Lilia Abbatematteo – RI Future

May 1, 2014May 2, 2014

Hilton, Wendy’s workers and more join together for May Day

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A Hilton worker rallies for better working conditions. Photo by Steve Ahlquist.

Last May Day, we were graced with a history lesson from URI professor Erik Loomis on the origins of International Workers Day. This May Day, Rhode Island is graced with actual workers fighting in real time for better working and living conditions.

And so fast food workers, hotel workers, those unfairly swept up in the foreclosure crisis, immigrants and many more will march together in solidarity to City Hall and the State House.

Jo-Ann Gesterling, a Warwick Wendy’s worker who has been leading the fast food fight for a $15 minimum wage in Rhode Island, is speaking at the first stop on a Jobs With Justice-led march to the State House.

From a Burger King on Broad St., the activists will march to the Providence Hilton, where a hotel worker will speak about their recent efforts to form a union and more recently to ask the Providence City Council to pass a $15 minimum wage ordinance for the hotel industry.

And when group reaches the State House, Lilia Abbatematteo, who has been fighting an unjust foreclosure and simultaneously lobbying for the Just Cause bill which would stop tenant evictions, will speak about her plight and ensuing cause.

Speakers from Fuerza Laboral, the Olneyville Neighborhood Association, and Committee of Immigrants in Action, will be speaking on how the immigrants’ rights movement brought May Day to the US, and on campaigns to win driver’s licenses for undocumented people, stop deportations, and accomplish immigration reform at the national level.

Suzette Cook, whose son Joshua Robinson was brutally beaten last year by the Providence Police in a high profile case, will speak on racial profiling, and the criminalization of people of color and working class people.

The march starts at 4:30pm at 280 Broad St., Providence.

It was organized by RI Jobs with Justice, Direct Action for Rights and Equality, Fuerza Laboral, Olneyville Neighborhood Association, American Friends Service Committee, RI People’s Assembly, Committee of Immigrants in Action, UNITE HERE Local 217.

Here’s the full itinerary:

Thursday, May 1^st

Rally begins at 4:30pm at 280 Broad St., Providence (Burger King), where Jo-Ann Gesterling, Worker at the Warwick Ave. Wendy’s, will speak on the Campaign for $15/hr and a union for Fast Food Workers

March Stops at:

The Hilton Hotel, where workers from the Renaissance and Hilton join together to demand respect, better working conditions, and a $15 minimum wage for hotel workers across the city.

Providence City Hall, where Mil Herndon, member of Direct Action for Rights and Equality, will speak on the need for the city of Providence to fully enforce its “First Source” ordinance and provide jobs for Providence residents when companies receive huge tax breaks

RI State House, to hear speakers on:

– Immigrant’s Rights: Campaigns for Driver’s Licenses for All, to Stop Deportations, and for Comprehensive Reform at the National Level

– Just Cause Legislation: Allow Tenants to Stay in their Homes after their Landlords are Foreclosed on

– An End to Racial Profiling: Hear Suzzette Cook, whose son was brutally beaten by the Providence Police, share her story

April 4, 2014

Lilia Abbatematteo continues her fight against Fannie Mae

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Accompanied by her children and grandchildren, Lilia Abbatematteo protested the Federal National Mortgage Agency’s (Fannie Mae) attempt to evict them from their home on Chapin Ave. in Providence.

When her mother, Maria Amaral, passed away, Ms. Abbatematteo inherited the house in which she’d lived for the past 40 years, along with the mortgage, at the time owned by Chase Bank. Despite many efforts to modify the loan and make affordable payments, Chase insisted they could not communicate with Ms. Abbatematteo about permanently modifying the loan. The bank was, however, willing to take three trial modification payments from Ms. Abbatematteo after she hired a private attorney to advocate on her behalf.

In search of support the week before the foreclosure auction in September 2013, Ms. Abbatematteo responded to outreach from the Tenant and Homeowner Association (THA), a committee of DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality), a 27-year old social justice organization based in South Providence. The THA, made up of owners and tenants who have faced foreclosure and eviction, agreed to support Ms. Abbatematteo and organized an auction protest. The protest successfully deterred private investors, in search of quick profit, from purchasing the home, though it changed hands from Chase Bank to Fannie Mae.

