Rights groups faults Wachovia's mortgage aid

[Moe Bedard]

09-03) 19:12 PDT -- As Wachovia Corp. struggles under a souring portfolio of loans inherited from an Oakland company, the nation's fourth-largest bank is proving among the least willing to modify mortgages in ways that would help local borrowers hold on to their properties, housing rights groups claim.


ACORN, an advocacy organization representing low-income communities, staged a rally at a Wachovia branch at Mission and First streets in San Francisco on Wednesday, with about 30 people calling on the bank to be more flexible in adjusting loan terms to prevent foreclosures.

"Wachovia has been the least responsive," said Grace Martinez, lead organizer with ACORN, noting that Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. have been more willing to work with distressed borrowers to find solutions. "We want them to partner and to be a good bank and start negotiating."

Wachovia spokeswoman Eileen Leveckis disputed the allegation, saying the company worked with 18,000 borrowers the past 12 months to help them stay in their homes.

"It's just so hard to respond to the (claim) that we're the 'least flexible,' " she said. "Our policy is that we have been offering modification assistance, and we continue to offer loan modification assistance, to delinquent borrowers as well as those who anticipate difficulty remaining current with their payments."

Still, ACORN wasn't the only group asserting that Wachovia has been particularly unaccommodating. Wachovia representatives have told a handful of housing counselors working on behalf of struggling borrowers that the company isn't allowing any mortgage modifications, said Kevin Stein, associate director of the California Reinvestment Coalition, an umbrella organization for more than 200 advocacy groups across the state. Two Wachovia customers independently contacted The Chronicle and said they were told Wachovia wouldn't consider altering their loans.

No group or individual, however, could point to any statistical evidence that Wachovia was less likely to modify troubled mortgages than any other large lender.

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