Facing Foreclosure, Leonard Spears Pledges to Stay in His Home

Leonard is fighting to stay in his home. Wells Fargo fraudulently foreclosed on him and sold his house to Freddie Mac for $500. On March 30, a got a 90 day notice to vacate despite obviously fraudulent paperwork and numerous requests at modification. As the foreclosure crisis decimates his neighborhood, Leonard is taking a stand for his house he remodeled and returned from disrepair. Listen to Leonard's story, what his home has meant to him, and how why he has pledged to stay in his home.

Leonard Spears and Take Back the Land Rochester are calling on the community to protest Wells Fargo and Freddie Mac's move displace Leonard from his home at 26 Ries St., Rochester, NY 14611. Despite 10-12 attempts at a mortgage modification, Wells Fargo refused to negotiate with Leonard and instead asked him to continually resubmit the same paperwork. In order to take his home as quickly as possible Wells Fargo never served Leonard the Summons and Complaint for the foreclosure action, denying him proper recourse to defend his home in court. Instead Wells Fargo fabricated the paperwork saying they served Leonard and claiming he was up to 6 feet tall with black, brown, and blond hair!  Unfortunately for Wells Fargo, Leonard is about 5'6'', bald and has never had blond or brown hair.  In a further stroke of fraud, lawyers for Wells Fargo reveal that their client didn't own the mortgage or note when they foreclosed on Leonard Spears giving them zero legal standing to foreclose in the first place.  To add insult to injury, when Wells Fargo foreclosed on Mr. Spears, they sold his house to Freddie Mac for $500.  Now Freddie Mac is trying to evict Leonard and gave him 90 days to vacate on March 30, 2012. We demand that Freddie Mac withdraw the eviction and that Wells Fargo withdraw the foreclosure and work out a reasonable settlement with Leonard.

When Wells Fargo was in desperate financial trouble they received a massive bailout of over $36 billion which they used to buy up other banks in order to become Much "Too Big to Fail."  Now Wells Fargo is trying to railroad more people out of their homes in order to turn a profit. After the bailout Wells Fargo was for forced to pay a $85 million fine for pushing borrowers into subprime loans.  Despite the bailouts and fines the government hasn't prevented a single foreclosure.  It’s up to us to bring justice to our community.  It's time we came to together as a community to stop all foreclosures and to elevate housing to a human right.

We demand that Wells Fargo and Freddie Mac withdraw the foreclosure and eviction of Leonard Spears and negotiate a reasonable settlement so he can stay in his home.

We demand that Wells Fargo, Freddie Mac and all other bailed out banks transfer their foreclosed homes to local community land trusts, so that communities can secure local control over housing and land.  We've paid for the houses.  Now they should be turned back to the public. 

For more information contact Take Back the Land Rochester at takebackroc@riseup.net or (585) 653-8362. 

For updates see http://TakeBacktheLandRochester.org, http://facebook.com/takebackroc,http://twitter.com/takebackroc

Links: D&C: Group Protests Foreclosure of Rochester Home | The Daily Record: Area Groups Protest Foreclosure Case | Sign the Petition: Wells Fargo and Freddie Mac: Withdraw the Foreclosure and Eviction of Leonard Spears in Rochester, NY | Alternet: 7 Foreclosure Horror Stories (And One Possible Win)