Jodie Randolph tells the story of the struggle to keep her home.
Jodie Randolph is a small-business owner in Alameda, California. She is also a breast-cancer survivor, and is in treatment for colon cancer.
Jodie has been fighting to stay in her home for years. Companies affiliated with Morgan
Stanley shuttled the loan around from one subsidiary to the other until they foreclosed on her. Morgan Stanley’s tactics have included:
• Pushing her into a predatory refinance
• Moving her loan around from company to company so she couldn’t get a fix on who to negotiate with
• Removing the lawyer for Morgan Stanley who was actually negotiating with Jodie when they were
close to reaching a mutually acceptable plan.
• Stunningly, breaking in and changing the locks to her house while she was at a chemotherapy
session.
Supported by a delegation of her family, friends, neighbors, the Occupy Oakland Foreclosure Defense Group, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, and other foreclosure activists, Jodie has staved off eviction from her home since November 2012.
In a terrific initial victory for people’s action and home defense, Jodie was able to meet Monday, with Morgan Stanley. In November, when Jodie came to Occupy Oakland Foreclosure Defense, she had no prospect of a bank meeting, and all negotiations and legal actions seemed over and done.
She and her allies sat down fairly amicably with bank representatives, including a lawyer flown in from Southern California, and presented her proposal for how the foreclosure could be lifted and a fair loan modification could be put in place. Morgan Stanley is ‘considering’ her proposal.
In the meantime, the home defense continues as everyone hopes and waits.
