Occupy Movement Tries to Keep Former APD Detective from Losing Her Home

October 8th, 2012

Courtesy: Occupy Our Homes / SCAD Atlanta

Members of the “Occupy” movement are joining to help a retired Atlanta Police Officer stop a bank from foreclosing on her Fayetteville home.

Jacqueline Barber retired as a 20-year veteran from APD in 2001 after an injury. She says in 2008, her adjustable rate mortgage switched to a fixed-rate, more than doubling her payment.

“I’ve lost all everything I had trying to deal with this house — spending all that money, paying those large mortgage payments,” Barber says.

Barber says she’s tried for two years to modify the loan, even while undergoing cancer treatment and caring for four grandchildren. She says US Bank, the current owner, is moving forward to evict her, despite promises to work with her.

(WABE contacted US Bank Sunday for verification and comment, prior to this story going to air on Monday. US Bank did not respond prior to airtime; however, on Tuesday, US Bank Vice President of Corporate Nicole Garrison-Sprenger Emailed WABE the following clarification:

“U.S. Bank is neither the lender nor servicer on this mortgage — and it would be extremely inaccurate to portray this property as U.S. Bank-owned. GMAC Rescap is the servicer and therefore is solely responsible for any decisions about foreclosure or eviction. […] “The only reason U.S. Bank’s name is attached to this loan is because the loan is held in a trust (a pool of mortgages) for which U.S. Bank was appointed trustee. As trustee, we act as the central repository for all information regarding loans in the trust. We gather and disseminate the information to investors in the trust and make sure investors in the trust receive payments forwarded to us by the servicer. That is why you see our name on various filings associated with the property. But we have no ownership or authority over any of the individual loans in the trust — that is the role of the servicer for each loan.)

“We were trying to pay it. It just go so hard, especially after I became ill with the cancer,” Barber says. “There’s no way I could do it.”

Monday, members of the “Occupy” movement will hold a press conference with Barber to ask US Bank to stop the eviction process.

She says she hopes colleagues with APD will also join her.

If that happens, it will be a rare showing of harmony between two sides that often clash. An APD spokesman said the department was unaware of the event, and has no plans to officially align with the Occupy movement.