Victory! Saving the home of a 71-year-old cancer survivor

How We Won

Oct 24, 2011

After more than 7,000 people signed a Change.org petition to save Dixie's home from foreclousre, Dixie Mitchell and her husband will be allowed to remain in the home they've lived in for 44 years.

Dixie has long been a member of Washington CAN! and in September, The New Bottom Line decided to partner with Washington CAN! to try and save Dixie's home by pressuring Ocwen Financial to give her a HAMP loan modification. They launched a petition on Change.org that quickly gathered over 7,000 signatures. Dixie appeared on  on MSNBC to talk about her Change.org petition and her case. Meanwhile, local media closely tracked Dixie's campaign.

Then, on Tuesday October 18th, The New Bottom Line and Washington CAN! organized a bi-coastal action at Dixie's Seattle home and Ocwen Financial's corporate offices in West Palm Beach, Florida. Community leaders delivered Dixie's modification paperwork and your Change.org petition signaturesJust days later, Ocwen Financial granted Dixie her permanent loan modification. After years of fighting for a loan modification and numerous attempts at working with Ocwen, the Mitchells won. Dixie will get to stay in her home.

As millions of American families face foreclosure, Dixie's story inspires us all to keep fighting. By joining together on these campaigns, we can move banks to stop these foreclosures and save our homes.

Dixie Mitchell, a 71-year-old cancer survivor, and her husband, Luster, have owned their Seattle home for 44 years. This is the same home where the Mitchells raised their nine biological children and cared for fifty foster children, and the house was paid off in full in the mid-1980s.

When Dixie needed some money to make home repairs and to help one of the foster children in her care, her bank advised her to refinance her home. Under the direction of the bank, she took out a loan that was promised would work for what she needed.

But then, the loan was bundled and resold. Soon after, Luster, suffered a massive stroke that has left him paralyzed and unable to work.

Because of the bank's changes to the loan, Dixie quickly fell behind on her payments. Without her husband's earnings, her monthly income is just $2,200 in Social Security and her monthly mortgage is $2,052.

Dixie has done everything she can to keep their home: filing for bankruptcy, visiting assistance agencies, offering to rent out rooms to cover costs, and more—she even tried to get a simple loan modification that was denied by the lender, Ocwen Financial. She tried to find the people who had initially told her how the loan would work, but they were nowhere to be found.

Despite Dixie's best efforts, the Mitchells home is set to be auctioned on October 28th and they have no place to go. All Dixie needs is a small modification to the loan and she'll be able to keep her house. The problem is that Ocwen Financial, who holds the loan, just won't budge. Not because they can't, but because they don't want to.

Tell the Big Banks, enough is enough! Ocwen Financial will soon the be country's largest holder of subprime loans. Ocwen is even a participant in a federal program to help modify loans for families affected by the housing crisis—but they still aren't responding. 

The Mitchells are one of the thousands of families who have already lost their home or are at risk of foreclosure. The Big Banks have drained wealth from hard-working Americans like the Mitchells, and continue to dodge taxes while making record profits.

Send a letter to Ocwen Financial asking that they give the Mitchells the simple loan modification they need in order to keep their home. 

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