Greetings and Welcome!!
This has got to be one of the hardest and most important blogs and undertaking that I have ever decided to take on, this far along in my life. So what is the KOVH? Keep Our Veterans Housed (KOVH from this point forward) is an urgent, passionate and aggressive grassroots movement to raise awareness to a crisis that not only contributes to our nations homeless crisis, but is also a serious disgrace to men, women, and their families who have given so much to this country. I started the KOVH because my family along with hundreds of thousands of others, are either victims of or currently battling a war against mortgage companies and banks who all too often are given hundreds of thousands of federal dollars to help homeowners, including veterans secure and stay housed. A quick look at the current state of our communities across the country, and you can easily see this isn't happening. While the homelessness crisis on a whole is a horrible and deadly occurrence in this country, the focus of this movement is on the veterans and their families who should have more protection and resources with their VA secured home loans than they do!
It is my hope to use the various social media platforms, including this blog, to share stories, current personal updates on my families battle with our ongoing battle to keep our home, and resources as I intend to launch a full fledged non profit that will work to help provide much needed monetary help to help avoid foreclosure and/or help pay for legal fees. The fact is, the laws are currently stacked against homeowners, including for veterans, working to protect banks and mortgage companies from the big bad homeowners who all too often today are struggling to get by paycheck to paycheck. With the high cost of health insurance, prescriptions, and cost of living constantly increasing, all it takes is one unexpected expense such as a major car repair, job loss, death, medical or dental emergency, etc to completely turn ones world upside down and rapidly turn the tides to an ocean of stress, unpaid bills, missed mortgage payments, etc. Let me be clear, the homeless crisis in this country is both devastating and unreal, but while numerous organizations and increased budgets are constantly increasing to try and combat the growing homelessness problem, there is little in the way of resources and financial help for veterans and veteran families to PREVENT facing a foreclosure or paying for quality and aggressive legal help to fight them.
For the last three years, my family and I know firsthand what a horrible and high stress nightmare it is to work so hard to just get by, follow the rules, and pay your dues just like everyone else. Our story eerily resembles most of those we are now hearing on a daily basis from other vets and families, who either have already lost their homes or are trying to figure out how to fight the one they are facing. The last few days proved to me, that it is in fact all about numbers and dollars to these banks and lenders, even with the majority claiming that they are not in the business of taking homes but keeping families in them. If that were true, there would be more of an effort to actually work with homeowners, especially when job loss, emergencies, etc..cannot be foreseen or expected. Things happen, and for the most part, financial status can in fact be fixed if lenders genuinely work as hard as they expect the homeowners to keep their homes. However, as I will show you, this is NOT the case. I have lost track of how many lawyers and real estate agents aggressively and rudely have tried to convince me that fighting back and speaking out, raising hell and awareness about the lack of bills and laws, lack of programs to help vets and families afford legal representation to try and fight to get loan modifications or stop unfair foreclosures. Yesterday, in fact, I spoke with a real estate firm who not agreed that the gross lack of resources and protection for veterans against banks and lenders was a serious problem and threat but that these same banks and mortgage know the laws are written int heir favor and that there are no real resources or alternatives to help these vets and their families stay in their homes, so they drag out the process for as long as they can, collecting fees, interest and additional expenses to make the already struggling and terrified homeowners pay, just to take the home and sell it anyways while adding another veteran or veteran family to the homeless population that we already cant seem to remedy and take care of as is.
Scroll through all of the fundraiser pages, and look for yourself how many are veteran or veteran families trying to raise money to avoid missing a mortgage payment or legal help to try and stop the foreclosure. Anything more than one is too many, and there are hundreds of thousands all across this country who are facing this very crisis right now or are trying to live in cars, campers or vans while they hope for change. To stop adding to the growing homeless population WE MUST WORK ON PREVENTING THE LOSS OF THE HOME!! Read that again because its the only 100% factual answer to the problem. If the VA, US government, and programs were put in place to help veterans and veteran families avoid foreclosure in the first place, we wouldn't have so many on the streets or houses being sold at auction. Speaking of which, although i cannot because of our current legal case against our past and current lender, my home here in sunny southern California is set to be sold at auction on April 9th, 2020. Today is February 7th, 2020. We have been in pure hell for over THREE years, fighting first to get help from our previous lender before we even had missed a payment, through now when drawn out waiting for the next denial to help us in any way is received. Three years of barely sleeping, being hounded by scam artists and realtors to swoop up our home and sell it because even they know we as homeowners have all the laws and tides working against us which is why so many homeowners choose to just leave the home and not fight, or just surrender the house.
