This House Brought to You By ACORN

I bought this house as a HUD foreclosure in March 2001. At the time, I had been working for 4 years as a grossly-underpaid public interest attorney and had just been hired by the US EPA at an entry attorney salary, which was under $60,000/year. I also had over $150,000 in law school debt. I thought home ownership was an impossible dream for me in the increasingly expensive DC-area because of this. Sure, in theory I could have gone private and made more money, but my heart was in making the world a cleaner place (and the firms weren't hiring anyway).

Then I found out through Bank of America that I could qualify for a loan under their ACORN program, which was a program to provide low- to mid-income people who had good credit to qualify for a home loan. This program existed because ACORN started suing banks for discriminating unfairly and engaging in predatory practices against credit-worthy low-income people. The outcome was that several banks started partnerships with ACORN to provide affordable mortgages to low- and mid-income people. Thanks to ACORN, I own my own home. And I am one of the tens of thousands of people around this country who got a loan because of ACORN and are paying their mortgage every month on time. If I had not been able to buy this house when I did, there is no way I could have afforded to buy it now that my income levels look a little better to Chase and Citibank - the home price levels now would require mortgages we would still be unable to pay. And, as a footnote, a lot more was required of me to get my ACORN-sponsored 30-year fixed interest 3% down home loan in terms of income documentation than was required of me when we refinanced the house privately two years ago and the mortgage brokers didn't ask to see much of anything from me and tried to push me into one of those insane interest-only adjustable rate mortgages.

I have put blood, sweat, and tears into this home as you have all seen below. Despite my venting on the wounds I have incurred in the process, I am grateful every day for this home, for my loving neighbors, and for giving my husband and I a place to nest. I am, ultimately, grateful to ACORN for fighting for people like me. To hear them spoken of as some sort of terrorist un-American company in current politics makes me sick sick sick.

LEARN THE TRUTH ABOUT ACORN!!