of debt ownership. Such a revelation can significantly strengthen a homeowner's position when asking to renegotiate a mortgage.

That these banks, many of which received billions of dollars in government bailout funds, continue to boot defaulted owners from their homes, makes them "vultures" says Kaptur.

"They prey on our property assets," she said. "I guess the reason I'm so adamant on this is because I know property law and its power to protect the individual homeowner. And I believe that 99.9 percent of our people have not had good legal representation in this."

This video is from CNN's American Morning, broadcast Jan. 30, 2009.

found at:
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Rep_Foreclosed_owners_should_squat_in_0130.html

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• marcy
• kapture
• squat
• bailouts
• wallstreet
• job
• cuts
• housing
• prices
• mortgages
• default
• mainstreet
• squatters
• squatting
• foreclosures
• economic
• crisis
• recession
• depression
• cnn

[Castaril]

What made the mortgage rates go up so much?

[enslavetherich]

there is a chance the falling dollar has something to do with it..

And it could also mean that banks and other institutions expect the FED's interest rates to go up some time in the (nearby) future.

[wdgeo]

"Produce the Note!" That's genius!

[enslavetherich]

and it actually works too.. new york times had an article about it..

When the banks couldn't produce the note, some people got their houses mortgage free! :)

[FaceOfGod2]

Good to hear about a politician saying "screw you" to the system!

[joe80dman]

Kudos to Kaptur! This woman shows more cajones than her male counterparts! Great idea, Marcy. We'll spread the word...

[PhantonChakra]

I squatted in my home for 2 years,, then the bank told me to move out i refused. and then they gave me a deal called "cash for keys". They paid me to leave.

[Spadadiforza]

This lady is AWESOME. Keep her employed!!!! Vote her back in!!!

[concordbdance]

We need to learn financial literacy and property law in school instead of wasting so much time on these lame pet projects...start this class in grade one

[jefferygiraffe1]

im stoped squatting cuz i was almost raped

[Grassroots4Homes]

@waterchildtera grassroots - "victims helping victims" - 888-547-8885

[Grassroots4Homes]

@joe80dman

grassroots - "victims helping victims" - 888-547-8885

[Grassroots4Homes]

@enslavetherich

grassroots - "victims helping victims" - 888-547-8885

[waterchildtera]

pay a escrow account the original amount !

squat and tell the bank to produce the original paper

and show the funds secure the loan