By Cora Currier -- ProPublica

Florida has the highest percentage of home loans in foreclosure in the country. So why is more than $300 million that could help homeowners sitting unused?

Florida was awarded those millions in February as part of the $25 billion national settlement between five of country's biggest banks and forty-nine states and the District of Columbia. The settlement resolved allegations of wrongful foreclosures and other mortgage servicing abuses, and required banks to offer some homeowners the opportunity to modify their loans or refinance, or, in some cases pay homeowners directly for wrongful foreclosure.

The banks also had to pay $2.5 billion directly to state governments. Florida's sum was the largest, after California, in part a measure of how deeply the mortgage crisis affected the sunshine state.

Yet Florida is one of just a few states where the Attorney General has not announced plans for a significant portion of the money. We've contacted every state to find out what they were doing with that money. Of the $2.5 billion going to states, just over a billion dollars has been pledged for housing-related programs, while a roughly equal amount has been diverted to plug budget holes or fund programs unrelated to the foreclosure crisis. $378 million is still to be determined, and almost all of that is Florida's.

Florida's funds are caught between the Attorney General, Republican Pam Bondi, and the Republican state legislature. Bondi has pledged to make the money available to homeowners; earlier this year, she called for suggestions from the public. Some state lawmakers, however, insist that it needs to go through the regular appropriations process u2014 where it could potentially be siphoned off into other programs. And that wouldn't happen until March, when the legislative session begins.

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Selling a home can be a difficult, stressful process, even now after the nation's largest banks have paid billions to settle claims of robosigning, and foreclosing on homes without properly vetting the paperwork.

Now imagine going through the process, receiving multiple offers...the hard part is over, right?

Not for Lily Diaz, a California woman who after receiving two offers on her house, discovered that Wells Fargo had actually foreclosed on the home months earlier.

Via:

Diaz said she was shocked because she has the paperwork that shows she completed a loan modification with Wells Fargo in January.

She said she made every monthly payment on time since it was approved.

“Wells Fargo apparently didn’t let title know the modification was accepted and they let the foreclosure proceedings continue,” said Duarte. “Wells Fargo knows they made the mistake. They don’t know how to fix it.”

As it stands now, the home can’t be sold.

Wells Fargo contacted Diaz to resolve the problem, but in the meantime, Diaz lost two offers on her home.

Despite efforts by federal regulators, it doesn't seem that the problem of mistaken foreclosures has been resolved, as unfortunately, cases such as Lily Diaz' are still not rare.

Via Occupy Homes Minnesota:

Despite acknowledging that the Cruzes foreclosure was due to a bank error and repeated claims that they are working “behind the scenes” to get the Cruz family back in their home, PNC Bank has refused to accept the documents necessary for the loan to be modified. So Alejandra and David Cruz, along with several supporters, are going to make a hand-delivery to PNC’s headquarters in Pittsburgh, PA!

TUESDAY: Minneapolis

Send-off: We will be having a send-off rally in front of the Cruz home, 4044 Cedar Ave S, at 5PM this Tuesday to support the Cruzes battle for justice. Bring signs, messages of support, and your wonderful self!

Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/events/310205149071280/

WEDNESDAY: Chicago

Action on Freddie Mac: the Cruz family will make a stop at Freddie Mac’s regional headquarters in Chicago on Wednesday to demand they stop tearing up our neighborhoods with their eviction profiteering.

THURSDAY: EVERYWHERE!

NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION: Across the country, while Alejandra and David arrive at PNC headquarters, people will be demanding that PNC live up to their word and work with the Cruz family!

Actions being planned in:

Atlanta
Chicago
Cincinnati
Milwaukee
Minneapolis
New York
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
St. Louis
Washington, DC

And many more to come! Please, organize an event in your city! Email occupyHomesMN@gmail.com and let us know if you want to help!

