Protest foils Lynn foreclosure auction

LYNN – Sixty-one-year-old Cheryl D’Amico spent the past few months going to bed afraid.”I was fearful someone would knock on my door and ask me to leave my house,” she said on a sidewalk outside her Lynn home.D’Amico came close to that nightmare scenario Tuesday when a foreclosure auctioneer arrived at her Lexington Avenue home to sell it to the highest bidder.D’Amico, who’s battling cancer, and her husband Tony, who had triple-bypass surgery, had to choose between paying their medical bills or their mortgage and fell behind on their mortgage payments in 2009. Now, Bank of America was foreclosing on the home Cheryl D’Amico had lived in since she was 14.But the auctioneer was greeted Tuesday with about 20 protesters supporting the D’Amicos.They carried signs that read “We shall not be moved” and “Bank of America = Guilty” while chanting similar slogans and pacing the sidewalk.Some of the protesters approached the handful of investors and potential buyers who attended the auction and tried to explain the D’Amicos’ situation.In the end, no one bid on the house and Bank of America officially took possession of the home, said Isaac Hodes, an organizer for the nonprofit Lynn United for Change, which organized Tuesday’s protest and tries to help homeowners stay in their homes.But Cheryl and Tony D’Amico said they have no intention of moving.”It breaks my heart to even think I have to leave,” Cheryl D’Amico said after the protest.They’ll fight instead with Bank of America to keep their home – a monumental challenge but one worth fighting, Hodes said.”We won’t let the banks roll over the city,” he said.Many of the protesters at Tuesday’s auction have been in similar situations.Peter Osazuwa of Lynn said he managed to keep his home even after the bank foreclosed on it.He said he supported the D’Amicos because he believes the foreclosure process is inhumane.”It’s depressing,” he said. “It just beats down on you; it’s like you’re not human.”Doreen LaMontte also lost her Lynn home. She ended up buying the home back but said the banks treated her with no respect: They auctioned off her home while she was attempting to modify her loan.”They foreclosed on me without letting me know,” she said.Cheryl D’Amico said she found out her home was being foreclosed by a notice in The Daily Item.While these people may have fallen short on their legal agreement to pay a mortgage, the banks are at fault as well, said Hodes.Hodes said major banks contributed to the housing bubble that sent the economy crashing in 2009 and led to Cheryl D’Amico losing her job.”The banks are trying to duck their responsibility,” he said.Cheryl D’Amico said the protesters who showed up Tuesday buoyed her spirits in what seemed like a hopeless cause.”These people are my backbone,” Cheryl D’Amico said.Amber Parcher can be reached at [email protected].