Battling foreclosure brings Lynn protesters together for holidays

LYNN – Nearly one dozen residents climbed the stairs of 1 Witt St. Tuesday and by the glow of Christmas lights and candlelight told of their foreclosure nightmares while denouncing mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae’s “holiday moratorium” on evictions.”It’s a slap in the face, that’s what it is,” said homeowner Donna WoodallThe participants are all part of Lynn United for Change, an organization helping homeowners facing foreclosure.Lynn United organizer Joe Boyd said the timing of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae’s moratorium was not lost on him.”This is the time of year when there is no room at the inn,” he said. “They don’t want to be connected to that, do they? Obviously they’re not doing this out of the goodness of their heart.”Federal mortgage backers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced last week it would institute a moratorium on evictions through Jan. 2, 2013.”And then they get back to doing what they do after Jan. 2,” said Woodall.Dianne and Narsingh Bisnath hosted the event at their Witt Street home, which is under foreclosure by Freddie Mac. Dianne Bisnath said they have lived in their home for nine years but roughly six months ago she was packing boxes to leave.”I was ready to move to Florida,” she said. “I had 72-hours notice to get out of the house.”Isaac Hodes, another Lynn United organizer said the notice to vacate is the generally the first shot fired in the foreclosure battle.In a press release regarding the moratorium a Fannie Mae official said the company is working to support families facing financial trouble but Abdel Souissa said, for him, that’s untrue.Souissa said he did everything Fannie Mae told him to do, he applied for loan modification, made the appropriate payments but they still foreclosed on his home.”They have one objective in mind and no matter what you do they want to kick you out,” he said. “If you are applying for loan modification, be prepared.”Hodes also called on the roughly 30 people gathered for the event to send a message to President Barack Obama, to remove Edward DeMarco, who oversees Fannie and Freddie as Acting Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and replace him with someone who will make real changes.”Until we see changes at the policy level it’s up to us to keep fighting,” he said. “And we will fight house-by-house.”Brothers Alexis and Juan Hernandez gave their mom Maria a shout out when she stood to speak about their home being foreclosed on.Alexis Hernandez, 15, said he’s spent nearly his entire life in that home and he is proud his mother is fighting to save it.”Hell, yeah, we’re proud. We want our home,” added Juan Hernandez, 20.”We’re only here in our home for the holidays because we kept fighting even after they tried to foreclose,” said Dianne Bisnath adding that she hung her Christmas lights as a sign of hope. “We’re determined to stay.”Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].