A woman engaged in a bitter battle with Wells Fargo over foreclosure of her southern California home was arrested late Thursday at the tony residence of the bank's CFO in San Marino, where she and dozens of supporters were protesting.

Ana Casas Wilson, 49, who lives in the working-class neighborhood of South Gate, faces eviction from her childhood home. Like many people who have been through foreclosure, she says that the bank wrongly denied her a loan modification and moved to foreclose even when she was able to catch up.

In an action that is becoming increasingly common, Wilson has taken her complaint public and her protest directly to bank officials. In Thursday’s protest, with at least 80 supporters, she attempted to deliver her mortgage payment directly to Tim Sloan, the top financial officer for Wells Fargo. In addition to protesting the foreclosure, the group was challenging an ordinance created last year making it harder to picket in this wealthy enclave.

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"People are deciding to take this stand that was previously a little unthinkable," said Peter Kuhns, with the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, which helped organize this and other "home defense" actions. "They are risking arrest, refusing to leave, getting their families involved and putting themselves out there."

Many people are shedding the sense of shame of foreclosure, which kept most people silent in the past, even if they didn’t think they had done anything wrong, he said.

"More and more people are standing up and willing to go public because there is no other remedy and putting public pressure on the bank," said Kuhns.

Wells Fargo did not respond directly to Wilson's situation, but provided a statement in response to queries about her.

"Wells Fargo works very hard to keep customers in their homes whenever possible," said the statement, sent by Jennifer Langan in corporate communications. "We review our customers for a variety of modification options, from HAMP, HARP, HAFA and through our own proprietary programs. Despite these efforts, if a customer is 16 or more months delinquent, it can be extremely difficult to recover." 

Some homeowners who have taken this high-profile approach in their fight against foreclosure, enlisting the support of protesters from the Occupy movement and housing activists, are finding success at it.

Occupy movement targets Wells Fargo shareholder meeting

The case of Rose Gudiel, reported by msnbc.com last year, is one example. In October, Gudiel was hunkered down in her home, surrounded by supporters, awaiting eviction. But at the eleventh hour, lender Fanny Mae canceled the eviction notice and offered her a loan modification, enabling her to keep the home.

Many similar foreclosure battles are under way nationwide, with support from a movement called Occupy our Homes.

Wilson, who has cerebral palsy, lives with her husband, who works as a school janitor, her teen son and her mother, who helps care for her. She has worked as a court reporter, and as an advocate for the disabled.

The trouble covering the mortgage started when she was treated for breast cancer in 2009, and her husband’s income declined as a result of cutting hours to help take care of her. They got behind, but their income stabilized several months later. By then, the bank had moved into foreclosure proceedings and would not accept her payments or discuss ways to catch up, Kuhns said.

The implication in Wells Fargo's statement that Wilson was 16 months behind is misleading, says Kuhns, because for most of that time, the bank refused to take her payments.

Thursday’s protest was on Wilson’s behalf, and it was more generally challenging a San Marino ordinance adopted last November – just a few weeks after a protest of predatory lending practices on Sloan’s front lawn. That demonstration, involving about 100 protesters, was peaceful and ended without incident, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Under the statute, picketers must keep 150 feet from a target residence, or 75 feet from the curb adjacent to the home, whichever is farther.

"The purpose of the ordinance is not to reduce picketing, but to protect the people who are the victims of picketing," police Chief John Schaefer told the Times when it was passed. "We're a prime target. We have a lot of people who fit the profile to be the victim of this type of crime."

Video from the protest posted by the San Gabriel Valley Tribune shows protesters carrying signs and chanting "Wells Fargo, shame on you!" in the street in front of the home.

Wilson is shown crossing a police cordon in her wheelchair to deliver a check to Sloan. She knocks several times, but gets no answer.

"He's embarrassed," Wilson tells the Tribune. "That's why he won't come out. ... He knows that what they are doing is wrong."

Wilson was arrested under the anti-picketing statute, after protesters and police faced off for about two hours. She was released about an hour later and is expected to appear in court in early June.

"The leaders of Wells Fargo and the members of their family should be afforded the right to feel safe in their private residence and we encourage all organizations choosing to demonstrate at private residences to abide by the law for the safety of the general public," the Wells Fargo statement said.