When Fannie Mae’s representative approached Ms. Abbatematteo, she told them that she, along with the tenants renting the third floor, would like to stay and pay rent. Fannie Mae has a program called “Tenant-in-Place,” by which the quasi-governmental agency maintains renters in its REO (foreclosed) properties. Ms. Abbatematteo applied to rent from Fannie under this program, which was offered to her by Fannie’s real estate representative. By the end of the year, however, no answer was forthcoming. Fannie recently began eviction proceedings against Ms. Abbatematteo and her tenants, without a formal response to their request for “tenant-in-place.”

“We wouldn’t be in this place if Chase had worked with me before the foreclosure. We wouldn’t be in a position where two families were facing homelessness, and this neighborhood was going to be burdened with another foreclosed and abandoned property like the one down the street,” explained Ms. Abbatematteo.

Two dozen people arrived at 129-131 Chapin Ave. at 10:00 am Wednesday morning. The protesters carried signs reading, “Housing is a Human Right,” and “Don’t Evict, Negotiate!” Ms. Abbatematteo addressed the crowd using a bullhorn. She explained why the house was important to her and her family. “This house is where I was raised. My children were raised here and my grandchildren are being raised here. My granddaughter says, ‘I don’t want to move.’ This is heart-wrenching. My work commute is only around seven minutes. I like my neighbors and I love it here. I’ve lived here for forty years.”

DARE member and leader in the THA Malchus Mills deplored the devastation being caused by the foreclosure crisis in Providence and RI, citing a Fannie Mae foreclosure around the corner at 198 Althea Street, which was foreclosed in 2011 and recently burned down. The organization plans to continue to protest Fannie’s attempts to evict these families, encouraging the crowd to return and protest if an eviction order is granted in court.

Please sign Lilia’s national petition to Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) director Mel Watt, encouraging him to call off this unjust eviction!

April 1, 2014April 2, 2014

Help Lilia Abbatematteo keep her home today

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Lilia Abbatematteo is still fighting off a wrongfully foreclosure. And tomorrow you can help her do so.

On Wednesday, 10 am, Direct Action for Rights and Equality activists with join Abbatematteo in front of her home at 129-131 Chapin Ave in Providence.

“DARE and the Tenant and Homeowner Association seek a resolution that keeps Ms. Abbatematteo, her family and tenants in their home,” according to a press release about the action. There will be “dozens of people, including local homeowners and tenants, holding signs and chanting to pressure Fannie Mae to negotiate a rental agreement for the residents of the property. Signs and banners reading ‘Stop Foreclosures and Evictions’ and ‘Don’t Evict, Negotiate.'”

Abbatematteo is being foreclosed because an administrative error on the bank’s part. She explains what happened here:

“In 2002 I co-signed a second mortgage with my mother and her then live-in partner, to help out a troubled family member. Through the years the mortgage was transferred between various banks. It ended up with Chase Bank for a while, but my name was no longer on the loan. This was traumatizing and made it impossible to get a modification after my mother’s death. I’ve tried to resolve the issue through phone call after phone call after phone call. I’ve even paid a law firm to get help. But the bank always refused to work with me.”

If you can’t make it tomorrow, please sign this petition.

March 5, 2014March 5, 2014

Tell Fannie Mae: Don’t evict Providence resident!

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Lilia Abbatematteo, a 40-year Providence resident, is facing eviction by Fannie Mae following a foreclosure that took place in September. Lilia recently wrote a post on RI Future about her struggle. Now, after more than a year of giving her the run-around with the loan she inherited from her mother, Fannie Mae is trying to evict her and her family, including children and grandchildren, from her childhood home.

DARE – Direct Action for Rights and Equality – along with Lilia’s friends and neighbors, won’t let an agency, technically owned by the government, funded with our tax dollars, and that makes billions in profits, evict one of our community members!

Please sign the national petition to demand that FHFA director Mel Watt call off the eviction of Lilia and offer her an option to rent until she is able to purchase the home back at current value!

