My husband and I own a three family home in Brooklyn, NY.  We rent two units to middle-income families and individuals. We maintain high standards for our units, take excellent care of our property, and hire locally when repairs are needed.

Once the recession hit, the units became harder to rent and our income decreased. We were only getting enough rent to cover the mortgage and utilities -- repairs were not covered. To make ends meet, my husband and I did some side jobs to stay afloat, but it still wasn’t enough.

We sought a hardship modification of our loan, but the bank said they couldn't help us unless we missed three payments. We did what they asked -- and that's when they opened foreclosure proceedings.

Since then, we have written several letters to the bank – first Countrywide, now Bank of America – but both have lost or misplaced documents, miscalculated critical numbers within our case for modification, and otherwise denied any request for relief. 

We can’t even get a single point of contact to handle our case to ensure a fair and efficient loan modification process.

We’re trying to do right, but Bank of America is unwilling to bend. If they foreclose, it won't just be us out of a home -- it'll also mean that two affordable rental units will be handed over to the banks, and our current tenants will have to move out once their leases expire. 

We don’t want to raise rent on our tenants because we don’t feel that it’s fair to expect working-class folk to pay more when banks like Bank of America -- who crashed our economy in the first place -- are back to making record profits, handing out billions in bonuses, and paying $0 in taxes.

My husband and I grew up dirt poor and we’re trying to make a life for ourselves—nothing fancy, just comfortable. If Bank of America would just lower our interest rate by 1% we would be able to stay in our home.

Help us put pressure on Bank of America to do the right thing and allow us to stay in our home.

Please sign our petition.