Donation protected
Hello! My name is Ginny, and for 8 years, I have been fighting the bank to keep my family home.
My mom and dad built this house in 1960 in Jacksonville, Florida. They moved from simple beginnings in rural North Carolina to start a family and new life, pursuing opportunities and putting down new roots. My sister and I were born into this house and I was raised here for the first ten years of my life. My family eventually sold and left due to divorce, but I always missed my old neighborhood and friends. After a few years, Mom and Dad married again and we lived together as a family a few more years before Dad passed away, but the sadness of that divorce, his illness and then hers, had me wishing I could restore what had been a better time .
A while later, I had my own divorce and nothing and no one of my own, so went back to buy the old family house in 2002 . I was happy living among my old friends and neighbors and working toward making the dreams I'd had as a child come true; drawing my own stories in the same rooms in which I'd shared songs, cats, jokes and ghost stories with my sister. I was and remain active in my community and look after the folks up and down the street who once looked after "Little Ginny."
Then 2004 happened. We lost mom. I lost my job, and my savings during her illness. 3 months later, a car wreck totalled my car and kept me out of work for 9 months. It happens. I bounced back, loaded up on jobs and paid my bills. Then 2009 happened. My main job was erased by the recession. My part time jobs reduced pay and hours. My house payment increased a bit as a I'd had a flex rate mortgage. I decided it was time for a re-fi with a loan modification. The banking institution my note was sold to said they would work with me on terms for a loan modification, but they never made good on the deal. Instead they refused my money and paperwork, misdirected my calls, and, although I wasn't behind on payments, filed to foreclose without any chance for a resolution. Unashamedly, I've fought them ever since. For 8 long years, dealing with limitless harrassment, roadblocks and just plain greed.
Why fight it? Thousands of people just walked away. but I never could. Because it was wrong for them to do it. It was underhanded but, as we all know now, it's just their way of doing business. I know others would have just left, but this was my family home. It was never just an investment to me. It's an old house. Why do they need another? It needs a roof, new plumbing, but I refuse to give up what is mine to criminals who abuse the rules. I almost lost it half a dozen times, had a few bad attorneys' bad advice, but my luck changed when a friend finally recommended a good lawyer who filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy to stop them, forcing the bank to finally take payments from me. I didn't have enough of the money they wanted to bring me current right away and refused what I did have. So, I needed a real plan.
The bankruptcy plan allowed me to begin to repay the arrears over 5 years while making regular payments- They were higher than normal payments, but it didn't matter as long as there was light at the end of this tunnel. For the last 3 and 3/4 years, I made all payments and will do anything to continue to do so, while they Bank has fought for those same years to throw the bankruptcy out and just take the money and house anyway. Fortunately, I got a fair judge who considered the circumstances and approved a plan that satisfies their increased sum. It's a major sacrifice, to be sure. The payments are now even higher, I buy nothing except basic needs, but I only have to sacrifice 1 more year to erase the arrears, bringing my account current on the loan! One damn year. 13 payments!
I've fought this long and hard, I got a great job at last and so I'll get it done. What brings me to Go Fund Me is this-- due to a temporary decrease in income and then having to buy sky-high medical insurance for the first time in a decade, I got behind on my payments a few months ago. I had a plan in place to catch them up but the bank AGAIN pushed for a dismissal of my Chapter 13 protection this past month. This will destroy all the hard work and sacrifice made thus far. And not just mine, but the generosity of my family and friends who have helped me get this far. It's crushing to be so close-literally months away from normal payments and saying goodbye forever to the bank's threat of foreclosure and be facing this massive payment.
By December 14, I have to come up with a bit over 7,500 dollars in order to keep the bankruptcy in place and continue to make the payments to keep the house from them. I am asking for $ 10,000 as I have to cover taxes and fees and never know if more costs will be tacked on. All I want in this world is to pay what is owed and live my life. That's it, People! I just want to pay my debts. I can make the monthly payments, but only just- I don't have any extra money to make this near 8k within the now-38 day deadline they imposed. I have to have some kind of help. I need this chance- I've worked 2, even 3 jobs, simultaneously, for the last 18 years and I just have to prevail-it's the last big hurdle to having a normal life ahead of me with the hope of having a home in which to live.
Will you help me? It's the hardest thing I've had to do, and I truly thought I had gone as far as I could go, but I have to ask for help. I've gotten this far by hard work and the help of my family and friends, but I can't do it alone, and now must ask others for help. Please help if you can.
