Last week’s testimony by Ed DeMarco, current acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, in front of the House Financial Service Committee touched a nerve with many, many people.
HousingWire reporter Christina Mlynski lead coverage of the events by writing about the protesters and lawmakers who were “firing off questions” to DeMarco. With so many calls for DeMarco’s dismissal, based on the fact that he will not support wide-scale principal reductions, the acting director must feel like he has a target painted on his chest.
However, the first protester to interrupt DeMarco also feels equally attacked. And for the Dominican Republic-born Ramón Suero, he’s taking it personal.
Suero accuses the acting director of destroying not just his home, his community, but the middle class as a whole.
Miriam Axel-Lute, an editor for Rooflines, the Shelterforce blog, interviewed Suero right before he temporarily broke up DeMarco’s testimony.
According to Suero, he bought a condo in 2005 and then, once he fell into distress, the bank allowed a mortgage modification, which included principal reduction, he claims.
Suero’s story doesn’t make much sense from a finance perspective, and he alleges that Freddie Mac interfered with the process as well. Regardless of what really happened, Suero is directing all of his anger at Ed DeMarco himself.
In the following video, he personally accuses the acting director of thwarting his ability to stay in his home, despite now being able to afford it. His arrest comes at 02:17.
“DeMarco refused to take my money for rent or buyback,” Suero said. “DeMarco needs to get fired by President Obama.”
Axel-Lute follows with some leading, yet important, questions:
“You have the money to pay for the loan at the current value of your house?”
“He won’t sell you your own house even though you have the financing?”
Suero resonds, “He’s just punishing me, I don’t know why.”
Later, at 01:34 of the below C-span clip, Suero personally accuses DeMarco, standing just a few feet behind him, saying he “kicked my family out.”