The number of times that I have asked myself if I can take much more of this fight when time after time it feels like we don't matter, like being a veteran means so little to this country much less the mortgage companies and banks, are numerous. I hate answering the door or phone now, and more often than not just don't. Every day its te fear that we'll be given so many days or hours to grab our stuff and go because for the most part everyone who we have talked to or tried to get advice from has told us how crazy we are and how we cannot win against the profit system. Its not about winning, trying to protect our family from being homeless, subjected to additional debt that would keep us from getting into another home right away so we weren't homeless, and the negative impact a foreclosure has on anyone who is trying and has been trying to get a security clearance to get into a better paying job. Yes, the well documented reason that neither lender has bothered to help us, is for the same reason we need them to stop trying to take our home and work with us. We cannot get a security clearance to put us back into the income bracket we were in when we first bought the house and after 4 months lost without reason or warning, which would give us the income that would allow us to pay our high mortgage payment, as long as the house is in default/foreclosure status. You would think that that right there would be reason enough to work with us, but clearly not one but both lenders that we have had now doesn't seem to connect the dots. In fact, an operator so much as flat out told me over the phone that they have in fact no intention of ever working with us unless we increase our income. Read that again.
So the problem is that there are NO existing programs or financial resources to help veterans and veteran families avoid foreclosure much less help pay legal fees for these same home owners to fight the foreclosures they are facing. We're talking about american soldiers who have served this country when they were called and the their families who proudly stood behind them while they were away. One would think that the least this country could do, was to make sure the mental health care, medical care, and protection from mortgage and banks for their homes would be the least we made sure they had. Alas, that is not the case. Raising awareness to this horrible and unjust and ongoing problem is just the first part of my plan and goal. Sharing information, personal stories, updates, support, resources that are legitimately in place to help to help veterans and veteran families, is another huge part I feel that needs to be put out there in hopes of maybe of helping others to have a little more hope and help than they thought they had. But the bigger goal of the KOVH, is to start raising money to first pay the fees and costs of becoming a legal and full fledged non profit organization, so that we can begin helping other families to have the financial help they need to not ever have to fave this nightmare, or to ensure that they are able to afford to afford the legal representation to give them a fighting chance to stand against the lender or bank in an attempt to keep their home. As a 501 (c), we will be able to apply for grants and funding to help veterans and veteran families. Through fundraising, donations, and sales of items we make that help to spread our mission and awareness.
In addition, we will work aggressively to get congress to not only clearly see the ongoing crisis facing veterans and veteran families right now, but to support bills and laws to hold lenders and mortgage companies accountable, and work to make it harder to take homes and destroy lives so easily. Because, at the end of the day, if the laws and rules aren't changed to protect our veteran homeowners when they need it most, we cannot say that this country loves its veterans and soldiers while allowing mortgage companies and lenders to so easily deny help and options to them. Adding to the already growing american homeless problem, when they could be working with and helping to avoid contributing it, just makes sense.
We are in the very beginning stages of getting all of our accounts setup and running so please bear with us. If you are a veteran or veteran spouse and have lost your home or are currently facing this crisis, we want to hear from you! If you know of a veteran or veteran family who has faced or is facing this crisis, please have them contact us. This is a long and bumpy journey, but if our fight and struggles today can help force changes and create solutions for others tomorrow, then thats all that matters. Spread the word and stay tuned for updates and so much more!
It is my hope to use the various social media platforms, including this blog, to share stories, current personal updates on my families battle with our ongoing battle to keep our home, and resources as I intend to launch a full fledged non profit that will work to help provide much needed monetary help to help avoid foreclosure and/or help pay for legal fees. The fact is, the laws are currently stacked against homeowners, including for veterans, working to protect banks and mortgage companies from the big bad homeowners who all too often today are struggling to get by paycheck to paycheck. With the high cost of health insurance, prescriptions, and cost of living constantly increasing, all it takes is one unexpected expense such as a major car repair, job loss, death, medical or dental emergency, etc to completely turn ones world upside down and rapidly turn the tides to an ocean of stress, unpaid bills, missed mortgage payments, etc. Let me be clear, the homeless crisis in this country is both devastating and unreal, but while numerous organizations and increased budgets are constantly increasing to try and combat the growing homelessness problem, there is little in the way of resources and financial help for veterans and veteran families to PREVENT facing a foreclosure or paying for quality and aggressive legal help to fight them.
For the last three years, my family and I know firsthand what a horrible and high stress nightmare it is to work so hard to just get by, follow the rules, and pay your dues just like everyone else. Our story eerily resembles most of those we are now hearing on a daily basis from other vets and families, who either have already lost their homes or are trying to figure out how to fight the one they are facing. The last few days proved to me, that it is in fact all about numbers and dollars to these banks and lenders, even with the majority claiming that they are not in the business of taking homes but keeping families in them. If that were true, there would be more of an effort to actually work with homeowners, especially when job loss, emergencies, etc..cannot be foreseen or expected. Things happen, and for the most part, financial status can in fact be fixed if lenders genuinely work as hard as they expect the homeowners to keep their homes. However, as I will show you, this is NOT the case. I have lost track of how many lawyers and real estate agents aggressively and rudely have tried to convince me that fighting back and speaking out, raising hell and awareness about the lack of bills and laws, lack of programs to help vets and families afford legal representation to try and fight to get loan modifications or stop unfair foreclosures. Yesterday, in fact, I spoke with a real estate firm who not agreed that the gross lack of resources and protection for veterans against banks and lenders was a serious problem and threat but that these same banks and mortgage know the laws are written int heir favor and that there are no real resources or alternatives to help these vets and their families stay in their homes, so they drag out the process for as long as they can, collecting fees, interest and additional expenses to make the already struggling and terrified homeowners pay, just to take the home and sell it anyways while adding another veteran or veteran family to the homeless population that we already cant seem to remedy and take care of as is.
