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*FOIA Response from HUD Reveals 646% Increase in Foreclosures against Seniors in 2016; HUD Must Do Better Monitoring Servicers When They Report "Non-occupancy" As Reason For Foreclosing
In January 2017, the California Reinvestment Coalition and Jacksonville Area Legal Aid submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, seeking data about reverse mortgage foreclosures in HUD’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program, and about a new HUD program meant to keep widowed and widower non-borrowing spouses in their homes after the death of their spouse. New data indicates that there was a 646% increase in foreclosures last year against seniors with federally insured reverse mortgages as compared to the previous 7 years. more »
Ferida Wolff's Backyard: Geese and Growth
Ferida Wolff writes: Come the spring the geese will return to familiar surroundings with a new perspective. It sounds like a plan for me, too. The more I observe nature, the more I realize that everything has intelligence. Plants do. Insects do. Animals and birds are pretty darn smart. It may differ from how we think but it is functional for how to survive. If we diminish anything in nature we lessen our own understanding of life. more »
A Family Inheritance: More Than 'Things' ... Emblems of Our Lives
Joan Cannon wrote: In a corner stood a small Louis XVI vitrine. It contained a blown ostrich egg, a small opalescent flask made of Roman glass that had a strange bloom on the surface like that on a grape still on the vine, and several other small objects collected from the family’s travels. On the mantelpiece in the living room hung a tiny brass lamp. On the lid covering the oil chamber sits a tiny crudely cast mouse. It now hangs on my mantel. In my living room is an Empire table of mahogany veneer in fairly deplorable condition. Desperate to recover some of its good looks, I took a steam iron to the blistered and cracked veneer on the top, stripped its clouded finish off, and refinished it. It's the only piece of furniture from my father’s Memphis forbears remaining after the Civil War. As one advances in years, one accumulates possessions the way a caddis fly larva accumulates grit. The glue that makes us carry it all along with us is in a way self-secreted as well. However, it's psychic rather than physical — emotional rather than material. more »
The Anatomy of Estate Sales, a Weekend Ritual as Common for Some as Going to a Religious Service
Jeanne Hubbell Asher wrote: The thrill of the hunt, beating the system, however one defines it, tag sale fever abounds in the New York suburbs and, for that matter, around the country whether on the scene or over the Internet. By any name, be it tag sale, garage sale, yard sale, they're all means of getting rid of things you no longer want or need. It's like cleaning house and getting paid for it. These are high-energy events: quick decisions, brisk sales, in and out and on to the next sale. For the faithful, sales are not only a part of their vocabulary but, indeed, an essential part of the fabric of their lives. more »