San Francsico Crowd Helps Black Woman Move Back Into Foreclosed Home

Sixty people gathered in San Francsico's Bayview district to help Carolyn Gage moved back into her family's home.

By Jorge Rivas Nov 02, 2011

A woman in San Francisco’s predominantly African-American Bayview district has re-entered the home her family had lived in for 52 years before being evicted in January due to a foreclosure.

"If you ask me the question ‘Why are you doing this,’ I am here today because I’m reclaiming my home," Carolyn Gage told a crowd of about 60 in front of her home.

Gage said she lost the home her father built because she had been defrauded by a now-bankrupt predatory lender. The company that then took over the loan was Bayview Mortgage Capital in Coral Gables, Fla. and refused to work with Gage to save her home.

"I’ve attempted to pay my mortgage, tried to modify the loan, even sued them, but they haven’t worked with me," she told the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Bayview district has been the hardest hit San Francisco neighborhood when it comes to foreclosures. Close to one-third of the San Francisco homes that were facing foreclosure in August are in that neighborhood along, according to the Chronicle.

According to figures provided by RealtyTrac, which tracks foreclosures nationwide, more than 1,400 homes in the Bayview’s 94124 ZIP code area will have been foreclosed on by 2012.

Black and Latino neighborhoods across the country are in a similar position. A study published in 2010 found one in five of both Black and Latino homeowners were at the brink of foreclosure.

Check out the infographic below that illustrates who’s being affected the most by foreclosures.