Poor health care benefits snowball into eviction of hospitalized Gulf War widow, disabled son

PR Log (Press Release) – Aug 21, 2009 – Tucson, Arizona – A hospitalized widow and her partly-disabled son are being evicted today after a string of events which began with insufficient health care benefits. The widow of a deceased Gulf War Veteran provided support the health care plan would not permit and actually helped to save her son’s life. Her rewards for this include ridicule, criticism and becoming the target of a “hard money loan” deal with totally unrealistic terms. Despite the current economic downturn, the widow tried to get help through eight job-seeking websites, several HUD-approved housing counselors, numerous state legislators, the Veterans’ Administration, city officials and others to no avail. Good-paying jobs are scarce in Tucson and employers are quick to lay-off new hires. So, today friends are rallying around the family as they prepare to give up their modest home of 17 years.

Dolores Fair, the 54 year old widow, learned in September 2006 that her son, Chris, was diagnosed with Disseminated Valley Fever and Valley Fever Meningitis, a deadly combination whose tumor-like masses damaged the cervical, thoracic and lumbar areas of his spine. In addition, Chris, then 23 years old, suffered neurological damage to his right side and could not talk, swallow or breathe. A tracheotomy made breathing possible, but recurrent vomiting made it likely Chris would choke to death on his own vomit. You see, Chris had to lay flat on his back in a neck brace and be moved only by three or more helpers focused on keeping his spine aligned.

Since Chris had no medical insurance, Mrs. Fair registered him for the county program. However, when Mrs. Fair learned that plan supervisors did not understand the serious nature of her son’s illness and refused to permit a private nurse or nurse’s aide to monitor Chris, Mrs. Fair chose to put her life on hold and to be her son’s “nurse’s aide.” According to Mrs. Fair, “There were numerous times that I awoke at night to hear my son making gurgling sounds; so I ran to his side, used my body as though it were three people holding his body in alignment, and held him on his side for the 25 minutes it took for help to come. He would have died if God had not allowed me to be there.”

Mrs. Fair says the crisis was complicated by learning her house was in foreclosure in early 2007 and by her decision to trust the friend of a friend to help her refinance her home, take out some of the $70,000 of equity for living expenses, and pay one year’s mortgage in advance. Mrs. Fair believes something unscrupulous happened because a “…supposedly compassionate broker got me mixed up with an unsympathetic family trying to make money off the misery of others.”

The rest of the story reads like those of so many other families in Arizona and around the country. A family faces a crisis and trusts that they will be treated fairly. Mrs. Fair claims she was so focused on not losing another family member, that if the broker explained the loan terms, she didn’t hear it. Ten months later, once the crisis had eased, Mrs. Fair learned she had 13% interest, a $1625 monthly payment, a prepayment of $19,500, a penalty of $19,500 should she decide to refinance before 5 years, and a balloon payment in 5 years.

After months of being unable to find a job in late 2007 and early 2008, Mrs. Fair made the rounds from housing counselors to legislators to filing a complaint with the State Attorney General’s Office thinking it would stop the sale of her home. Mrs. Fair found a good-paying job and, then, filed for bankruptcy when she learned that the complaint would not stop the sale. For four months, Mrs. Fair made prompt payments of nearly $2,000 per month on back property taxes, missed mortgage payments, and attorney’s fees; but in January of 2009, she was laid off.

Finding ACORN in early 2009 was a relief for Mrs. Fair who says she received caring and encouragement from the staff and volunteers. She applied to have her loan modified through ACORN, but months later, it was obvious her lender was not willing to even send her a statement, thus thwarting ACORN’s efforts to modify the loan. “I kept hoping our Governor would follow President Obama’s suggestion and allow a foreclosure moratorium. But as more ACORN volunteers lost their homes, it became obvious that the leadership in Arizona doesn’t really care,” she explained.

In the end, Mrs. Fair could not resume payments due to inability to find work that paid enough to sustain a mortgage. Unfortunately she says she has had several near misses with her lenders who seem to be patient one moment and vindictive the next. She says she and the lenders were recently working toward a modification (with the mediation of an Aide from Gabrielle Giffords’ Office), but, then the lender changed his mind. Mrs. Fair says, “He views me as a lazy, good-for-nothing who’s looking for a hand-out. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am a proud, Black woman, but that doesn’t mean I’m automatically lazy. All I have wanted was to be a good mother and a good citizen. I even found a freelance writing job that I hope will bring in enough to support me and my recovering son."

Last Saturday, Mrs. Fair was admitted to a local hospital with fever, headache, chest pain, body aches, night sweats and chills. Yesterday, she opened the letter her son signed for on Saturday just before the ambulance arrived. “I was shocked to see,” she said through tears, “that my lenders broke our verbal agreement to modify my loan to a reasonable rate and a rent-to-own format. The note said they auctioned my house last week without my knowledge and I must move in 5 days. So, here I sit, awaiting test results, and knowing the house I used my husband’s life insurance policy to pay for now belongs to people who don’t care that my little dog who died 3 weeks ago is buried in the back yard. Nor do they care that my two sons and I have 17 years of history here. It’s just not fair!”  

In light of the current health care debate, this is one example that strongly suggests a need for health care reform so families don’t have to risk losing their homes to save the lives of family members. It, also, seems that some justice for these duped homeowners would be an added plus.