February 20, 2014February 21, 2014

For Lilia Abbatematteo, foreclosure crisis is still an issue

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What follows is Lilia Abbatematteo’s story about her foreclosure in her own words.

Back in December, I attended a Fannie Mae event hosted at the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless. I attended this event because on September 6th 2013 my house was foreclosed on and Fannie Mae became the owner of the home I have lived in for over 40 years.

On the date of my auction, my friends and supporters from Direct Action for Rights & Equality (DARE) and the Tenant and Homeowner Association (THA) helped me protest the auction, and we informed all three potential investors who showed up that day that it would be a bad idea to buy the property because it would mean displacing residents (my family) who want to stay and get the home back. On the day of the protest, this felt like a victory, but since then, things have been really hard.

I have received letters saying that I could be evicted. The Fannie Mae event was supposed to be for people who have not yet been foreclosed on, but I decided to go anyway, to see if anyone would help me. Ever since the day of the foreclosure auction I have been worrying. What am I going to do? How can I buy my house back? What will my children be left with if we don’t have this house?
My husband and I live at 129 Chapin Avenue with our four grown children, plus our three grandchildren.

This is a house I inherited from my parents, Portuguese immigrants who came to this country and worked hard for years. My mom always worked two jobs and my father worked 12 hour days. In fact, the house was completely paid off by 1984. In 2002 I co-signed a second mortgage with my mother and her then live-in partner, to help out a troubled family member. Through the years the mortgage was transferred between various banks. It ended up with Chase Bank for a while, but my name was no longer on the loan. This was traumatizing and made it impossible to get a modification after my mother’s death. I’ve tried to resolve the issue through phone call after phone call after phone call. I’ve even paid a law firm to get help. But the bank always refused to work with me.

I’ve worked my whole life, and even when we fell behind on the mortgage, I was working. In 2008 my son-in-law decided to self-deport back to Guatemala. He made this decision because the constant stress and fear of worrying that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was going to come and take him away was too much. For this reason, my daughter and her kids moved back in with us. At the same time, in 2008 I took at 7% pay cut at work, and have not seen a pay raise in seven years. These changes combined really started to strain our budget and that’s why we fell behind on our mortgage.

My next-door neighbor (also a member of DARE and the THA) came along with me to the Fannie Mae event last week for support. We drove to Pawtucket and found a parking spot. I brought with me a letter I wrote asking that Fannie Mae look into the possibility of selling the home back to me. We walked into the brick building and went to the second floor where Fannie Mae apparently has an office – I had no idea!

It seemed like we were the first ones there, at 9 am on the dot. Someone asked us to fill out some initial paperwork, and told us someone would be with us shortly. A woman named Kate, from Fannie Mae came out and talked to us. She asked if I had ever received a “Know Your Options” package from Fannie Mae in the mail. I had not. I told her a bit of the complicated story of my house, and she said in order for Fannie Mae to investigate my case, I needed to write a narrative of all my communication with Fannie Mae and about the house, with a date, a name, and the topic of conversation when we’d talked. The trouble with this request is that I haven’t kept detailed records of all the people I’ve talked to over the past few years, especially not over the phone! I’ve made so many phone calls! In the end, I felt like Kate was trying her best to be nice to me, but I’m worried that she won’t be able to help me. When my neighbor and I left the event an hour later – we saw only one other person there!

I told my neighbor that I think the reason more people weren’t at the event is because once people think their home is up for foreclosure, it’s like the Berlin Wall goes up. It’s the end of the road. It can feel like there is no hope. Still, even though I’m skeptical that this narrative will help, I’ve done my best to write out a very detailed narrative that tells the story of my house and what’s going on with it – to the best of my ability.

Sometimes I feel like there’s no hope. My dream is that Fannie Mae will come to the table and offer me the possibility of setting up a rent-to-own scheme. My children were raised here and my grandchildren are being raised here. My granddaughter says, “I don’t want to move.” This is heart-wrenching. I like my neighborhood. From the diversity of ethnicities, to the fruit trees and grape vines planted by my father in our backyard, this home is my world. If Fannie Mae evicts us, where will we go?