Family paid dearly for delays

The Sunday, Jan. 9 Press contained the article, "In the face of foreclosure." It was painfully accurate, as we have family members in the same situation, except that their bank is Wells Fargo. It would take an entire newspaper page to list and describe their association with Wells Fargo. Please bear with me in my attempt to be brief.

Following a loss of employment they fell behind in their mortgage. They contacted their local Wells Fargo lender, as well as they began selling anything of value that they could in the hopes of buying time until employment would be restored.

They have been in phone contact (mostly not answered, but sent to voice mail after a lengthy delay or disconnected) daily, as well as daily e-mails and faxes. After a great deal of effort on their part, a Wells Fargo agent informed them that they did qualify for the modification program. They have been told to send volumes of forms and letters (all with the same information required), many times.

When they questioned these repeated requests and great delay in Wells Fargo's response, they were told that the agent never received it (!), or that it was filed, or placed into some other unit of the bank (I'm guessing in my anger and frustration that the "other unit" was the shredding machine we used to refer to as the "round, black file"). With the information that they were finally being considered for the modification program, the next day they were served with the first foreclosure notice!

The debacle continues. Their most recent Wells Fargo agent they contacted, per instructions to do so, is a woman with an accent or dialect that can't be understood. They have both been on the phone with her and neither can determine what she is saying, except that she is obviously angry. She gave them two contact numbers, both of which when called were fax numbers.

The information supplied by an agent of the CAPA in Lewiston is amazing. She said most of her clients do not end up in the loss of their homes. I would guess that these homes fell under some government financing in the first place and are deemed not worth taking in today's depressed market. The government agency would then have to cover the taxes, basic utilities, and the ire of nearby neighbors, with just cause, with the abandoned homes languishing weed-filled conditions. Obviously their property values will be even more depressed.

"In the long run, they are going to work with these people." Has she not read the countless pages in every newspaper of trustee sales or the real estate magazines with "bank owned" in the ads?

I regret that I do not recall the name of a U.S. congressman who made the statement that the banks have the funds and are just holding them. He said that there is the most unbelievable confusion involved and that it would actually require that the government agency go to each bank to instruct them, as well as require them to move forward with those funds now.

In the meantime, the disaster continues to build and lives are under the most unimaginable stress. Everyone should be made aware of this, and Wells Fargo and Bank of America and all other banks should be held accountable for the horrible way in which they are allowing this to continue.

After all, they played a significant role in creating this recession, and received huge bailouts from the government. What other business could be restored with taxpayers' money as theirs has been?

Kathleen Brown is a resident of Sioux Falls, S.D., who will be moving to Hayden this summer.