11/19: Press conference to save Leslie Parks’s home

Important development in the struggle to save Leslie Parks’s home leads to ‘Call IndyMac’ campaign
News conference Thursday, Nov. 19, 4:30 pm, 3749 Park Ave, Minneapolis – the home of Leslie Parks

On Thursday, Nov. 19, 4:30 pm the MN Coalition for a People’s Bailout and the Poor People’s Economic Human Campaign will launch a campaign to “Call IndyMac!” at Leslie Parks’s house, 3749 Park Ave in Mpls. The need to put pressure on IndyMac is closely tied to a new development in the Parks case. And we ask supporters to come out and rally behind another Minneapolis family fighting back against foreclosure.

Background: Because of needing to pay for city-ordered repairs, Tecora Parks, Leslie’s mother, was swindled into getting an ARM (adjustable rate mortgage). The man from Allied Mortgage who sold her the ARM lied and insisted it was a conventional loan. It is important to note that Tecora Parks had perfect credit and qualified for a conventional loan hands down. But she was lied to, got swindled into an ARM, and after months of trying to keep up, both Tecora and Leslie lost their good credit and went into foreclosure.

On Tuesday, Nov. 17, Leslie’s mother, Tecora Parks, recorded a ‘quit claim’ deed to officially put the property in Leslie’s name. While Tecora had homesteaded the property to her daughter years ago, that arrangement made it harder for Leslie to get financing on her own. The quit claim deed opens up new avenues for securing financing for the home.

Lynette Malles of the Poor People’s Economic Human Campaign, said, “Time is short. The ‘redemption period’ still ends Nov. 30. If nothing changes, at that point IndyMac can start eviction proceedings.” OneWest/IndyMac Federal Bank FSB is the bank that owns the property. Some IndyMac reps are claiming that they won’t do a “short payoff” during the redemption period. Leslie is working on securing financing and actually has enough for a viable short payoff, if only IndyMac would agree.

“I feel like IndyMac is giving us the runaround again, like have done since the beginning,” states Leslie Parks. Advocates have noted that it is common for banks to agree so some kind of short sale during the redemption period. “The FDIC stepped in to bail out the IndyMac investors and gifted the bank to OneWest,” said Linden Gawboy, of the MN Coalition for a People’s Bailout, “in this time of economic crisis, we need to make it clear that it’s time that the people get some help.”