My son is in the Military, has served in Iraq and Germany and is our local Hometown Hero. He bought his home with all intent to raise his children in the same city he was raised. However, his wife walked out leaving him with the mortgage, community credit debt and now rightfully so, the payment of child support, day care and insurance for the children.

He tried to file for a loan modification with Bank of America due to the divorce and loss of income, was told he was qualified and sent a large packet of paperwork to fill out. It took days to fill out, acquire and copy the requested documents. Bank of America said they never received it. His wife refused to sign the paperwork again and Bank of America refused to accept the paperwork without her signature.

Bank of America then assigned IBM Lending to the account and IBM said to send all the paperwork in for a loan mod or short sale, according to the forms on their website and they would review it.

Meanwhile the house is set to sell at auction/Deed of Trustee Sale and he could not get a reply from IBM Lending. They have call centers in 3 states and no one was assigned to the loan. After being left on hold for 30 to 40 minutes at a time, calls transferred and then dropped, he recorded the names of twenty different people answering the phone, each with a different answer. Even though the call center operators ask for your name, loan number, social security number, address and PHONE NUMBER, no one ever returned messages, or calls lost during a conversation, you could never be put through to the person you were talking to. Suddenly, they were “out for the day”, “gone for the day” or “away from their desk.”

Finally, the day before the auction, they told him he could only speak to someone in Loss Mitigation and they could stop the auction, and they finally gave him a name of someone assigned to his file. The Auction was set for 10:30am and she said there was plenty of time to notify the Deed of Trustee to call off the sale. Then she called at 8:30am, the morning of the sale and said she needed another copy of his ex-wife’s latest paystub, so he faxed it to her “RUSH” fax number and acknowledged receiving it. Then once again he was put on hold for 30 minutes. He hung up and I called back and was told she was on another line but we were next in queue, but after holding for 40 minutes, she never picked up the line.

We were at the auction; the opening bid was $315,000. The house has been appraised at $50,000. Needless to say, no one bid on it and “it went back to the bank”

Who is the “bank”, Bank of America, IBM Lending, Green point Mortgage, Countrywide or Fannie Mae? It has been transferred so many times; they couldn’t even tell us who the bank or the lender was. Lastly, IBM Lending said an investor had the note on the house but couldn’t tell us who it was.

Today, Fannie Mae posted a note a “Notice to Occupants” that a property manager is now in charge of the property. Of course, there is no homeowner address listed nor is the “Notice” dated or signed. We do not know if it is legitimate or not but surely it is. That is the story of an American Hero losing his home due to the economy, the mortgage being upside down, the refusal of his banks and lenders to cooperate with the Making Home Affordable program designated by our President.

Even with so many plans for Department of Defense and active duty military, no such privileges were offered to him. As such, a man’s home is taken away, sold to an investor and then rented out. The only ones who are being afforded help are the banks and investors, and certainly not the homeowner’s.

The plan is a disgrace, and none of our neighbors who requested loan mods, got them either. They have all been foreclosed on, they have lost their homes, and many like us have nowhere to go. In eminent danger of being homeless.

Another friend got laid-off last month and is now in danger of losing her home. I pity what lies ahead for her and so many innocent families who through no fault of their own are losing everything.

We were once middle class working members of society, now we are months and hours away from being homeless in California. Is that what an American soldier and his children deserve?