Ailing 90-Year Old Allegedly Left Homeless By Predatory Loan Fights Back

In Memphis, Tennessee, MyFoxMemphis Channel 13 reports:

• [M]emphis and Shelby County are suing Wells Fargo, alleging the mortgage company preyed on Mid-South African Americans for loans they could not afford. The company says its innocent and the lawsuit is still pending.

• 90 year old Annie Auston is one of those people who are out on the streets because of foreclosure. It’s a case the non-profit "Fair Housing Center Of Memphis" could not turn down. The attorney for Ms. Auston says it is one of the worst cases of predatory loans she has ever seen and she's filed lawsuit to try to get Ms. Auston's home back.

• 90-year old Annie Auston lived in her Cordova home since her sons built it for her in 1978. It replaced their childhood home built on the property; on land that had been in the family since the 1920's. But a few years ago, Ms. Auston found herself out on the street. "She couldn't believe what had been built for her by her sons, what had been in her family since 1926, that she had accidentally lost it. She had become homeless at that point," said Sapna Raj, attorney Fair Housing Center.

• Raj is the attorney representing Ms. Auston in a lawsuit against Home Realty of Memphis, the lender who foreclosed on Ms. Auston's home. Raj works for the non-profit Fair Housing Center, a division of Memphis Area Legal Services.(1) After finding herself homeless, Ms. Auston moved in with her daughter in Georgia, where she has been in and out of the hospital ever since.

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• Just under a year from going to Home Realty for a car loan, Auston found all of her possessions from the house she'd spent the last three decades of her life, put in the front yard. Raj says most were stolen when Auston was put out on the street. "If you think you have an auto loan and you lose your house instead and you're suddenly homeless you could imagine what that's like," said Raj.

• In July of 2008, Raj and the Fair Housing Center filed a lawsuit against Home Realty of Memphis and the company's owner, Charles Moore. Moore did not respond to repeated calls to his business for comment. Moore's attorney, Dan Brown, also didn't respond to repeated calls for an interview.

For more, see 90-Year Old Woman Homeless, Sues Predatory Lenders (Investigation Reveals Company's Past Troubles).

(1) According to their website, Memphis Area Legal Services, Inc. is a non-profit law firm that is the principal provider of civil legal assistance to low-income individuals and the elderly in Southwestern Tennessee, anchored by Memphis, Shelby County, with three other counties, Tipton, Fayette, and Lauderdale, comprising its four-county service area. Their case acceptance priorities include issues relating to Family and Children; Housing and Real Property; Consumer Issues, Individual and Civil Rights; Health and Income Maintenance and Seniors.