New Haven Independent

A government-controlled lender has called off evictions for 20 households like Jones’ in Greater New Haven, and some 4,000 nationwide. The lender, Fannie Mae, agreed last Friday to halt evictions of renters in buildings it has foreclosed on. Fannie Mae acted after a lawsuit threat from attorneys from New Haven Legal Assistance Association (NHLAA) including Amy Marx and Amy Eppler-Epstein (in top photo).

But most of those thousands of households don’t know it yet. So on Tuesday, fresh from national publicity over their stunning victory, Marx and her colleagues pushed Fannie Mae to let people know. They asked Fannie Mae to send letters to the 4,000 tenants across the country as well as to the lender’s local foreclosure lawyers to halt court proceedings immediately.

The legal aid lawyers had told their two New Haven clients about the decision already. They pushed Fannie Mae to make the decision on their clients’ behalf.

But the vast majority of people affected by the decision never heard of Amy Marx. Or even Fannie Mae.

Valerie Jones (pictured at left), for instance. She had a piece of paper telling her a judge is allowing an entity called the “Federal National Mortgage Association” to remove her household from their third-floor apartment on East Street on Jan. 15.

She didn’t know that “Federal National Mortgage Association” is a long way of saying “Fannie Mae.” She hadn’t read national newspaper reports or heard radio accounts of Fannie Mae’s decision to allow renters to stay in foreclosed-upon homes until they’re resold.

So the Christmas tree in Jones’ third-floor East Street apartments had no presents under it Tuesday. Jones, an administrative assistant at a postage meter company, wanted to buy presents for her 10 year-old daughter and for her live-in boyfriend Juan Negron, a welder. But she and Juan figured they needed to save every penny for a new apartment.

“This is great! I’m so happy,” Jones exulted when a reporter brought her the news Tuesday. “I can actually go Christmas shopping. I’ll have the money.”

She’d also like the stay in the apartment, where she’s lived for four years. Tenants in the other three apartments already left after Fannie Mae got the court approval for the evictions.

“That’s beautiful. Good thing we stuck it out,” Negron said upon arriving home and hearing the news. (Jones shouted it outside the window to him before he came in the door.)

Making A Difference

Jones’ good fortune grew out of a decision by some other renters to contact legal aid lawyers. Two of those tenants came to the New Haven legal aid office.

Under Connecticut law, anyone buying a foreclosed-upon property can evict the tenants. Even if those tenants have leases. Even if the buyer is a federally funded lender created to help working people occupy affordable homes, a lender that just received a $25 billion taxpayer bailout together with its quasi-public cousin, Freddie Mac.

On Dec. 8 Marx wrote a letter to Fannie Mae’s interim general counsel, Curtis Lu. The letter noted that Fannie Mae hadn’t been making legally mandated “case-by-case analyses” of its foreclosed properties with an eye to helping tenants remain in their homes. Instead it was “aggressively” filing eviction cases. Fannie Mae had agreed to suspend evictions until Jan. 9, but was proceeding with the legal cases to throw families out after that.

“Tenants were being evicted and properties were being left empty, wreaking havoc on the tenants’ lives” and on the surrounding neighborhoods, Marx said.

The evictions also violated Section 109(b) of the law under which taxpayers bailed out Fannie Mae this October, the letter noted. Marx gave Fannie Mae until Dec. 15 to act, or she would file a lawsuit.

Click here to read the letter, which was cosigned by NHLAA’s Eppler-Epstein, Shelley White, and Francis Dineen.

Lu responded this past Friday with the decision to suspend the evictions and draw up new leases for tenants without them.

Since then, Marx has heard from at least one attorney, in Boston, who had to show up in court without notification that Fannie Mae was planning to end an eviction.

“You can’t tell judges, ‘I can’t meet my deadlines because I read it in the Wall Street Journal,’” Marx said. So on Tuesday she was back in touch with Fannie Mae seeking to have the lawyers and tenants across the country notified.

NHLAA’s State Street offices were abuzz with excitement about the victory. It was the kind of case that motivates talented attorneys to work for lower pay at legal aid agencies, a case in which the lawyers can see tangible proof of the difference the law can make in people’s lives.

Marx called it “the kind of case that incorporates both service to individuals and also opportunity for advocacy on a national scale. It’s such a gratifying experience to be able to take the situation of one individual and achieve a change in national policy.”

