Wells Fargo vs. Bernetta Adolph

Retired. Cancer survivor. Disabled. Single mother. Senior. And Wells Fargo is about to steal my home.

My name is Bernetta Adolph, a retired employee of the City of San Francisco, and I’ve lived in my home for almost 20 years. My trouble with Wells Fargo started when I took out a loan against my house in order to ensure my only son could afford a good education.

It turns out the loan to provide for my son’s future was designed to ruin my own. It was predatory, calculated to strip my equity and set me up for failure. When I tried to work with Wells to fix the loan, they offered a modification so small it didn’t make any difference. Then they started trying to take my house. The stress hastened my blindness and continues to aggravate my health problems.

But I’m far from the only one to have suffered at the hands of Wells Fargo bankers. Here’s what I’ve found out:

--Wells Fargo is foreclosing on more people in California than any other bank. [1]

--Wells Fargo paid $175 million to settle a lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice alleging that it targeted African-American and Latino borrowers for high-cost loans. [2]

--From 2008-2010 Wells Fargo received $17.9 Billion in tax subsidies from you and me. [3]

These reasons plus stopping the theft of my home are why I’m joining with other members of the Home Defenders League and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment to take on Wells Fargo directly by demonstrating at their branches and headquarters all over the state on Wednesday, February 27.

Not only that, but we’re also teaming up with Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, Occupy Homes MN, and Minnesotans for a Fair Economy to make the message as powerful as possible. Those groups are leading a huge day of action against Wells in Minneapolis the same time we’ll be taking them on in California. Here’s what we’re demanding:

--Keep me in my home.
--Deliver on promised relief through full implementation of AG settlement and other programs.
--Broad implementation of loan modifications by resetting mortgages to fair market value.
--Restore our stolen wealth by ending predatory practices, ending discriminatory lending and paying your fair share of taxes.

Since his inauguration in January, I've joined with Home Defenders and ACCE members to push President Obama to use the first 100 days of his second term to finally hold Wall Street banks like Wells Fargo accountable for breaking our economy. Well, this week, we're taking that fight directly to Wall Street criminals themselves. They are the ones who stole our savings and our homes. It’s time for them to pay us back.

Starting with Wells Fargo.

[1] Based on statistics found in Foreclosure Radar, www.foreclosureradar.com
[2] http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/July/12-dag-869.html
[3] http://www.ctj.org/taxjusticedigest/archive/2011/11/tax_dodger_wells_fargo.php#.USfd0zDWi3w