Photos, video, coverage of recent protests on this issue

• Video of Light St protest
• Photos of Light St protest
• Protest at housing court
• News story on court protest

Like so many others across the country, the Rodriguez family of Lynn, MA were hit hard by the Great Recession and the foreclosure crisis. Wall Street and the big banks have now caused millions of families to lose their homes. But in their case, and in the case of two dozen other Massachusetts families, it is a federal agency that is supposed to promote homeownership that may cause the eviction.

Unless we take action, these families will be thrown out of their home too.

Community protest stops Thanksgiving eviction of foreclosed family
Federal policy threatens thousands more with unnecessary displacement

Lynn, MA - The Rodriguez family has spent the past several years fighting eviction from their foreclosed home in this working class suburb just north of Boston. Rather than a profit-driven bank, the family and their supporters -- including a local anti-foreclosure group, elected officials, and legal services attorneys -- found themselves battling the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

In many ways, the Rodriguez family's story is a typical foreclosure tale. They bought their modest home for an inflated price during the housing bubble and were pushed into an unaffordable mortgage. Family income -- much of it from Oscar Rodriguez’s work as a truck driver -- declined with the onset of the Great Recession. With the family’s finances further strained as two members of the extended family dealt with cancer, it became impossible to keep up with payments.

Glenda and Oscar tried to work with US Bank on a modification but got nowhere. The bank eventually foreclosed, but with the help of anti-foreclosure activists and strong legal support the family stayed in the home and resisted the bank's pressure to leave.

Once their income stabilized, the couple was approved for a new loan by a non-profit in Boston. They then offered to repurchase their home for current with an affordable, fixed-rate loan. Advocates maintain this would prevent unnecessary evictions, spare the neighborhood the blight associated with an empty home, and allow the bank to receive a reasonable price for the property.

Ironically, the only barrier to this resolution turned out to be HUD, a federal agency with a mission of developing affordable housing.

HUD policy causing unnecessary evictions

The family's original mortgage was an "FHA loan." This type of mortgage allows many low and moderate income buyers to obtain financing with a reduced down payment, with a private bank acting as the lender and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) providing insurance on the loan.

When FHA insures a mortgage and the borrower is foreclosed, HUD pays off a large proportion of the face value of the loan and, in exchange, gets the property. But HUD requires that the property be delivered vacant. In essence, HUD is requiring that the foreclosing bank must evict the occupants before they can be paid off through the FHA insurance.

The problem is HUD's counterproductive implementation of rules on "occupied conveyance" of foreclosed properties. This is causing unnecessary evictions across the country. It would cost HUD nothing, and require NO change to the law, for HUD to adjust its policy and prevent unnecessary evictions by allowing "occupied conveyance" in cases like these.

After years of effort by community groups and legal services attorneys, HUD refuses to find a way to avoid unnecessary evictions in cases like that of the Rodriguez family.

What about HUD's mission?

"HUD and the government are supposed to be helping the community, but forcing unnecessary evictions isn't helping anybody," noted Ms. Rodriguez. "All I want is for them to work with us to get this resolved, and for this bad dream to be over."

Advocates note the disconnect between HUD's policy and its mission. "HUD is supposed to help create affordable housing and sustainable communities. So why are they causing unnecessary evictions and creating more vacant buildings?" asked community organizer Isaac Simon Hodes of Lynn United for Change. “How is it possible that big profit driven banks can make hundreds of these non-profit sales work, but HUD can’t?”

According to Eloise Lawrence of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, the attorney representing both families in housing court, "HUD's actions and policy are out of line with not just its mission but its own regulations. HUD's own stated policy is 'to reduce the inventory of acquired properties in a manner that expands homeownership opportunities, strengthens neighborhoods and communities, and ensures a maximum return to the mortgage insurance fund.' Yet HUD's insistence that families are evicted directly undermines each of its policy goals. These unnecessary evictions result in fewer homeowners, increase vandalism of vacant properties, weaken neighborhoods, and lower the potential return on investment for the insurance fund.

Will HUD keep destroying American Dreams?

Glenda Rodriguez sees the struggle for her home as part of “A home is your American Dream. All of a sudden it's gone. You have put so much into it. All your savings. All your effort.”

“Every year I plant flowers in my front yard. But I didn't plant any flowers the year when we got foreclosed. I was just too sad. When my neighbor asked why, I just couldn't tell her.”

So will HUD destroy American Dreams, or help to save them?