For the next several weeks, HuffPost will be cross-posting "Foreclosure Horror Stories" from the Home Defenders League's "100 Stories Of What Wall Street Broke" series, which is collecting first-person accounts from homeowners around the country. Homeowners can submit their own stories here. The following post and video, which tell the story of Grace Alexander from Newark, N.J., originally appeared in a slightly different form here.
"I work for a living and I can pay a mortgage, but I cannot afford the inflated mortgage that I've been forced into, and I certainly can't afford an increase to my monthly payment."
Bank of America’s math is bad -- real bad! My name is Grace Alexander and I’m a 57-year-old Newark grandmother. Bank of America offered to "help" me save my home from foreclosure, but their offer will increase my monthly mortgage payment by more than $200.
For more than two years I've battled the big bank. And for more than two years, Bank of America has given me the runaround.
Paperwork, phone calls, meetings, and even protests have been met with nothing more than a never-ending runaround. The company simply doesn’t care about me or the members of my family who have called this house our home for the last 12 years.
In a letter dated February 13th, 2013, Bank of America sent me an offensive reply to my request for a mortgage modification to save my home. Instead of working with me, Bank of America wants to increase my monthly mortgage payment. That letter began, "You are on your way to a more affordable mortgage payment."
I work for a living and I can pay a mortgage, but I cannot afford the inflated mortgage that I've been forced into, and I certainly can't afford an increase to my monthly payment. Bank of America has the power and authority to save my home with the stroke of a pen. In fact, banks have the power to save the homes of all 100,000 New Jersey homeowners facing foreclosure this year by simply working with homeowners on principal write-downs.
Surely Bank of America can do better for me and my family. At the very least, they should be better at math.
Watch the video above to hear more of Grace's story. To learn more about Grace, and to view a petition urging Bank of America to let Grace keep her home, visit SignOn.org.