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Arturo de los Santos lost his home to foreclosure more than a year ago and was evicted. But because he felt he was treated unfairly, he moved back into his home of 10 years in an effort to force the lender, Freddie Mac, to back down.

"I’m just a regular guy who gets up each day, takes the kids to school and goes to work," said de los Santos, a long-time aerospace factory supervisor who served five years in the Marine Corps. Now he is hunkered down in the modest three-bedroom house in Riverside, Calif., surrounded by an encampment of Occupy Riverside protesters and community activists. "We’ve done everything the way we were supposed to. We’re not going to just sit back and let Freddie Mac steal our home."

A new eviction order aimed at forcing de los Santos, a 46, and his family out of the house took effect Tuesday, meaning that sheriff's deputies could arrive at any time. Arturo de los Santos also has been served a court summons threatening him with arrest if he doesn’t leave his house.

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De los Santos’ story is similar to thousands of other American homeowners who claim that banks mishandled mortgage modifications.

When the economic crisis hit in 2008, the factory where he worked cut his hours, so de los Santos pursued a modification based on his lower income with JP Morgan Chase, servicer of the loan.

De los Santos told NBC Los Angeles that in 2009, the bank initially lowered his payment in a modification but then stopped taking his money.

Before the house foreclosure process was complete, de los Santos’ hours and income returned to pre-crash levels, but he says that JP Morgan Chase and loan holder Freddie Mac rejected his efforts to bring the loan up to date. Instead, his home was foreclosed on and he and his family were evicted.

Gary Kishner, a spokesman for JP Morgan Chase disputes de los Santos’ account, saying he applied multiple times for loan modifications but did not qualify under Freddie Mac’s requirements for participation. The foreclosure went through in November 2010, he said, and ownership reverted to Freddie Mac.

"The loan is no longer in our portfolio," he said. "It’s always been their decision."

Freddie Mac sent msnbc.com a statement on the case by email.

"We have no choice but to re-evict since no payment has been received on his mortgage for two and a half years, the foreclosure process was completed in November 2010 and the house was lawfully vacated and secured in July 2011. The only way to recover the losses taxpayers have taken on the unpaid mortgage is to re-secure and sell the house to a new buyer," according to the statement sent by Doug Duvall, senior director of public relations and corporate marketing at Freddie Mac headquarters in Virginia.

But de los Santos said he has been unable to get Freddie Mac to discuss his loan, a common refrain from homeowners trying to avoid foreclosure.  

The home sat empty for about six months before de los Santos decided to take bold action. He and his family moved back into the home on Dec. 6. Activists from the Occupy movement and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment launched their "occupation" of the property to bolster his bid to renegotiate on Feb. 2. Since then, said Peter Kuhns, a spokesman for ACCE, there have been 10 to 15 activists present at the house around the clock, and often more.

On Feb. 8, de los Santos and some 250 supporters staged a protest in the lobby of the 48-story office tower in downtown Los Angeles that houses Freddie Mac. They set up a "negotiating table" and sent a letter to the 44^th floor seeking a Freddie Mac manager to explain his rejection for modification.

He and one other person were arrested and charged with trespassing.

A few homeowners who, like de los Santos, have undertaken public "occupation" of their former properties have succeeded in getting a new deal. In October, msnbc.com covered the case of Rose Gudiel, another resident of the Los Angeles area, whose public protests with numerous supporters apparently played a role in forcing Fannie Mae to cancel her eviction and agree to an eleventh-hour loan modification.

But while the "occupation" approach may meet with occasional success, it’s a desperate measure that most lawyers do not recommend.

"It’s trespassing, really, if there has been an eviction order," said Noah Zinner, staff attorney with Housing and Economic Rights Advocates. "It’s problematic because to the extent it involves trespass it can get the people in trouble."

De los Santos is one of the millions of homeowners who will not be helped by the recent $25 billion settlement with four major banks over allegations of improper foreclosures.

The settlement, which includes all but one state, will help lower the principal for about 1 million homeowners who are underwater and behind in their house payments. Another 750,000 people whose properties are worth less than they owe the bank will be able to refinance at a lower interest rate if they up to date on payments.

But loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not part of the settlement.

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When the end of a longtime relationship cost artist Danica Phelps her home, she used her creative energies to chart the troubled period in her life. The result: A work of art that incorporates an eight-page court ruling that she says pushed her down the path toward foreclosure.

