ACORN Convention

I am Beverly Mae Tooles, from Cincinnati, Ohio.  I came here with my mom, Mary Tooles.  I really enjoyed Maxine Waters.  She was very inspiring, and I would like to see her speak again, as well as the many others who spoke at the plenary session.  I enjoyed learning about my rights, and I am glad that there are people out here who are trying to protect me and others.  This was my first ACORN event.  Now I would like to become a member of ACORN.  I also enjoy being with Amy Teitelman and the other staff and members from Cincinnati.  I want to thank y’all for this experience and I have enjoyed the time.

ACORN HELPS LOUISVILLE KENTUCKY

ACORN HAS BEEN HELPING LOUISVILLE KENTUCKY BY HELPING PORTLAND VIDEO AND OLD PEOPLE AND KIDS,

AND HAS HELP THE OWNER OF PORTLAND VIDEO BY RAISING MONEY, AND GETTING PEOPLE TO SIGN A PAPER TO SAVE PORTLAND VIDEO.

Al Ynigues – Apple Valley, Minnesota

I’ve been a music teacher since 1960.  I’ve been an ACORN member since February of 2007.  I joined ACORN because I was in an Adjustable Rate Mortgage that kept going up and up.  It had started adjusting in October of ‘06, so I was very stressed out at that time.  I was watching the 10:00 news and they had ACORN members in the background answering phones and they said to call if you were having trouble with your mortgage.  So I called and they sent out a very well versed person that was knowledgeable about the loans, Jeff Skerenes.  He was a former loan officer.  He had been an ACORN board member too.  He started noticing on the documents I had where this mortgage broker, Jerry Dauphin of Mortgage Results in Burnsville, Minnesota, had really taken advantage of me without my knowing.

The first thing Jeff noticed on my loan documentation was that Jerry Dauphin had changed my income from $3,000 a month to $10,000 a month without my knowing.  That was the first thing.  The next thing he noticed was that Jerry Dauphin had set me up with an Annual Yield Premium – a fancy term for a kickback.  For that he got $5,000 extra.  Another thing that Jerry had done is he had actually lied to me – he said that if your interest rates go down, so will your payments.  Well, that was a lie because the type of loan he had tied me into was a LIBOR – London Index Bank Rate – which means that interest rates in the United States would not affect me at all.  Another thing was that the loan was approximately 80% interest and 10% principal.

Now here’s the back story on how I got into this.  Jerry Dauphin and his son and daughter had been taking music lessons from me for about 5 years.  He approached me and said that by renting, my money was going down the drain, and I should get some equity.  He said he would “really take care” of me.  So I trusted him.  Now one thing I did was I requested that I get the first time homebuyer benefit that’s provided by my county, Dakota County – they provide 30% of the down payment to help people get homeownership.  Upon hearing that, that really upset him.  He got really aggressive and said I didn’t qualify for that type of loan, he said my credit rating wasn’t that great.  Being a mild mannered music teacher, being Minnesota nice, I went along with it.

He also said that if I went into this and made 6 months’ straight payments, I could get into a better loan.  I did.  After 7 months I talked to him.  That was when he told me my loan had a prepayment penalty if I paid it off before two years.  Then there were other fees – adding up to $6,000 out of my pocket.  I didn’t have that, so I let it roll over to the Adjustable Rate Mortgage.

When I first got the loan, the teaser rate was 6.9%, with a payment of $1,645 per month.  That was just one loan.  He also got a loan for the down payment that was $60,000, and I’m paying $440 a month on that too.  When it started adjusting, it went to 9.6% interest and a monthly payment of $1,895.  Every six months it readjusted.  It got to the point of 13.9% interest with a monthly payment of $2,400.  Obviously, that’s more than I make a month.  Not even talking about paying utilities, food, gas, taking somebody to a movie or something.  No entertainment.

In the meantime, in all this, I’ve had to cut back on all my lifestyle.  The car I drive is a 1990 piece of junk.  Then I had to really cut back – I started eating only one meal a day.  I used to weigh 173 pounds.  If you put me on a scale now I’d be 149.  That’s a hell of a way of being on a diet.

So this is how I got involved with ACORN.  Once I joined, they put my case with the St. Paul ACORN Housing office.  For the longest time nothing was happening – I would say close to a year.  I kept pressing, nothing happening.  I requested they send my case to Chicago where they had better staffing – but the Chicago office had so many cases, they were overwhelmed.  Finally they moved my case over to Milwaukee.  There I did work with a loan counselor by the name of Emmet Gross.  He negotiated with my loan carrier – originally it was New Century Mortgage, but they went bankrupt, so now it’s Carrington Mortgage.  I turned down 3 offers during that time before I accepted one.  What I have now accepted is an interest rate of 5.5%.  The monthly payment is now going to be $1,745.  And that payment’s going to start July 1.

