First, Paul Brock claimed, lenders “bamboozled” him. Then the “doggone guys shooting guns” drove his tenants away. Now the property owner faces multiple foreclosures on his five condos.
There were no bidders at the Saturday morning foreclosure auction of 718 Congress Ave. (pictured), one of five units Brock owns. As attorney Gerard Adelman went through the auction formalities, officially returning the house to the bank, Brock phoned in from his job at the Whalley jail to tell his side of the story.
The 41-year-old corrections officer — father of 10 kids and survivor of three heart attacks — claimed that he was the victim of tricky mortgages with escalating rates, Brock said, he couldn’t convince tenants to move into or stay in his condos because of the gun violence in the neighborhood.
“I wanna say the hell with it and walk away,” Brock said.
Bamboozled?
At around 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Attorney Adelman was parked in his SUV in front of 718 Congress, waiting for bidders to show up for the noon auction. There was no foreclosure sign in front of the condo unit. Adelman theorized that the tenants must have removed it.
A young man wearing two black hoodies and black Dickies walked up, curious to know what was going on. Being told that the house was going to be auctioned, he said, “Oh, that’s my dad’s house.” He said his father owned several of the condo units that line that section of Congress.
“I know everything there is to know about all these units, about this whole thing,” the young man said.
So why was there no foreclosure sign on the house?
“Huh. I don’t know… You want me to call my dad?”
Pulling out two cell phones, the man dialed his father, Paul Brock, and handed the phone to this reporter.
“Let me tell my side of the story,” Brock said. “We’re doing the best we can.”
Speaking from his car during his lunch break at the jail, Brock said that he owned five units in the condo complex and that he’d recently had a foreclosure on another one of them. He said he had purchased the five units “straight out” with cash, for between $3,000 and $26,000 each. He then mortgaged them because, he said, he “wanted to have a write-off.”
“But they bamboozled me!” he exclaimed. Brock didn’t have a fixed-rate mortgage, and the monthly payments kept going up, from $400 to $1000. Meanwhile, he said, “the taxes have almost quadrupled in less than five years!”
“Plus the doggone guys shooting guns!” Brock continued. He said that because his units are right next to “Gunshot Alley,” where there are shots fired every night, “I can’t keep a tenant.”
Now, Brock said, he doesn’t answer his phone because it’s always creditors, looking for money.
Walking Away
“All I wanna do is pay everybody off and walk away,” he said. “The only reason I’m trying keep them is so people have a place to stay.”
Brock said that he told the tenants, “If you’re gonna stay, I’ll fight for you.” (Adelman said that the tenants had told him that they had known nothing about the foreclosure until the sign went up in front of their house. Adelman also said that Brock had made no motions to contest the foreclosure.)
Brock said that his tenants want to buy the units from him but they have bad credit. “None of them have credit over there.”
“Trying to be a social worker” is taking a toll on him, Brock said. “I wish they’d get the hell out and get on with their life so I can get on with mine.”
“It’s hard to displace people. I feel responsible, but I’m not getting any help. I don’t really know what I’m doing.”
As Brock finished up his story over the phone, Adelman (pictured) was holding a bidless auction on the sidewalk.
“Are there any bidders?” he asked to the empty sidewalk. “Seeing none…”
And the house went back to the bank.
Previous Independent coverage of New Haven’s foreclosure crisis:
‚Ä¢ Foreclosure Bill OK’d
• Singh Seeks Home For A Song
‚Ä¢ Foreclosure Bargain — & Renewal — Jeopardized
• Bank Outbids Akbar; Family May Keep Home
‚Ä¢ “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
‚Ä¢ Foreclosure Attracts New Breed of “Specialist”
‚Ä¢ 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
‚Ä¢ 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.
‚Ä¢ After Foreclosure, W’ville Owner Still Hopes To Sell
‚Ä¢ He’s Not Buying, Yet
• Quiet Foreclosure on Porter Street
• 3 Minutes Too Late
• Historic Gambardella Property Foreclosed
•2 Homes Lost, 1 Gained
‚Ä¢ “Everybody’s Got To Eat”
• More Foreclosures, More Signs
‚Ä¢ Foreclosure Sale Benefits Archie Moore’s
• Rescue Squad Swings Into Action
• A Bidder Shows Up
‚Ä¢ Bank Beats Tanya’s Bid
• Westville Auction Draws A Crowd
• DeStefano: Foreclosure Plan Ready
• Can They Help?
‚Ä¢ “We Should Over-Regulate These Bastards”
• Rosa Hears of Rescues
• WPCA Grilled on Foreclosures
‚Ä¢ WPCA’s Targets Struggle To Dig Out
• Sue The Subprimers?
• WPCA Hearing Delayed
‚Ä¢ 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
‚Ä¢ Renters Caught In Foreclosure King’s Fall
‚Ä¢ She’s One Of 1,150 In The Foreclosure Mill
‚Ä¢ Foreclosures Threaten Perrotti’s Empire
‚Ä¢“I’m Not Going To Lay Down And Let Them Take My House”
‚Ä¢ 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.