Neighbors Tell TCF Bank: 'Have A Heart'

CHICAGO–(ENEWSPF)–January 7, 2013. This morning, Rogers Park homeowner Josh Pina and his supporters will give TCF Bank an oversize plea for some Valentine’s Day spirit.

At an 11:30 a.m. press conference at the 1400 W. Fullerton branch of TCF Bank, they will deliver a giant Valentine asking the bank to “have a heart” and will demand in words and in song that bank officials postpone Pina’s eviction while his case is reviewed.

After Pina and supporters from Communities United Against Foreclosure and Eviction and Northside Action for Justice rallied outside two TCF Bank branches on Dec. 28, and launched a call-in campaign, the bank agreed to review Pina’s case. Pina’s supporters sent TCF Bank Vice President Jeff Memeti dozens of letters and valentines asking him to give Pina a loan modification.

Even so, the bank has not yet pledged to modify Pina’s mortgage or even to postpone his eviction, and could throw him out of his home as soon as mid-February.

“I don’t know whether or not to pack up,” Pina says. “I don’t have anywhere else to go. No one should have to endure this stress.”

Pina paid his mortgage on time for five years. But after the recession hit, his hours at work were cut, and his house fell under water. Once he was laid off the bank refused to negotiate his loan. When Pina found another job TCF demanded thousands of dollars up front to modify his loan —money Pina didn’t have.

Now, TCF is considering whether to give Pina a loan modification, but he and supporters are concerned that unless his eviction is postponed it could be too little, too late. Says Pina: “Evicting me would do more harm then good for both myself and TCF Bank. I don’t want my home to become one more of thousands of empty homes in the City of Chicago.”