Homeowners struggling with banks for refinancing terms

BEVERLY – When Lynn resident Matt DeAmelio got hurt on his job as an auto-body repair shop owner, he figured it would be prudent to refinance his mortgage.The father of two daughters was receiving workman’s compensation and thought his good record with the bank would qualify him for a 2009 federal program, which allows certain mortgages backed by lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to be refinanced at lower rates.But months of paperwork, dozens of phone calls and hundreds of sleepless nights later, his bank hasn’t even let him apply for the program.Instead, DeAmelio said, his mortgage payments have been returned three separate times and, in September, he received a notice of foreclosure.Like millions of others, DeAmelio is running out of time and options.He needs to refinance now and doesn’t understand why he can’t.”I feel like I was preyed upon,” he said Saturday at a mortgage forum in Beverly hosted by Congressman John F. Tierney. “They say (refinancing programs) are supposed to help the small guy. Well, I’m a pretty small guy and it hasn’t helped me.”There are too many people like him, said Michael Raabe, an attorney with Neighbors Legal Services, a low-income housing service that is putting together class-action lawsuits against Bank of America, Chase and Wells Fargo for this reason.”You cannot imagine the trauma this has been causing,” he said in between speaking with homeowners on the gym floor of Beverly High School.His colleague, Kristen Antolini, was explaining the options to DeAmelio and his sister, Lindsey Tzitzon. Unfortunately, there weren’t many.”Right now we’ve gotten as far as we can go,” she said. “Your only option is to just keep reapplying (for a refinanced loan).”Frustrated, a mostly quiet DeAmelio blurted out “Where does the money go? Where is all this money for refinancing?”Antolini sighed. She explained that because the government can’t legally make banks loan money, it created incentives for banks that refinance with their customers. But, because those incentives are widely considered inefficient, banks just haven’t put in the resources to help struggling homeowners, she said.The hopelessness seemed pervasive. Tierney said even his office is discouraged by the lack of homeowners successfully able to refinance their mortgages. But, beyond being facilitators, there’s not much elected officials can do, he said.”We can persuade the banks to sit in this room and not run away,” he said at Saturday’s event.As for DeAmelio and his sister, they were grateful for the forum but left as frustrated as when they arrived. When asked if he still had hope, DeAmelio replied “I believe so” and stuck his hands in his pockets.Amber Parcher can be reached at [email protected].