A community protest at OneWest bank HQ in December 2014
Community members protest at OneWest Bank HQ's after a FOIA request revealed the bank has received $1 billion from the FDIC, with another $1.4 billion expected to be paid before 2019.
Dear Mr. Soros: It’s the holiday season, and people traditionally celebrate this time of the year by relaxing with their families. However, for some seniors, this holiday season will be spent worrying about whether or not their bank (a bank that you are a major investor in) will try to foreclose on them, and we think you can help stop that. You and a group of other wealthy investors purchased the failed IndyMac Bank in 2009, renaming it OneWest Bank. I’m sure none of you intended to play a role in foreclosing on seniors during the Christmas season. And yet, that’s exactly what OneWest Bank has been trying to do.

We want to bring this to your attention because these practices are in stark contrast to the many progressive causes you’ve funded in the past, (including a grant five years ago to our organization for foreclosure prevention research and policy work).  We think this type of behavior is especially repugnant considering that OneWest’s leadership is also asking bank regulators to allow it to merge with CIT Group, creating a much larger bank.

It's possible you and your fellow investors are not aware of these practices, so we outline how they have affected three seniors below.

In Texas, a 103-year-old senior, Myrtle Lewis, was going to lose her home because she had forgotten to pay her house insurance. OneWest Bank “force-placed” insurance for her, meaning they bought insurance for her and then charged her for it. Not satisfied, they also moved to foreclose on her. Once her story was featured in the local media, OneWest magically had a change of heart, filing a motion to dismiss the foreclosure this week. But what if Ms. Lewis didn’t have an attorney, or if the media hadn’t covered her story? There are other senior homeowners that OneWest may still be foreclosing on. Will Christmas consist of anxiously waiting for bank phone calls, receiving foreclosure letters in the mail, packing their belongings, and saying goodbyes to long-term neighbors?

American Banker broke the stories of OneWest foreclosing on two widows last month. Yes, you read that correctly- the bank is trying to foreclose on widows. No word yet on whether the bank CEO favors the practices of Mr. Potter or if he considers himself more of an Ebenezer Scrooge type.  

In the first case, a legally blind 65-year-old widow, Ernestine Harris, was being foreclosed on by OneWest because her name was not on the reverse mortgage her husband had obtained before he passed away. The problem of a surviving spouse not being listed on the mortgage has occurred in some cases because of reverse mortgage lenders pushing couples to keep the younger spouse (often the wife) off the loan. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been ordered by a judge to create a policy for how lenders should treat these surviving spouses, but it has not yet done so.  

While HUD takes it time crafting a policy, OneWest was taking the opportunity to move to foreclose on seniors. In Ms. Harris’ case, her house was scheduled for auction on December 2nd, with OneWest apparently refusing to stop the foreclosure unless HUD agreed to not impose any penalties on the bank.  HUD later relented, and told OneWest that it won’t penalize the bank if the bank didn’t foreclose on Ms. Harris. It’s unclear if her foreclosure has been completely stopped, or just postponed to a later date.

Perhaps the bank concluded it should foreclose after their merger request is approved?

Janice Cooper, a 73-year-old with severe heart disease who lives in Southern California and relies on Social Security for her income, is also facing foreclosure by OneWest Bank. A recent article in Mortgage Servicing News suggests that Ms. Cooper’s case is still in limbo. Bah Humbug!

Our coalition, along with more than 50 other organizations, is opposing this merger until OneWest and CIT Group are transparent with the community about their merger plans and about their community reinvestment activities, and until OneWest agrees to stop unnecessarily foreclosing on seniors and widows and creates a robust and transparent community benefit and reinvestment plan. We are urging the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to hold hearings about this proposed merger because we believe the general public, who already bailed one of these banks out, deserves more information.  

Meanwhile, until HUD develops a policy for widowed homeowners whose spouses had reverse mortgages, we’re also urging OneWest to stop all foreclosures on additional surviving spouses.If the bank’s leadership heard from you, Mr. Soros, one of its largest investors, it may stop foreclosing on seniors. Will you and your fellow investors (Michael Dell, John Paulson, Christopher Flowers, Steve Mnuchin), instruct the leadership of OneWest to implement a moratorium on foreclosing on surviving spouses of seniors with reverse mortgages until HUD has developed a policy for these widows and widowers?