City files suit over foreclosures

If Baltimore prevails, homeowners could receive counseling and financial support

Jonquil Ishway, who lives in Beechfield in Southwest Baltimore, took out two mortgages a year ago to purchase her home but lost her job a few months later. She had both mortgages with Wells Fargo, and when she tried to work with the bank to lower or delay payments, bank officers told her she did not qualify. Ishway recently had to file for bankruptcy for a second time - the first time was in 1999 - to keep her home.

"I don't think anyone should take advantage of someone," Ishway said. "If they had turned me down for a loan, I would have been disappointed, but I would have gotten over it. That's better than putting myself and a bunch of other people in predatory loans and banking on us losing our homes."

Those who work with homeowners in financial trouble said they have heard negative stories about Wells Fargo, as well as other banking institutions, saying they appear to prey on minority communities.

Anne Balcer Norton, director of the foreclosure prevention division of the St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center, said there is a history of minority communities being tapped by subprime mortgage lenders. Her organization works with borrowers stung by such loans to avoid foreclosure.

"It's good to see the city is taking this on," she said. "When you look at the numbers ... you see the subprime originations, as a whole, are concentrated in the minority community in and around Baltimore City and Prince George's County."

Roy Miller, a home ownership coordinator with Belair Edison Neighborhoods Inc., called Wells Fargo one of the subprime "players."

"I think the city has to take a step, it has to protect its residents," Miller said. "Many of our neighborhoods have been under siege for years."

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