Mary Smith Pledges to Stay in Her Rochester Home Resisting Foreclosure by American Tax Funding

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Submitted by Take Back the Land Rochester on Thu, 2013-02-14 09:21

Facing foreclosure, Mary of Smith of 53 Cutler Street, Rochester, NY 14621, is pledging to stay in her home and not let American Tax Funding put her out of her longtime home.  Take Back the Land Rochester is pledging to support her. Mary and her community are prepared to nonviolently resist attempts to displace if necessary.  Her house is scheduled to go to auction 10am February 26 at the Monroe County Office Building. A petition circulated both by door-to-door canvassing and online posting is calling for ATF to call off the auction and negotiate. Over 525 signatures have been received to date and the number continues to grow.  

Mary Smith has lived at 53 Cutler Street for 30 years, raising six children. She paid off her mortgage to ES&L 12 years ago. She is the Vice President of the Cutler Street Plus Block Club and has been a commanding force in the community for decades. She is affectionately known as the "Mayor of Cutler Street," who has severed hundreds of hotdogs to neighbor kids at kickball games. In her dining room she displays a large promotional poster featuring her as a poster person for volunteerism.  

 

Although Mary has a long history of paying her bills, serious health problems have fell on Mary and she fell behind on her taxes.  Although she always tried to catch up it seemed she was only paying off the interest. To make matters worse, the City of Rochester and the County of Monroe sold her tax liens to a for-profit company in Florida called American Tax Funding (ATF).  A predatory privatization scheme, American Tax Funding charges usurious interest on the liens of Rochester residents going through financial hardship even though it buys the liens from the City and the County from .43 to 49 cents on the dollar.

After having serious health problems that often left her unable to work, Mary has now qualified for disability, has steady income, and is willing and able to pay off her liens to American Tax Funding.  However, despite repeated attempts to set up payment plans and, to work out a settlement.  ATF will not answer her lawyer's calls and is planning to auction off her house for as much profit as possible on February 26, 2013.  Mary is courageously and defiantly standing up against American Tax Funding and we stand will her.  An auction protest is scheduled for 10am at February 26 at the County Building and a community eviction defense is planned if ATF (or an investor ATF sells the house to) tries evict the Mary from her home.

On Monday, February 11th, Mary and a dozen supporters from Take Back the Land Rochester hand delivered a letter pleading her case to the local law firm, Phillips Lyttle, representing American Tax Funding.  There is an early but preliminary indication of movement by ATF as a result of the letter.  You can stay updated at http://TakeBackthelandRochester.org/MarySmith

 

Upcoming Events:
--February 21:Community Meeting to Support Mary and Stop Foreclosures on February 21, 2013 at the Northeast Neighborhood Service Center, 500 Norton St. Rochester, NY at 6:30pm
--February 26: ATF Auction Protest to Defend Mary's Home on February 26, 2013 at front steps of the Monroe County Office Building, 39 West Main St., Rochester, NY. At 10am

Comments

Submitted by Knight0440 on Tue, 2013-02-26 07:37
UPDATE: We are winning!

Community Pressure Forces ATF to Cancel Foreclosure Auction of Mary Smith's Home! ATF has agreed to begin negotiations.

After struggling for almost 10 years to get a fair payment plan with American Tax Funding, Mary Smith publicly stood up against ATF only 3 weeks ago. In three short weeks her 10 years of struggle has been turned around by Mary, Take Back the Land Rochester, and overwhelming communinty support. ATF's lawyers Phillips Lyttle says they have canceled the Feb. 26 auction and have promised to work out a fair deal with Mary. We are halfway to victory!

Now its important we continue to spread Mary's story and the petition and expose ATF's practices.

1)We need to make sure ATF closes the deal with Mary so she can keep her home
2) We need to change the City/County/ATF tax foreclosure process so these disasters never happen again. Noboby should have to go through the anguish Mary's been through.

Stay tuned for more updates. All Power to the People!

Ryan Acuff
Take Back the Land Rochester
http://TakeBacktheLandRochester.org

Submitted by Knight0440 on Tue, 2013-02-26 17:07


ATF's lawyers say that Mary's house has been taken off this morning's auction block. However, we will still need about 5 people to go a monitor the process to make sure ATF doesn't try and pull a fast one. Those that are interest in Auction Monitoring today (instead of an auction protest) we can me at the inside front steps Monroe County Office Building at 39 West Main Street, Rochester, NY. See full update below....


UPDATE: We are winning!

Community Pressure Forces ATF to Cancel Foreclosure Auction of Mary Smith's Home! ATF has agreed to begin negotiations.

After struggling for almost 10 years to get a fair payment plan with American Tax Funding, Mary Smith publicly stood up against ATF only 3 weeks ago. In three short weeks her 10 years of struggle has been turned around by Mary, Take Back the Land Rochester, and overwhelming communinty support. ATF's lawyers Phillips Lyttle says they have canceled the Feb. 26 auction and have promised to work out a fair deal with Mary. We are halfway to victory!

Now its important we continue to spread Mary's story and the petition and expose ATF's practices.

1)We need to make sure ATF closes the deal with Mary so she can keep her home
2) We need to change the City/County/ATF tax foreclosure process so these disasters never happen again. Noboby should have to go through the anguish Mary's been through.

Stay tuned for more updates. All Power to the People!

Ryan Acuff
Take Back the Land Rochester
http://TakeBacktheLandRochester.org