(MOBILE, Ala.) - Marcella Moran has lived in her home for 25 years. "I didn't want to lose it, this was my grandfather's home," she said. But last year, she did lose it. After doctors discovered a hole in her colon and the long hospital stay that followed, Moran was forced out of work for nearly four months. "I just used the money to pay the utilities and buy food I didn't pay the bills," she said.
When she fell behind, Moran says her lender refused to work with her and demanded her entire loan be repayed. The bank wanted $50,000 on what was originally a $32,000 mortgage. Ultimately, the bank foreclosed and Moran was forced out.
That part of Moran's story is not unique. Foreclosure is a growing problem in Mobile. According to Metro Market Trends, a group tracking defaults in Mobile County, foreclosures rose more than eight percent in 2009.
Although Moran's story began much like the stories of thousands of others, it ended much differently.
Moran met Leevones Dubos, Executive Director of the Bay Area Women's Coalition. Their mission is to find foreclosures. They didn't have to look very far.
"I told people I was looking for foreclosures," Dubos said. "They said, 'well you look on Caty street,' then on this street. That's when I realized they're right around the corner from me. That's when it hit me we have a major problem in Mobile."
With funding from the government, Dubos' organization searches for and then buys foreclosed homes, rehabilitates them and then, in some cases, buys them back for the original owner. The coalition helped Moran move back in to her home and it was better than she left it.
"In a million years, I never could have done this, imagined being home again," Moran said.
The Bay Area Women's Coalition provides low-interest loans to people with low and moderate incomes, who have lost their homes to foreclosure. The number to call for help is (251) 457-6822.