Last week, I shared the story of Colleen Mckee Espinosa, the single mother of three who was facing foreclosure after CitiBank refused to accept payment on her mortgage, after they moved up the due date for her payment without her knowledge. They also added thousands of dollars in attorney fees because the home went into foreclosure, making it impossible for her to catch up.

There's an update now on the Espinosa's situation, from Occupy Homes Minnesota:

After media coverage in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the blog Crooks and Liars, and other outlets, Citibank officials contacted the family, and assured them they were doing everything they could to resolve the case, assigning them a contact in the “executive response unit.” Despite this, the bank is moving to auction the home at a sheriff’s sale this Wednesday at City Hall, after which time the bank would have no legal obligation to work with the family.

In the eleventh hour, finally, good news:

An official with CitiMortgage’s Executive Response Unit contacted the Espinosa family with news that Citibank had approved a loan modification that would keep the family in their home and reduce their payments by one-third on a 7.5 year payment plan. The dramatic news came less than 24 hours before the house was to be sold at auction on Wednesday, June 13.

The Espinosa's give thanks to all their supporters, and offer hope to others facing similar circumstances:

“I am deeply grateful to everyone from across the country who stood with our family as we fought our foreclosure,” said Nick Espinosa, Colleen’s son, and an organizer with Occupy Homes MN. “I’m inspired by the outpouring of community support, and it renews my commitment to stand with other families who are struggling to stay in their homes.”

“I’m incredibly proud of what this family has accomplished,” said Anthony Newby of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change. “They’ve managed to rally hundreds of community members to stand with them to save their home. Their campaign will undoubtedly empower other families to stand up and do the same.”

Colleen Mckee Espinosa continued, “When I first learned we were in foreclosure, I felt ashamed and isolated, and sure we were going to lose our home. As I resolved to fight, I realized I had nothing to be ashamed of. If anyone should be ashamed, it’s the banks for tearing apart our communities after we bailed them out with our tax dollars. When we stand together we can win, and I believe thousands more will.”

Nick Espinosa continued, “This negotiation represents a victory not just for our family, but for millions of families facing foreclosures across the country. Countless families could stay in their homes if banks simply modified their loans based on the actual market value and reduced their principal, instead of the price to which banks inflated them before they crashed our economy. As with Monique White and Bobby Hull here in Minneapolis, and others standing up across the nation, we see that when a community stands behind a family and draws attention to their case, the banks are more than capable of solving it. If they can fix it for our family, they can fix it for millions of others.”

Occupy Homes Minnesota has been an amazing lifeline for the people of their state, and they remain dedicated to helping victims of bank fraud and foreclosure. To learn more about them and what they're up to, please visit their website Occupy Homes Minnesota: http://www.occupyhomesmn.org/

[Photo: Colleen and son Nick Espinosa, via Occupy Homes Minnesota.]

A Phoenix, Arizona woman is taking on two mortgage giants, Bank of America and Fannie Mae, and the case is making its way through federal court. Lilly Washington is representing herself, and seeking ownership of her home and compensation for belongings that were thrown out when her home was wrongfully foreclosed.

Washington was in the middle of a loan modification with Bank of America when her son who is in the military was wounded and sent to a hospital in Germany. She informed the bank that she needed to go be with her son, and BoA assured her in a letter that they were aware of her trip and: "will await your return so that we can finish the loan modification process." She thought everything would be fine until her return.

But just days after leaving, the bank foreclosed, and Fannie Mae took ownership of her home:

Via:

"Everything was empty. Everything. Upstairs, downstairs everything was empty," says Lilly Washington.

Washington was stunned when she returned home and found a "for sale" sign in her yard. She managed to get back into the home and immediately started making calls.

"I said 'where did you put my stuff from the house. Which storage.' They said, 'we don't put in storage, it is at the city dump.'"

Washington had just returned from visiting her wounded son in Germany. She was gone for a month and half. Her son's Purple Heart was thrown away too.

"I said, my gosh how can you take that. He is fighting for this country. And you steal from his home, everything," says Washington.