Titled "The Cost of Love," the 25-panel piece weaves 350,000 tiny red-hued stripes -- in shades of cherry, burgundy, peach  and pink – together with words from the ruling, including "animosity," "eviction," "mortgage," "girlfriends," "child," "donor" and "insemination."

"This is the whole decision represented in these panels," Phelps, 40, said recently at Brennan & Griffin, the art gallery that represents her and is showing her work in Manhattan's Lower East Side neighborhood through Sunday. "I didn't want my emotion to be represented. What I wanted was to put out this word for word and to allow the viewer to have their own emotional reaction to it."

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Phelps, who has used similar striping in previous pieces, said the genesis of her latest creation occurred in 2009, when her relationship with an ex-girlfriend unraveled and she decided to move out of the four-unit apartment building she owned in New York.

After moving in with relatives and unsuccessfully attempting to persuade her ex to move out of the apartment they had shared for three years, Phelps initiated eviction proceedings. 

Once a family
But on June 2, 2010, Housing Court Judge Laurie L. Lau dismissed the case. Because Phelps and her ex-girlfriend had been a “familial unit” when they moved in together and jointly parented a now 3-year-old-boy named Orion born to Phelps through artificial insemination, Lau wrote, the latter was not subject to eviction under New York City law.

"While their relationship has obviously deteriorated into one of animosity and hostility, the evidence establishes the parties had intended to form a lasting familial unit,” the judge said. “It has been held that 'lifetime partners whose relationship is long term and characterized by an emotional and financial commitment and interdependence,' ... satisfy the definition of 'family' for purposes of the Rent Stabilization Code."

Irishman makes 'billion-euro home' from old notes to protest economic 'madness'

Phelps then decided to stop paying the mortgage on the apartment building, which is now in the midst of foreclosure. A real estate agent is trying to help her arrange a short sale (an agreement between a lender, a buyer and a seller in which the lender agree to accept less than the total loan) to avoid that.

She calculates her financial loss at $350,000, hence the number of red stripes in her artwork.

"I know that this show sounds like it’s about the cost of having been in that relationship, but what the meaning is to me actually is the cost of maintaining Orion's happiness and his future," she said of her son. "If I have to lose the house ... I feel like it's actually a small price to pay."

$26 a letter
To make the panels – each of which represents one paragraph of the court decision -- Phelps first counted the numbers of the letters in the text – approximately 13,000 -- and divided 350,000 by that number. That worked out to $26 a letter.

She then took large pieces of paper and drew lines according to the value of each word.

For example, a 13-letter word would be worth $338, and thus would be followed by 338 stripes. She glued words from the judge’s ruling on large pieces of paper and painted the lines around them, using a mix of watercolor and gouache – a form of watercolor with more pigmentation.

The foreclosure crisis, Beverly Hills-style

She then cut the paper into rows and glued them onto birch plywood. At the bottom of each panel is the "cost" represented and the paragraph it represents from the ruling.

Phelps, who had other artists help her with some of her earlier stripe art, said she wanted to do this one herself, even though it took her five months to finish it.

“I felt like each stripe should be painted by me,” she said with a sigh. “It's like letting go of the house, every single penny of it. And once I’ve painted it, it's gone."

She said she found the process peaceful and healing, though some viewers don’t get that sense when they view it.

"People have said, 'Oh it's so dark … all that red is so angry,'” she said. “I look in here and it's glowing to me. … I feel like I accomplished what I set out to, which is to turn something that was depressing to me into something very beautiful."

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As night fell on the previously vacant home on Brooklyn's Vermont Street that was the target of a “liberation” by housing activists and Occupy Wall Street protesters earlier in the day, an illuminated Christmas tree stood in what is, at least for now, the small front yard of the Glasgow-Carrasquillo family's home.

It remains unclear whether authorities or the Bank of America, which owns the mortgage on the two-story brick house, intend to roust the longtime homeless family – Alfredo Carrasquillo, 27, Natasha Glasgow, 30, and children Alfredo, Jr., 5, and Tanisha, 9 – from their new abode. There were police parked on both ends of the block and a van in front of the family’s home, said Sean Barry of VOCAL-NY. Bank of America did not respond to an email seeking comment.

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As the Carrasquillo-Glasgows got accustomed to their new surroundings, a group of the people responsible for putting a roof over their heads stood outside, discussing logistics and munching on food being distributed from a table on the sidewalk.