Scroll through all of the fundraiser pages, and look for yourself how many are veteran or veteran families trying to raise money to avoid missing a mortgage payment or legal help to try and stop the foreclosure. Anything more than one is too many, and there are hundreds of thousands all across this country who are facing this very crisis right now or are trying to live in cars, campers or vans while they hope for change. To stop adding to the growing homeless population WE MUST WORK ON PREVENTING THE LOSS OF THE HOME!! Read that again because its the only 100% factual answer to the problem. If the VA, US government, and programs were put in place to help veterans and veteran families avoid foreclosure in the first place, we wouldn't have so many on the streets or houses being sold at auction. Speaking of which, although i cannot because of our current legal case against our past and current lender, my home here in sunny southern California is set to be sold at auction on April 9th, 2020. Today is February 7th, 2020. We have been in pure hell for over THREE years, fighting first to get help from our previous lender before we even had missed a payment, through now when drawn out waiting for the next denial to help us in any way is received. Three years of barely sleeping, being hounded by scam artists and realtors to swoop up our home and sell it because even they know we as homeowners have all the laws and tides working against us which is why so many homeowners choose to just leave the home and not fight, or just surrender the house.
The number of times that I have asked myself if I can take much more of this fight when time after time it feels like we don't matter, like being a veteran means so little to this country much less the mortgage companies and banks, are numerous. I hate answering the door or phone now, and more often than not just don't. Every day its te fear that we'll be given so many days or hours to grab our stuff and go because for the most part everyone who we have talked to or tried to get advice from has told us how crazy we are and how we cannot win against the profit system. Its not about winning, trying to protect our family from being homeless, subjected to additional debt that would keep us from getting into another home right away so we weren't homeless, and the negative impact a foreclosure has on anyone who is trying and has been trying to get a security clearance to get into a better paying job. Yes, the well documented reason that neither lender has bothered to help us, is for the same reason we need them to stop trying to take our home and work with us. We cannot get a security clearance to put us back into the income bracket we were in when we first bought the house and after 4 months lost without reason or warning, which would give us the income that would allow us to pay our high mortgage payment, as long as the house is in default/foreclosure status. You would think that that right there would be reason enough to work with us, but clearly not one but both lenders that we have had now doesn't seem to connect the dots. In fact, an operator so much as flat out told me over the phone that they have in fact no intention of ever working with us unless we increase our income. Read that again.
So the problem is that there are NO existing programs or financial resources to help veterans and veteran families avoid foreclosure much less help pay legal fees for these same home owners to fight the foreclosures they are facing. We're talking about american soldiers who have served this country when they were called and the their families who proudly stood behind them while they were away. One would think that the least this country could do, was to make sure the mental health care, medical care, and protection from mortgage and banks for their homes would be the least we made sure they had. Alas, that is not the case. Raising awareness to this horrible and unjust and ongoing problem is just the first part of my plan and goal. Sharing information, personal stories, updates, support, resources that are legitimately in place to help to help veterans and veteran families, is another huge part I feel that needs to be put out there in hopes of maybe of helping others to have a little more hope and help than they thought they had. But the bigger goal of the KOVH, is to start raising money to first pay the fees and costs of becoming a legal and full fledged non profit organization, so that we can begin helping other families to have the financial help they need to not ever have to fave this nightmare, or to ensure that they are able to afford to afford the legal representation to give them a fighting chance to stand against the lender or bank in an attempt to keep their home. As a 501 (c), we will be able to apply for grants and funding to help veterans and veteran families. Through fundraising, donations, and sales of items we make that help to spread our mission and awareness.
In addition, we will work aggressively to get congress to not only clearly see the ongoing crisis facing veterans and veteran families right now, but to support bills and laws to hold lenders and mortgage companies accountable, and work to make it harder to take homes and destroy lives so easily. Because, at the end of the day, if the laws and rules aren't changed to protect our veteran homeowners when they need it most, we cannot say that this country loves its veterans and soldiers while allowing mortgage companies and lenders to so easily deny help and options to them. Adding to the already growing american homeless problem, when they could be working with and helping to avoid contributing it, just makes sense.
We are in the very beginning stages of getting all of our accounts setup and running so please bear with us. If you are a veteran or veteran spouse and have lost your home or are currently facing this crisis, we want to hear from you! If you know of a veteran or veteran family who has faced or is facing this crisis, please have them contact us. This is a long and bumpy journey, but if our fight and struggles today can help force changes and create solutions for others tomorrow, then thats all that matters. Spread the word and stay tuned for updates and so much more!
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