Evicted Detroiter: '100 years old, and don't have a home'

[James48]

By Josh Katzenstein
The Detroit News

Detroit— Texana Hollis still can't go home.

Four months after the federal housing department said the 101-year-old could return to her foreclosed west-side home of nearly 60 years following public outcry over her eviction, the front door of the house remains padlocked.

And it remains unclear when, or if, she will ever return to the home on the 8300 block of Carbondale Street. She was forced to leave in September after her son, Warren Hollis, 65, failed to pay $7,000 in property taxes to keep a reverse mortgage taken out in 2002, despite months of warnings.

"Here I am, 100 years old, and don't have a home," Hollis said, rounding off her age. "Oh Lord, help me."


More:
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120122/METRO01/201220308/1409/rss36

[dkf]

1. The reverse mortgage failed after property taxes were unpaid.

She was evicted by HUD so this is completely government initiated. I didn't realize they did this sort of thing.

[avaistheone1]

2. It seems to me that the govt should have a way for the elderly people

who have had a history of paying their taxes and who at some point are not longer capable of doing so due to mental decline or financial inability to pay --- for the govt to place a lien on the home, and when the elderly person passes deduct their taxes from the sale of home and give the remaining proceeds to her/his survivors.

[catrose]

3. would make sense <eom>

[Auntie Bush]

5. +100

[boppers]

15. The government place a lien on property she didn't own anymore?

As I understand it, she had effectively sold it to somebody else in 2002, and was allowed to stay as long as she kept paying taxes, kept the property up, etc.

Edit: After reading the article, she had already sold the house to the government (HUD), and they had paid her for full value of the house. They offered to let her stay, but when they went to the property, they realized the place was uninhabitable.

[jwirr]

16. Unfortunately the rules are probably the same for everyone. However, she did not get here reverse

mortgage from HUD. I think it is probably them that are foreclosing. Those things are dangerous.

[lunatica]

4. If you're old you're worth less than $7,000

So they evict her. Did that give them the $7,000 she owed them? I doubt it. They can't wait the short amount of time left to her for her to die?

[marias23]

6. What would the right/baggers do?

Tell her she should take responsibility for her age. If she didn't want to live this long and be a burden on society she shouldn't have taken such good care of herself.

[Liberal_in_LA]

7. No evictions for anyone over 75!

[n2doc]

8. There's like 10,000 abandoned or foreclosed houses in Detroit

Couldn't they just let her live in one of those, at least? It's not like they will get much out of her old house anyway.

[kestrel91316]

9. Those homes in Detroit sit on the market at $5k and can't even sell.

[Neoma]

10. What a great opportunity to create a hippy commune or something.

Man, that could be a great place for poor artists or something. 5K? If only I had that much...

[Quantess]

11. Read the comments!

It's a train wreck of bickering, everybody with their opinions.

[Pakid]

12. The Future of America

Once the GOP gets done laying waste to Medicare and Social Security the senior citizens will be forced to take out reversed mortgage. That will be the only way left for them to live . The banks can't wait. This will be a dream come true for them they get the gold mine and your kids and you get the shaft

[JJW]

13. Th last thing any of us would expect

is that a banker or Politicians would bail her out.

[Vinca]

14. Where are the churches Republicans are always blabbering about?

You'd think Habitat for Humanity or some other organization would step in to help rehabilitate the place. Very, very sad.