Logos57: A Caring Community

On December 9, 2009, a group of people from Empowering and Strengthening Ohio’s People (ESOP) went to Columbus to lobby. We called it the War on Banks day.

ESOP is a free foreclosure counseling service. They negotiate with various banks, and use some interesting tactics to get them to listen. ESOP has an 80% success rate in reworking mortgages for those in trouble with their lender (www.esop-cleveland.org). No longer just local, there are several branches in Ohio, and they are hooking up with similar organizations in other states.

I got cleaned up, looked quite respectable for a change, and went down there. First, we gathered with other groups from around Ohio to listen to some speakers. Then we broke into teams. My particular team saw 2 state representatives and 1 state senator.

It was an interesting day, listening to them give nonanswers. But what struck me was the ignorance on their part. Whether this ignorance was pretended or not, these are our representatives. We put them in office. They are supposed to get done what’s needed. Imagine my shock when one of the representatives claimed she didn’t know there was a foreclosure crisis. Wonder what else they “don’t know”.

I thought they lived in an ivory tower, but I had no clue how accurate I was, at least from what was said.

We only had 10 minutes of the representative’s time, but we explained a bit about what it was like in our particular part of Ohio. I gave her some information on my fight with my lender. She’s either a good actress, or she really didn’t know about it.

We all went and got our box lunches. That one appointment was the talk of the table. These are the people who represent us. These are the people who make the laws that are supposed to keep the state stable, and one of them said she didn’t even know there was a crisis.

We finished our lunch, but there was one more stop to make. About three blocks away was the office of one Darryl Devers, lobbyist for the mortgage bankers association. We wanted to see how he stood on the foreclosure crisis, and about HAMP, the Home Affordable Mortgage Plan. (See Evans Liberal Politics page on the Housing Crisis.)

It wasn’t just ESOP, though. We invited everyone to come along. We were going to give Devers an award for being such a great and powerful lobbyist, then sit down and talk to him.

About 80 of us crowded into the lobby of the building. We told the security guard we were there to see Mr. Devers. The security guard said he didn’t work for Mr. Devers, so he wouldn’t have the phone number. When we produced the phone number, he said it wasn’t for him to call. He did use his radio to call for others, saying he had a “situation” – the inevitable word used by the authorities when something they don’t like is happening.

When he wouldn’t call, we started chanting “we want Devers”. Finally, the building owner came and told us to leave, it wasn’t a public building, and we were trespassing. But, you know, we visited the building so we all had to sign in and out. While we never saw Mr. Devers, we did get him on the phone eventually, and he said he’d call in the morning. Yeah, right. We handed out his phone number and e-mail address to everyone to make sure he’d have a little prompting. Just so you know, he hasn’t called yet.

It’s bad out there, and it’s scary that our representatives SAY they “don’t understand” how bad it is. I say we can change that.

*****

Deborah A. Devney, who is now a staff writer for Evans Liberal Politics, is an antiforeclosure activist and generally sick to death of what’s wrong in government and all the corporate garbage. She lives in Northeast Ohio with her 5 cats and fish tank.