Taking bank chiefs to task to save homes

What’s a bank terrorist?

We wear that as a badge of honor. Bank terrorism is a nonviolent way we personalize the consequences of CEOs’ actions. When someone loses their home, they lose their neighbors, they lose their community, and their kids lose their friends and their schools. It’s personal. Lives have been devastated. We go to the CEOs’ homes, usually on Sunday morning, which is family time, in their gated communities. We are relentless and we go after them everywhere they go.

Data shows that lenders are resisting efforts to help distressed homeowners save their homes. How do you overcome this?

You have to do it in two ways: You have to engage in bank terrorism. It gets their attention. Then, you have to provide the best operation possible. What makes us different is we do all the work for the servicers. We get all the documents. We have 300 counselors on the ground, hooked up to the Internet. The documents are scanned and they go immediately to the servicer. They get the solution. It is spectacular to see. President Obama has been pleading and begging and bribing these servicers, and they have flat out refused. The NACA way is the way Obama should do it.

What should Obama do?

He could require [lenders] to restructure the mortgages and that is not what is being done.

Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage rated at the bottom of a new government report card on lenders helping homeowners. Do you agree?

At these events, I have legally binding agreements with every one of these lenders. I get things done that they don’t do in the normal course of business. If you were to ask me, I’d say they do a very good job.

What is your agreement?

We submit an affordable payment, documented with verification of income. There is only one solution: That is to restructure the mortgage, permanently reducing the interest rate and permanently reducing the principal to guarantee an affordable payment.

What kinds of deals are homeowners getting with your help?

They are getting an interest rate permanently reduced to 2 percent. They are getting $30,000 to $50,000 of principal reduced. We don’t say to the lender what the interest should be. We say this is what that homeowner can afford on a tight budget. We send it over fully documented with pay stubs and a hardship document.

What advice do you have to others struggling to help homeowners avoid foreclosure?

We all have to come together and fight these servicers. You should do what we are doing. Work with everybody, do the advocacy, join us in going to their front door and holding them responsible. The way you get things done is to organize and motivate people.

How many homeowners are you helping?

On a monthly basis, about 20,000.

Don’t you think homeowners have some responsibility for getting themselves into this mess?

We are talking about owner occupants. Did some homeowners buy more than they could afford? Yes. But were they encouraged to do that by the largest financial institutions in the country? Absolutely. I don’t blame the homeowners, people who are hard-working Americans, who all they wanted was a good place to live.

Do you think the foreclosure crisis is beginning to ebb?

No. Not with what I’m seeing. I think it is going to be accentuated by people losing their jobs. The unemployment benefits are starting to run out. People are just desperate.

Why didn’t you include Boston in your 10-city tour?

We reached out to the governor and there has been no interest in working with us.