Throughout all of this I was a spokesman for ACORN.  And now that I got my loan workout, I’m not going to stop.  I’m going to continue speaking on behalf of ACORN and ACORN members.  I’ve been really active speaking in front of legislators, our Attorney General, and I was in Washington, D.C. twice.  I also went about a year ago to do an action with ACORN in Greenwich, Connecticut.  That was a national action that we had against my lender, Carrington Mortgage.  The police were waiting for us.  The CEO was very much aware we were there and did not come out of his office.  However ACORN did give a letter of demands to his people.

I got about the worst type of loan anybody could get.  I felt ashamed because I’m a pretty educated person.  But I trusted this person, and he violated not only my trust, but the ethics of his profession.  He put his personal gain above his customer’s needs.  So my plan is next to have the Department of Commerce and the FBI go after him.  The FBI arrested 40 unethical mortgage brokers last week, and I’m going to make sure that happens to him too.

My ACORN members, we did an action on Jerry Dauphin’s office.  I went in and went to shake his hand and he wouldn’t shake my hand.  He put his hand behind his back and asked me what I was doing there.  He tried to push me out of his office, but our head organizer stopped him.

A VERY PROUD ACORN MEMBER

I have been an ACORN member for  21 years, I’m proud, and a much better person. I started out as a welfare mother of 2 children, living at home with my mother. An organizer knocked at my door, and I didn’t want to here anything she had to say. Needless to say she was relentless, I finally joined, I took the tools the organization gave me and worked with them. Now I’m no longer on welfare, I live in a huge house with a mortgage, and I own my own business.  I owe so much to the senior staff of this organization, for taking the time for giving me a life that will leave a legacy for my children.

I Applaud You ACORN

From Jamie Arthur from Norristown Pennsylvania

I became an ACORN member out of necessity. There were some issues going on in town and I had to get involved. Mortgage foreclosures, predatory lending (of which I was a victim), and a local supermarket with health and safety issues such as selling bad food. And it was a monopoly, the only one in town, and got away with it.

So we formed a neighborhood task force with ACORN members and members of the local community. We sat down with the owner of the store and consequently they were acted upon. They rearranged the store, and the food is better.

I’ve been with ACORN about five and six years. I got out of it for awhile but when they started organizing in my new community, once again I got involved.

And for people who aren’t here at the convention, I recommend for people to take the time and get involved. They can make a difference once they are involved.

From Carolyn Rogers

I’m from Durham North Carolina. I’m the co-chair. I’ve lived most of my life there. I have so many concerns about my neighborhood including gang violence. I have voiced my concerns via newspaper and tv. And then became introduced to an ACORN recruiter. One afternoon a gentleman came by. And I really didn’t have time and I really wasn’t interested. But we started talking and here I am today.

We have a slum lord campaign. We have had a successful gang violence campaign. The other major campaign is beautification.

And we are also interested in jobs and activities for the youth.

ACORN Members arrive in droves!

Wayne State University is hopping this morning with ACORN members from all over the country rolling in by the busload. Smiling faces, lots of energy and and a sea of red populates the walkways. I’ve had my coffee and am ready for the festivities. Looking forward to the play tonight. Stay tuned for updates and words from ACORN members!

*C

The ACORN 2008 National Convention has started!

ACORN members from all over the country are gathering at the Cobo Center in Detroit for the 2008 ACORN National Convention, Saturday, June 21 – Monday, June 23. This year’s theme is “Building Dreams Across America.”

We’re working on lots of important campaigns all over the country. The major campaigns we’ll be focused on for this convention are stopping foreclosures, ending poverty, winning immigration reform, getting better access to healthcare, and rebuilding New Orleans.

There will be more than 2,000 of us marching through the streets of Detroit on Monday!

There are great speakers coming too. John Edwards will be the keynote speaker on Monday, and on Sunday we have two members of Congress, Maxine Waters from California and Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick from Michigan. Also speaking on Sunday is Jim Wallis, President of Sojourners, “Christians for Justice and Peace.”

We’ll be attending workshops and planning sessions to discuss our campaign strategies. The ACORN Convention only happens once every two years, and these are major campaigns, so there’s a lot to talk about.

This year we’re celebrating 38 years of winning victories for low-income Americans.

Learn more at www.acorn.org