NHLAA lawyers also hoped that the case would bring momentum to a desperate fund-raising drive. Legal aid agencies statewide are facing layoffs and other budget cuts because of a $8-10 million, or 50 percent, loss of funding this coming year stemming from a steep decline in a major source of funding known as IOLTA (Interest On Lawyers’ Trust Accounts). (Read about that here. ) One of the lawyers from the Hartford legal aid office, who was involved in this Fannie Mae case, just received a pink slip.

NHLAA emphasized the brewing cuts in this press release about the Fannie Mae case.

Previous Independent coverage of New Haven’s foreclosure crisis:

• Foreclosure Fee-Slashing Judge Leaves Town
• She’ll Be Watching Deutsche Bank
• A Last Pre-Foreclosure Look At A Lifetime Past
• New Yorker Snags Foreclosed-Upon Gem
• Foreclosure Dream Goes Sour
• Judge Slashes Foreclosure Bounty
• Tax Break Saves Woman’s House
• Bank Replaces “Gunshot Alley” Landlord
• Foreclosure Bill OK’d
• Singh Seeks Home For A Song
• Foreclosure’s Neighbor Worries More About Speeding
• Networking Replaces Foreclosure at Christy’s
• Foreclosure Bargain — & Renewal — Jeopardized
• Bank Outbids Akbar; Family May Keep Home
• “So Don’t Worry About Pablo”
• Bankruptcy Postpones Foreclosure
• Next-Door Foreclosures, 53 Years Apart
• They Met On Foreclosure Way
• Little Garage Draws Big Bids
• A 2nd Chance on Lewis Street
• Foreclosure Attracts New Breed of “Specialist”
• In Foreclosures, Judge’s Hands Tied
• Home Saved From Foreclosure. Cycle, Too
• A House For Precious?
• Deutsche Bank Grabs Dixwell Condo
• Reluctant Bidder Snags F. Haven Bargain
• Well, There’s Always Powerball
• Neighbors Retrieve Home From Bank
• Somebody Has Plans For Bassett Street
• Foreclosed, the Khennavongs Leave the Santanas
• Foreclosure Steal May Be Too Good
• 2nd Foreclosure in 3 Months Dims Bright St.
• After Foreclosure, W’ville Owner Still Hopes To Sell
• He’s Not Buying, Yet
• Quiet Foreclosure on Porter Street
• 3 Minutes Too Late
• Historic Gambardella Property Foreclosed
•2 Homes Lost, 1 Gained
• “Everybody’s Got To Eat”
• More Foreclosures, More Signs
• Foreclosure Sale Benefits Archie Moore’s
• Rescue Squad Swings Into Action
• A Bidder Shows Up
• Bank Beats Tanya’s Bid
• Westville Auction Draws A Crowd
• DeStefano: Foreclosure Plan Ready
• Can They Help?
• “We Should Over-Regulate These Bastards”
• Rosa Hears of Rescues
• WPCA Grilled on Foreclosures
• WPCA’s Targets Struggle To Dig Out
• Sue The Subprimers?
• WPCA Hearing Delayed
• Megna’s “Blood Boils” at WPCA Tactics
• Goldfield Wants WPCA Answers
• 2 Days, 8 Foreclosure Suits
• WPCA Goes On Foreclosure Binge
• A Guru Weighs In
• WPCA Targets Church
• Subprime Mess Targeted
• Renters Caught In Foreclosure King’s Fall
• She’s One Of 1,150 In The Foreclosure Mill
• Foreclosures Threaten Perrotti’s Empire
•“I’m Not Going To Lay Down And Let Them Take My House”
• Struggling Couple Sues Over “Scam”

To learn about the ROOF Project, a community-wide effort to help New Haveners navigate the foreclosure crisis, click here.

The following links are to various materials and brochures designed to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.

How to prepare a complaint to the Department of Banking; Department of Banking Online Assistance Form; Connecticut Department of Banking, Avoiding Foreclosure; FDIC Consumer News; Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut, Inc; Connecticut Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service.

For lawyer referral services in New Haven, call 562-5750 or visit this website. For the Department of Social Services (DSS) Eviction Foreclosure Prevention Program (EFPP), call 211 to see which community-based organization in the state serves your town.

Click here for information on foreclosure prevention efforts from Empower New Haven.