Washington's church helped her refurnish the home as she wasn't able to recover any of her belongings, and she has been fighting for two years now to regain ownership.

Update after the jump...

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Vietnam Veteran John Vinje and his wife spent Memorial Day wondering where they would possibly go if they lose their home in a foreclosure sale scheduled for Tuesday.

After falling behind on their mortgage payments when his wife became ill and was unable to work, the Minnesota couple tried to work with the bank, but US bank refused to accept partial payments on the Vinje's home that is now worth approximately $50,000 less than what they paid for it.

The foreclosure sale was already postponed once after the Vinje's got involved with Occupy Homes MN, and marched from Hennepin County Government Center to City Hall.

Via:

Eventually US Bank agreed to modify the loan, but the new terms offered lowered the monthly payment by only $97. Vinje said still left the payments out of reach for the couple. And those negotiations did not slow the foreclosure clock.

Vinje's case was cited during the 2012 legislative session by Democratic lawmakers who introduced several foreclosure reform bills. One measure would've outlawed "dual tracking," the practice of simultaneously foreclosing on a home while engaging in negotiations to modify the loan terms.

Republican leaders and committee chairs would not allow a hearing on any of the bills, because they believed they restricted commerce. So DFL sponsors conducted a mock hearing for the benefit of the media.

(Emphasis mine.)

Republicans wouldn't even allow a hearing on the foreclosure reforms, remember that the next time you hear someone wonder why the government won't help save them from greedy bankers. More importantly, remember that come November.

Norman and Oriane Rousseau were homeowners who did everything "right" when they purchased their home. They had 30 percent of the purchase price as a down payment, and they made their payments on time. After being contacted about refinancing their mortgage, the Rousseau's “stated that they were only interested in obtaining a conventional 30-year, fixed-rate loan, and explained their desire to have consistent payments over the life of the loan.”

Via:

They were “assured … that they could significantly reduce their monthly payments, by more than $600 per month, with a lower interest refinance loan.” The bank assured them that the Payment Option ARM was “the new industry standard” that had “historically low rates that were continuing to decrease” and in “the worst case scenario [they were] assured that historical data for the index indicated that changes in interest rate were slight, and if an increase should occur it would have a negligible effect on their monthly payments of no more than a few dollars.”

The bank's promises about the new mortgage were not true, and before long the Rousseau's were faced with a much higher interest rate than promised and large fees added that they had not been told about. Around the same time, as we've heard over and over from homeowners, the bank began calling with claims that the couple had missed payments even after they provided documentation that they had been paid.

Phone calls from the bank came morning, noon, and late into the night even though Norman Rousseau had hired an attorney. A loan modification that never came through, additional fees and interest continued to pile up, and finally foreclosure, with eviction scheduled for Tuesday, May 15th, Mr. Rousseau went into his garage on Sunday morning and shot himself. The attorney won a two week extension of the eviction date on Tuesday.

Devastated in every possibly way, Oriane now can't even afford to bury her husband and is hoping the VA will be able to help. If you'd like to help, please contact the Rousseau's attorney, Chris Gardas: chrisgardas@comcast.net.

Full article with the court documents are here, and they detail much more thoroughly the misdeeds of Wells Fargo.

A disabled woman whose home is in foreclosure was arrested Thursday night after attempting to deliver a payment at the home of a Wells Fargo executive while about 100 protesters supported her on the residential street. Ana Casas, who says she is close to eviction after the bank rejected a loan modification on her South Gate home, defied a city ordinance by going up to the front door and demanding to see Wells Fargo Chief Financial Officer Tim Sloan.

Via:

Police also allowed Ana Casas Wilson, who suffers from cerebral palsy and uses a motorized wheel chair, to wait 15 minutes at Sloan’s door with a mortgage payment on her foreclosed home. Casas Wilson, who has lived on the property for 27 years, said Wells Fargo has been unwilling to negotiate a loan modification although she is once again able to make payments after falling behind during a hospital stay.

