You know, I had never considered it before, but do you want to know what I’ve just decided is probably the most personally insulting act in the world? I mean the ultimate in callous and disrespectful? Like the best way to say you are entirely meaningless to your society and community? I’m serious about this… it’s certainly not a joke by any means.
Okay, ready? They jerk you around for a year, teasing you about a loan modification, making you send the same paperwork in over and over again as they question you about why you spend $70 a month on meat, when you could be eating chicken, and then they foreclose on you anyway, without any notice really… and then evicts you and says you must be out in 30 days… no way can you have 60…
… and then some number of months later… the bank comes along and bulldozes your home to the ground.
Oh, betch! No you did not! You did? No you did not!
And this didn’t happen to Jews in Nazi Germany … this is happening today in Cleveland and will be happening soon in Chicago and Detroit, and my guess would be just about everywhere else you can think of, with the possible exception of Wyoming and North Dakota, although I couldn’t even be sure of that without checking it out. It certainly wouldn’t surprise me.
Am I wrong? Is there something even more insulting than that? Get out of that house in 30 days or the sheriff will carry you out… and then so the home can be razed to the ground… and not because something else had to be built there right away either … just because.
Bank of America is kicking off the festivities by donating 100 foreclosed homes located in and around Cleveland, Ohio and the money to fund their demolition. Bank of America plans to work with a local agency that handles “blighted property” to dispose of the properties.
Next, BofA’s Glut Cutting Tour will be be destroying 150 homes in Chicago and 100 in Detroit, and spokesperson, Rick Simon says the bank expects to announce additional nine cities soon. With Wells Fargo, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Fannie Mae already either conducting housing destruction programs of their own, someone should be tearing down homes near you sometime this year.
Wells Fargo and Fannie Mae have both already started destroying homes in Ohio. According to the bank, since 2009, Wells has made 800 such “donations.”
P.J. McCarthy, who’s in charge of “alternative disposition programs,” for Fannie Mae says that Fannie made its first deal with the Cuyahoga land bank in 2009. He says Fannie “sells” houses to the organization at a “very nominal value,” which means about $1… with an additional $200 to cover closing costs. P.J. also says that Fannie Mae sold 200 foreclosures to the Cuyahoga organization in 2010 and has similar programs in Detroit and Chicago.
P.J. must be very proud of his work. He’s probably one of the only department heads at Fannie Mae doing something constructive… buy destroying homes. Is it just me? Because I feel like I’m living in “Dr. Strangelove – Or How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.”
Apparently, Cleveland is the only city where Fannie Mae contributes $3,500 toward the demolition of the homes. P.J. call it an “economically justifiable transaction.” He explains that…
“Holding on to a property that might sell for $1,000 or $2,000 or $5,000 for several hundred days is not in anybody’s best interest.”
No, I guess it’s not, P.J. I reckon it’s not, at that.
Now get this… Jim O’Donnell, who is the manager of community revitalization at JPMorgan says the bank has donated or sold at a discount almost 1,900 properties in more than 37 states since late 2008, including 22 in Cleveland, said. Total value of the properties… over $100 million.
And Mr. O’Donnell says… “The majority aren’t demolished.”
Excuse me? Not demolished? Just given away then? To someone else? Just given away? The majority of $100 million in homes just given away by JPMorgan since late in 2008? Oh, Holy Mother of God, are these people serious? Is this really happening? I’m starting to feel light headed… not sure how much longer I can write this.
Oh, and Citibank’s been doing it since 2008 too.
So, who would have ever thought that fixing the housing market was just a matter of finding the right tool for the job… a bulldozer.
To celebrate the finding of the new tool, I think a song is in order, don’t you?
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