Last week, Jaime Furtado protested on the Capitol steps against Wells Fargo and their “foreclosure acceleration” policy in the midst of other banks freezing foreclosures and various states calling for a freeze. After attempting to negotiate with Wells Fargo since March of this year and ultimately having his attempts refused, Furtado felt called to stand firm.
He put on a suit, hand made a protest sign and stood on the front steps of the Texas Capitol and began his hunger strike last Wednesday. Furtado had printed flyers about his and other homeowners’ plight with what he alludes to as mishandling of mortgage loans in times of crisis. When Furtado handed out his flyers, he was ignored by several state representatives and ultimately was still ignored by Wells Fargo who promised to escalate his file but continued to go unanswered.
After two days on his hunger strike protest, Furtado was instructed to submit docs for a refi that he had already been denied twice. Downtrodden, Furtado reached out to several media outlets who all declined to cover his standing up for his and other families.
On the fourth day, Furtado received a call from Wells Fargo offering new loan terms that would allow for them to stay in their home. “We can afford this new payment and don’t have to sell the house,” Furtado said, noting that he was relieved that he would not lose the $110,000 they put down on their home.
Furtado sent us an email this weekend that said, “you are doing excellent work and you made a DIFFERENCE in my family’s future!” To that, we say thank you directly to Jaime Furtado for standing tall and we believe that he has made an impact for other homeowners going through the same foreclosure acceleration plight by bringing national attention to the issue.
If you’d like to reach out to Jaime Furtado, you can find him on Twitter (@jaimefurtado).
