The stranger from the bank told Monique Walters and her neighbors that they had to pack up. Sorry, Walters said: Obama says you can’t make us.
Walters is making her stand on West Division Street in the Newhallville neighborhood. She might not have taken it six months ago.
That’s because a federal law signed in May by President Barack Obama protects tenants from immediate eviction when a lender forecloses on a house — especially if, like Walters, they have a lease. The law, the Protecting Tenants At Foreclosure Act, took effect amid a national mortgage crisis that saw foreclosures soar 700 percent in New Haven over the past two years.
Most tenants may not know they have new protection. Monique Walters didn’t, at first.
She didn’t even know that OneWest Bank had foreclosed on the four-family home at 310-316 W. Division St. where she rents a two-bedroom apartment for her and her 21-month-old daughter less than a block from Dixwell Avenue.
She found out someone new owned her house when a man named Sal Spadaccino show up there last Friday, three days after OneWest took over.
Spadaccino brought along a “NOTICE TO OCCUPANT” flyer to leave for each tenant.’ It announced that an unnamed entity had acquired the house through foreclosure.
“The New Owner has employed me to manage and market this property for them,” wrote Spadaccino, a realtor based in Bridgeport.
“I have been asked to inform you that it is their policy to immediately initiate eviction on occupied properties.”
The flyer went on to inform tenants that “[i]n certain circumstances,” “THE BANK MAY BE WILLING TO OFFER THE OCCUPANT A CASH INCENTIVE TO VACATE QUICKLY!” The notice told the tenants to contact Spadaccino within 48 hours to “discuss your options.”
Walters spoke to Spadaccino that day, she said. She told him she has a lease. She signed it when she moved to the apartment in late July.
Spadaccino told her she can’t stay, even though she has a lease, Walters said. He said the bank owns the property, can do anything it wants with it, and needed to clear it out of tenants in order to resell it, Walters said.
On Monday Spadaccino contacted Walters and other tenants again. He said that if they agreed to move within 21 days, they’d each receive $1,000 — a “cash for keys” deal. The tenants didn’t like that idea. They didn’t want to move so fast. The money wouldn’t even pay for a downpayment on a new place, anyway. Walters didn’t want to pack up so soon after moving in; she and her cousin Ella Sharie Evans didn’t want to disrupt their children’s routines. Evans lives in another apartment at the house with her 9 year-old son. They moved there on June 1.
You have no choice, the tenants said Spadaccino told them — except they could wait 30 days and get $350 instead of $1,000.
Walters was so upset she couldn’t eat. But she could make a phone call. She called her cousin, Jackie Outlaw, who happens to work as an inspector for New Haven’s Livable City Initiative (LCI). Outlaw in turn referred her to LCI’s Cathy Schroeter, who works with banks on foreclosure.
Schroeter in turn referred Walters to legal aid lawyer Amy Marx. Marx was outraged upon hearing Walters’ story. She agreed to represent her — and her neighbors if they wish.
Spadaccino didn’t tell you about the new federal law, Marx said. Under that law, tenants can remain in foreclosed homes until their leases expire. That means next July for Walters.
Even tenants without leases — such as the other two households at 310-316 Division — get at least 90 days to move under the act.
Walters was able to eat a decent meal again. She also told Spadaccino she’s staying put for now.
“Obama’s the damn president!” Walters said during a conversation Tuesday afternoon with her and her neighbors on their front porch. “How’s he gonna tell Obama, ‘I’m gonna pay you an amount of money so I don’t have to follow the law!’ I don’t think Obama’s gonna approve.”
The tenants grew increasingly outraged as they recalled what they said was Spadaccino’s response to their refusal to vacate — that their lawyer didn’t know what she was talking about.
"None of us gets anything from social services. We’re hard-working people,” said Evans (pictured). Like her cousin Walters, Evans has a job as a certified nurse’s assistant. “The realtor thinks because we live in this neighborhood we don’t know what we’re talking about.”
“Just ‘cause we live in the ‘hood don’t mean you can play us,” seconded Jessica Gattison, another tenant. “We’re not stupid.”
Reached by phone Spadaccino refused to offer his account of what happened.
“I’m not gonna give my take on the law. I’m not a lawyer,” he said. “Please don’t call me again.” Then he hung up. He failed to return a subsequent email message seeking comment.
Hartford lawyer Adam Bendett, whose firm represented OneWest in the case, had no comment. He said his firm handled just the foreclosure. It didn’t hire Spadaccino’s firm.
Attorney Marx — who has found ways to help other tenants stay in foreclosed-upon homes — blasted the realtor and OneWest for “a shockingly flagrant violation” of the new law.
Foreclosers are entitled to offer cash-for-keys deals, she said. But not to present them as the only option. It has to happen “only in the context of an honest conversation of what the tenants’ options are,” Marx said.
As a prominent, federally insured lender, OneWest surely knows about the new law and is responsible for following it, Marx argued. OneWest formed this March to buy the assets of the failed IndyMac in a transaction engineered by the federal government.
A bank representative could not be reached for comment.
Walters and her neighbors said they’re open to moving after the holidays, if the bank offers enough money for them to afford security deposits on new apartments.
Marx said she’s confident the law will protect them in the meantime. She worries about other tenants who don’t have City Hall relatives to steer them to legal-aid lawyers.
“Miss Walters is extremely lucky. She knew someone who knew someone” who knew someone else who could help, Marx observed. “What we are really worried about are the countless tenants out there who do not know about the law and will not get the chance to fight back against the bank the way Miss Walters in now doing.”
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