My mom and dad built this house in 1960 in Jacksonville, Florida. They moved from simple beginnings in rural North Carolina to start a family and new life, pursuing opportunities and putting down new roots. My sister and I were born into this house and I was raised here for the first ten years of my life. My family eventually sold and left due to divorce, but I always missed my old neighborhood and friends. After a few years, Mom and Dad married again and we lived together as a family a few more years before Dad passed away, but the sadness of that divorce, his illness and then hers, had me wishing I could restore what had been a better time .
A while later, I had my own divorce and nothing and no one of my own, so went back to buy the old family house in 2002 . I was happy living among my old friends and neighbors and working toward making the dreams I'd had as a child come true; drawing my own stories in the same rooms in which I'd shared songs, cats, jokes and ghost stories with my sister. I was and remain active in my community and look after the folks up and down the street who once looked after "Little Ginny."
Then 2004 happened. We lost mom. I lost my job, and my savings during her illness. 3 months later, a car wreck totalled my car and kept me out of work for 9 months. It happens. I bounced back, loaded up on jobs and paid my bills. Then 2009 happened. My main job was erased by the recession. My part time jobs reduced pay and hours. My house payment increased a bit as a I'd had a flex rate mortgage. I decided it was time for a re-fi with a loan modification. The banking institution my note was sold to said they would work with me on terms for a loan modification, but they never made good on the deal. Instead they refused my money and paperwork, misdirected my calls, and, although I wasn't behind on payments, filed to foreclose without any chance for a resolution. Unashamedly, I've fought them ever since. For 8 long years, dealing with limitless harrassment, roadblocks and just plain greed.
Why fight it? Thousands of people just walked away. but I never could. Because it was wrong for them to do it. It was underhanded but, as we all know now, it's just their way of doing business. I know others would have just left, but this was my family home. It was never just an investment to me. It's an old house. Why do they need another? It needs a roof, new plumbing, but I refuse to give up what is mine to criminals who abuse the rules. I almost lost it half a dozen times, had a few bad attorneys' bad advice, but my luck changed when a friend finally recommended a good lawyer who filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy to stop them, forcing the bank to finally take payments from me. I didn't have enough of the money they wanted to bring me current right away and refused what I did have. So, I needed a real plan.
The bankruptcy plan allowed me to begin to repay the arrears over 5 years while making regular payments- They were higher than normal payments, but it didn't matter as long as there was light at the end of this tunnel. For the last 3 and 3/4 years, I made all payments and will do anything to continue to do so, while they Bank has fought for those same years to throw the bankruptcy out and just take the money and house anyway. Fortunately, I got a fair judge who considered the circumstances and approved a plan that satisfies their increased sum. It's a major sacrifice, to be sure. The payments are now even higher, I buy nothing except basic needs, but I only have to sacrifice 1 more year to erase the arrears, bringing my account current on the loan! One damn year. 13 payments!
I've fought this long and hard, I got a great job at last and so I'll get it done. What brings me to Go Fund Me is this-- due to a temporary decrease in income and then having to buy sky-high medical insurance for the first time in a decade, I got behind on my payments a few months ago. I had a plan in place to catch them up but the bank AGAIN pushed for a dismissal of my Chapter 13 protection this past month. This will destroy all the hard work and sacrifice made thus far. And not just mine, but the generosity of my family and friends who have helped me get this far. It's crushing to be so close-literally months away from normal payments and saying goodbye forever to the bank's threat of foreclosure and be facing this massive payment.
By December 14, I have to come up with a bit over 7,500 dollars in order to keep the bankruptcy in place and continue to make the payments to keep the house from them. I am asking for $ 10,000 as I have to cover taxes and fees and never know if more costs will be tacked on. All I want in this world is to pay what is owed and live my life. That's it, People! I just want to pay my debts. I can make the monthly payments, but only just- I don't have any extra money to make this near 8k within the now-38 day deadline they imposed. I have to have some kind of help. I need this chance- I've worked 2, even 3 jobs, simultaneously, for the last 18 years and I just have to prevail-it's the last big hurdle to having a normal life ahead of me with the hope of having a home in which to live.
Will you help me? It's the hardest thing I've had to do, and I truly thought I had gone as far as I could go, but I have to ask for help. I've gotten this far by hard work and the help of my family and friends, but I can't do it alone, and now must ask others for help. Please help if you can.
Organizer
Virginia Mills-Barfield
Organizer
Jacksonville, FL