A homeowner fights eviction

When Hildreth Brewington left his cramped apartment at the Franklin Field projects 12 years ago to move with his sister in a two-family house on Wheatland Avenue in Dorchester, he had a dream: live there until he dies.Now, in his 70s, he is facing eviction after foreclosure. In 30 days he has to be out of the house he bought with his savings.

"I don't plan on going anywhere," Brewington said. "I will fight. I feel real good about winning."

Brewington is one of the few Bostonians who fight post-foreclosure evictions. As a member of a movement led in Boston by the social justice organization City Life, he has been demanding that banks stop all post-foreclosure evictions and accept occupants' rents.

The Boston Housing Court issued 5,269 eviction orders in 2007 and 1,351 from Jan. to Mar. 2008. But since last year only 75 families in the Boston area have asked for City Life's help.

Every Tuesday, City Life organizes meetings to inform Boston homeowners and tenants about their legal rights when facing eviction. City Life members also try to block evictions with rallies and demonstrations.

"The bank gives them [homeowners or tenants] 48 hours to leave the house and we say 'if you evict them we'll bring 100 people and sit on the doorway and you would have to arrest us all.' Then the bank decides not to do anything," said Steve Meacham, tenant organizer at City Life.

That was what City Life did on Apr. 3 outside Brewington's house. City Councilor Charles Yancey was one of the 60 people who attended the "blockade." Yancey has been working close with City Life to pass either a state law or a state approved city law that will not allow the banks to evict the tenants or the homeowners after foreclosure. In the next two weeks the law will be discussed at the City Council.

But Yancey said he is surprised that so few people show the willingness to fight post-foreclosure evictions.

"We are not receiving the numbers of calls that we've been expecting. People seem to be suffering very quietly. Unfortunately many people are not fighting. They are too embarrassed to seek help," he said.

Brewington didn't hesitate to ask for City Life's help. In 1978 he was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, an eye disease that left him legally blind. Three years ago, he said, his niece took advantage of his disability and scammed him. She used his signature to take a mortgage on his home in his name, Brewington said. He never saw any money from this transaction. In February, Deutsche Bank and Indy Mac Bank started eviction proceedings after foreclosure.

"I was upset, frustrated. I didn't know what was going on. I was kept in the blind all along," Brewington said.

He offered the two banks the full-appraised value of his building, $250,000 for a two-story house built in the early 1920s, but they refused his offer. He didn't give up though.

"If it wasn't for City Life I wouldn't be here. I have them behind me and as long as they say 'fight' I will be here for the duration," he said.

Arita Meyers, a Dorchester resident, doesn't share Brewington's determination. She lives in a three apartment building on Norfolk Street with her two sisters, her brother and six children. She is facing eviction by the US Bank and Premier Asset Services. The Meyers are the tenants of this building. They are willing to continue to pay rent, but the bank and the mortgage company asked them to leave the house by Apr. 18. City Life is planning to block the eviction, but Meyers is ready to move.

"What if the blockade won't succeed? We have to be prepared. We are moving somewhere else," she said.

Meacham hopes the blockade will be successful. He said he wants to convince everyone to stay in his or her home until the anti-eviction law passes.

"Just because the building is foreclosed they don't have to move. They have to fight it. Even if the court rules against you, you have to fight it," he said.

Brewington follows Meacham's advice and tries to think positively. "It's an unfair battle," he said. "It's like David and Goliath. But David won that battle.