KELSEYVILLE — The nationwide home foreclosure crisis is hitting home for a Kelseyville resident John Thiel, 64. Thiel is dependent on an oxygen machine.
Thiel said he and his roommate would be living out of his car if he can”t make a $650 mortgage payment by April 25. That would only be a partial payment arranged with The Money Brokers in Sacramento.
The real estate brokerage firm has accepted partial mortgage payments from Thiel on a refinance loan since October 2007 under a forbearance agreement. The agreement holds off the next step in the foreclosure process for 30 days at a time as long as Thiel pays part of the $1,070 monthly mortgage payment. The Money Brokers attorney George Eckert said that if Thiel does not pay, his house would go on the market and he could be out in three weeks.
“I”m going to be homeless, and I don”t know how I”m going to do my oxygen. The people at The Money Brokers said they were going to pull the trigger. I thought, you might as well throw the switch,” Thiel said.
Suffering from severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Thiel depends on an oxygen machine constantly. During a visit Thursday, Thiel carried a portable oxygen tank that fed him oxygen through tubes and labored to walk around the front of his doublewide mobile home without stopping to catch his breath.
COPD is a lung disease in which air sacs in the lungs are damaged, making it hard to breathe, according to information from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute found at www.nhlbi.nih.gov.
Thiel said he went into default on his loan because he was having difficulty making ends meet. He gets $891 per month in social security and disability payments. Margaret Harley, his roommate for the 11 years he”s lived in the Kelseyville home, makes $400 per month as Thiel”s in-home health provider. He pays an 11.5 percent interest rate on the loan, the going rate for a refinance loan, according to Eckert.
“We have to eat, we have to pay PG&E,” Harley said.
With mounting expenses that include car registration, a yearly $1,000 water bill and taxes, Thiel said he will not be able to make the payment this month.
“We”ve done everything we can to work with Mr. Thiel. He”s the one who chose to buy the home and refinance his debt. We can”t continue to allow him to live in his home and not make the payments just because he”s an old man with breathing problems,” Eckert said.
Lake County Community Action Agency Executive Director Georgina Lehne said she knows of no agency in Lake County that offers assistance with mortgage payments. She said LCCAA has a transitional shelter, but even that would only be a temporary fix.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