About a dozen San Marino officers were joined at the scene by a handful of Pasadena police, while dozens of officers from Pasadena, South Pasadena, San Gabriel and Alhambra — many in crowd-control gear — waited on surrounding blocks.

Just before 8 p.m., about 90 minutes into the demonstration, police formed a line around the home, declared the assembly illegal and ordered the group to move 75 feet up the street.

Casas Wilson refused to go and was taken to San Marino police headquarters with the assistance of San Marino Fire Department paramedics.

“I’m doing this because people need to see what the banks are doing. It’s awful. It has to stop,” Casas Wilson told the Pasadena Sun. “When I was down and out in the hospital they took my house.”

In the video above from SGV News, the newscaster asks Ms. Wilson if she had anything she wanted to say to Wells Fargo, and she replied "They're going to burn in hell."

Not a good PR day for the bank.

Video streaming by Ustream

About 60 Occupiers are risking arrest to help keep a family in a home that is being taken by an unjust foreclosure. Unconfirmed reports that a SWAT team has been called to the site. Livestream is up!

From Occupy Greensboro:

A family in Raleigh has been evicted and forced from their home through an illegal foreclosure. They have been ordered to remove all personal property from their home by Sunday April 8, 2012. The family has bravely chosen to fight eviction and foreclosure and is requesting community support. Evidence of robo-signing by the bank, which is a fraud, has been uncovered and the entire foreclosure process is under attorney review.

It is up to us to send a clear message that we will not allow this to happen.

On Monday, April 9th, community participants will enter the house and refuse to leave as an act of civil disobedience. Another 10 families in this predominantly African-American neighborhood are facing similarly illegal foreclosure and eviction.

A coalition coordinating with Max Rameau of Take Back the Land and including; Mortgage Fraud NC, Occupy Raleigh, Save Our Homes and Occupy Greensboro are quickly mounting a public protest and home defense. The objectives of this action are: We demand that Nicole and her family be allowed to reclaim possession of their home. We call for a NATIONAL MORATORIUM on all foreclosures, evictions, and utility shut-offs. We demand that banks negotiate loan modifications that include principal reduction. We call for the creation of a community land trust.

This foreclosure eviction protest is one of a growing movement across the country. Take Back the Land, the Occupy movement and others are partnering with homeowners to demand that housing be recognized as a human right. In the last year, successful eviction resistance has been used nationally from Los Angeles to Atlanta and Washington DC. This will be the first use of civil disobedience in defense of foreclosed homes in North Carolina.

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Occupy Homes MN has helped win the fight to save US Marine Bobby Hull's family home from foreclosure. After months of public outcry, Bank of America has come up with an offer to renegotiate Hull's mortgage that will allow him and his family to keep their home.

Occupy MN:

Occupy Homes MN has declared victory in their fight to save US Marine Bobby Hull's family home from foreclosure. Following a two-month campaign of public pressure bringing media attention to Hull's case and the bank's unwillingness to negotiate, Bank of America has come forward with an offer to Hull to renegotiate his mortgage so that he and his family can keep their home.

"I stood up and told the banks I wasn't leaving until they negotiate, and I won! This means the world to me and my family, but we aren't satisfied yet. We will continue fighting until all our neighbors and Americans across the country get the same deal that I did," said Hull.

Since December 6th, when Hull initially declared his intent to stay in his home, his story has made international, national, and local news.

In an email following Hull's initial declaration to stay in his home, a representative with Bank of America stated they had no responsibility to negotiate with Bobby stating: "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the house was purchased by U.S. Bank."

"Thanks to the campaign of public pressure waged by neighbors and supporters, Bank of America reversed their previous position and came to the table to negotiate with Bobby. There's no doubt that this is an exciting victory for Bobby and his family. But if the banks can negotiate with Bobby, there's no reason they can't do the same for the millions of families in this country facing foreclosure," said Occupy Homes MN organizer Ben Egerman, adding, "and we won't stop until they do."