July 2, 2012

I, Connie Gretsch, request Citibank to renegotiate my mortgage instead of evicting me from my home. I ask you to help me keep my housing, which is a human right for all of us.

Sixteen years ago I bought my house; it was my first and only house. It became the place I raised my daughter, cooked, decorated, made comfy, and most of all, the place I became centered when things got too stressful.  When I first moved to the neighborhood, I began our first block club to unite the community against crime in the area.  Our block had major crime issues that had not been dealt with. After we organized the block club, we were able to successfully fight crime and make the neighborhood safe again. I got to know my neighbors and have established strong and lasting friendships. Our neighborhood has turned around, but foreclosures threaten to leave vacant houses and weaken our community. Right now, there is one house that has sat vacant for a year because of foreclosure.

I have always held jobs for the social good. I worked for years as a special education teacher, using the arts to bring understanding and healing to school age children. In 2009, I lost my job. I applied for a loan modification to work with the bank while I was unemployed. The bank told me I had to be two months behind on payments to qualify and told me to not pay for two months.  After a yearlong consideration and trial period, the bank rejected my application for a loan modification.  To keep my house, they charged me with penalties and demanded the difference from my reduced payments. Why didn’t they say I would be penalized for applying for a loan modification?  What could I have done differently?  What did I do wrong?  I missed two months of payments and only because the bank told me to.

In the past couple of years I have volunteered to work with domestic violence offenders, ex-offenders with chemical abuse problems, sex offenders at the Minnesota State Sex Offender Program, clients at the Integrated Health Clinic at Pillsbury House. During this awful time of fearing my home, my shelter, was being taken away from me, I could no longer find the peace I once found in my house.  I was a victim of an awful crime.

Three days before my eviction hearing, the Attorney General of Minnesota discovered that Pacifica, who was filing for the eviction, did not own my mortgage.  The Attorney General wrote a letter of support for me, and the eviction hearing was canceled.  Pacifica said the mortgage is now owned by Citibank, my original lender.  Please sign my petition demanding Citibank renegotiate instead of evicting us and to keep the Gretsch family house as a home and not another empty shell owned by a bank in this city.

Thank you,

Connie and Mayme Gretsch