HFH - Habitat For Humanity Monroe County Not a hand up but, a slap in the face! Monroe Michigan

 I am a home owner with what is becoming a huge issue to the point where my therapist is the one that suggested me to look on here. It has recently been suggested by another organization that I speak to someone at legal sevices. I am a single mom with ALOT going on. I was went through 3 yrs waiting for a home, in 2007 I got my home that I LOVE. Towards the end of 2008 I injured mu back and am now disabled. HFH did work with me while waiting to figure out what would happen with my case. I made a lump sum payment which would take care of my payments for around 3 1/2 yrs. Two yrs in and you could no longer make your payments locally you had to send them to Lansing. After that happened I kept recovering letters stating my mortgage was going up due to late escrow payments ...my money was there!!! Every so many months I had to deal with the local area and Lansing to take care of this. In 2012 I had to purchase a car. They run my credit report and my report showed not payment and therefore had lowered my credit report significantly which made me have to get a co signer AND took my interest rate up. The local HFH sent in a letter starting my payments were up to date ...it was too late the damage was done...I was told the problem would be taken care of. In 2013 I tried to apply for a loan. In was denied ...why...because they ran My credit and it showed I owed HFH over $14,000. They had never taken care of the problem in2012 and it continued frm there on. I once again contacted both local and Lansing and once again received a letter stating I was current, and guess what was denied the loan of course untill it would show on my credit report . Welp my report still shows payments in each yr. Here and there shows nonpayment. The other issues on top of this , is my payments were to begin in March of 2014 . Due to unforseen situations I was unable to make that moths payment. The very next month they took my payment frm $393. A month to $776 and my 2013 taxes have yet to this day to be paid. And yet on my reciciets that they began sending me every month AFTER there was non payment it states payment yr to date $4,800 .....WHAT...doesn't that mean that a payment of $4,800 was made since January and it's April and you want to charge me $776 for one months missing payment? AND my taxes ARE NOT PAID...now since 2014 they have been charging me $776 every month ..which now they keep sending letters of putting me into foreclosed and are , I feel as though I am basically being shoved into asking organizations for a bail out to bring me current on my mortage. In applying for help I have had to get copies of info. One of which were printouts of property taxes. At the court house I find out that 2011 taxes were late and the am out paid was over $2000 for just the winter taxes and 2012 winter were late . The worker that was helping said you know , they are late on a lot of home owners property taxes. Which made me wonder how many people's mortgages have gone up do to increase of escrows? Needless to say ...I am scared...I mean it's HFH! I'm a single mom frm not such a great neighborhood I am not well educated I am disabled and on a budget hense got to them for help to provide a home for my kids. I suffer frm anxiety and depression and just when I think I'm getting help frm them or the other organization I get shot down . I was denied help to pay habitat and habitats answer is to try them again and embellish my situation and or to apply to churches and other organizations. I guess I have now taken the next step that I wanted to avoid seeing as I called the number and left a message at legal services. Honestly I just want to make my house payment at the amount it was and be left alone. Unfortunely it doesn't look like that is going to happen without some type of fight. If anyone should happen to have ANY suggestions they would be MUCH APPRECIATED!

I am sorry about your problems, but like so many other complaints against Habitat, you do not mention whether you tried to pursue recovery in court, it would seem that with the amount of money involved, you may have a case-- especially against the trumped up "charges".

I volunteered for a year with a habitat affiliate and quit out of disgust at their poor operations and predatory behavior toward homeowners and volunteers.  A culture exists of their christian roots putting them above criticism or responsibility. 

People need to consistently fight Habitat for their rights, they ride on the good will produced over the years by the International umbrella organization and drive down the value of the good work that many well run affiliates do.

Again, victims need to speak to an attorney and find redress in the courts, which then become public record for everyone to see, Habitat has no right to get away with treating people the way they do.  It has become standard practice among many affiliates to be taciturn, obstructionist and anti-professional thinking, again, that their righteous mission gives them a pass.

I was an HFH homeowner. My house was also built in a bad neighborhood, although I didn't know it at the time. Habitat's rationale is that building new homes in a troubled neighborhood will increase property values and somehow magically improve the neighborhood. It did not happen in my case. Like you, I participated in community groups and went out and spoke to folks in the community. I planted flowers and made my place look attractive. Like you, my house was vandalized. There was a boy who lived nearby who would try to instigate my son by calling him names and mocking him, but my son wouldn't give in. He has always been a big boy, so I didn't worry about him in that regard. When I sold my house, HFH also took thousands of dollars and managed to justify it. I did not even fight the issue, I was just happy to take what I had from the sale and be on my way. I drove by my old house a few months later and saw that my former neighbor (also in an HFH house) had moved out as well.

I am sorry for what happened to your son. You were trying to make a better life for yourselves and instead he got hurt, and you became sick. Be assured that it is not just your chapter of HFH that has this issue. I have known quite a few people in this area who have moved out of their homes.

Because of the nature of my work, I'm familiar with ghetto, drug areas. As a middle aged white male, I had to learn the rules. Yep like it or not there are dos and don'ts when moving in those areas! Its commonly called Street Sense

I don't know your race, but if you are white and moved into one of these areas you immediately became a target! No matter how some people act like they like you, trust me, your not wanted there. And no matter what race you are, The stupidest thing was let the Police use your home! At that point you became a threat! You were messing with the drug dealers business! And doing so you put your children at risk.

Ill bet when your child was beaten, they were sending You a message. You are in fact lucky. The first rule is: Mind your business! At any rate im glad your kids are ok and you got out of that environment ,before it destroyed your children. As far as HFH goes. Anytime you accept help from these type outfits, they own you. And they will treat you as such. I see a lot of these type homes sprouting up in the worst areas of the city.

why not go public and contact the newspapers and the TV stations. Let the National office know about it. They get away with it because noone makes any noise. MAke some noise.