 

 

"What we're doing today … should encourage more and more people to ... fight for what their right is: Housing is a right,"” said Dorothy Amadi, a 63-year-old activist who was part of a squatting movement in Brooklyn in the 1980s. "We fought with the city and they gave this organization ... the buildings and we were able to renovate them and put people into apartments, and help put abandoned buildings back ... on the tax rolls, give the city some money to think about," she added with a laugh.

Some protesters had set up a mobile library across the street and were circulating a sign-up sheet for eviction defense -- in case authorities attempted to throw the family out of the foreclosed home.

“There definitely is going to be around-the-clock eviction defense,” said Barry, noting that protesters planned to work in shifts on an indefinite occupation. “Our understanding is that the police won’t take any action unless Bank of America asks them to do so.”

The NYPD did not respond to an email seeking comment. Officers at the scene declined to comment, as well as when contacted by phone.

Rob Robinson, of Take Back the Land, which helped plan the foray, said he hoped the action would encourage people to come out and share their stories of eviction, thereby helping others to overcome the shame and stigma of being foreclosed upon.

"You can only probably help somebody or change somebody's lives by sharing that story. Movements begin with the telling of untold stories," he said. "You need to tell your story, otherwise nobody knows."

Click here to read previous posts on the seizure of the Brooklyn home.

Click here to read complete coverage of the "Occupy" day of action.

The operation to occupy a vacant foreclosed home in Brooklyn on behalf of a homeless family from New York City appears to be a success. The front door of the two-story house on Vermont Street apparently was unlocked when the marchers arrived.

Alfredo Carrasquillo, the father of the homeless family, thanked the marchers for at least temporarily providing them with a home.

“I appreciate every single one of you,” he said. “This is just the beginning; there’s still a lot more work that needs to be done. But I hope that all of you will be here as that work continues.”

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He then re-entered the home with his wife, Natasha, and two kids. Members of the media were not allowed inside.

 

 

 

Police who escorted the marchers through Brooklyn stopped when the marchers arrived at the home and remained a distance away as the celebration of the “liberation” of the foreclosed home began. A brass band played, people danced and food was passed around as the cleanup crew got down to business.

One of them, Jordan McCarthy, 22, from New Hampshire, walked by carrying two brooms.

"I’m really excited, really glad that I am able to help this family and that we’re fighting for equal housing rights," said McCarthy, who has been a member of the sanitation crew at the Occupy Wall Street protest. "It’s a really important issue.”

Click here to read all the posts on the Brooklyn seizure.

Click here for complete coverage of the "Occupy" day of action.

Marchers have arrived at the vacant foreclosed Brooklyn house they intend to “liberate” so a homeless New York City family can move in.

"This is no longer a house, this is a home,” the Rev. Patricia Malcolm said moments after the throng gathered in front of the home. “... Where the people are one, we can achieve anything and everything.”

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A yellow sign reading “Foreclose on banks, not people” was hung from the upper floor before the marchers arrived. The front gate was festooned with bundles of balloons, rising above umbrellas carried by the marchers amid a hard rain.

 

 

 

Nonetheless, marchers have called on musicians to set up, saying that a "block party" will begin in 10 minutes.

Click here to read previous posts on this story.

Several hundred housing activists and “Occupy” protesters are marching toward the home in Brooklyn that they intend to seize on behalf of the homeless Glasgow family.

Police are escorting them toward their destination, and have so far taken no action to stop them.

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Despite a steady drizzle falling on the marchers, the mood is festive. People are carrying balloons and playing drums. One fellow is blasting away on a vuvuzela horn. They are chanting things like “back to the neighborhood” and “block by block.” And many marchers are carrying wrapped “housewarming gifts,” such as chairs, stools and plants.

 They have stopped at other foreclosed homes in the area before heading toward the home they have targeted for the Glasgows.

At one, Yates McKee, a 32-year-old art historian carrying a potted palm tree, said he joined the march “to stand with communities that are resisting the foreclosures and evictions. That's really in a way the 'ground zero' of the financial crisis.”

“The plant is a metaphor for sustaining life,” he said. “That’s really what housing is about. It's something that ... helps to sustain the lives of families and that is a right that is being fundamentally violated.”

Click here to read previous posts on this story.

Click here to read complete coverage of Tuesday's day of action on foreclosure and housing.