“Foreclosure is one of the scariest things that you can possibly go through,” Vietnam veteran Randy B. said. “Because at some point it means you’re out on the street.”
Randy bought his Spencer, Massachusetts, home in 1978. Town natives, he and his wife raised a son there. In 35 years, his wife, who paid all their bills, never missed a payment. However, in 2009, their finances began to unravel when she was diagnosed with a rare form of Parkinson’s disease.
By 2012, her condition grew worse and Randy took over the household finances. Only then did he learn that they were behind on their mortgage payments. Complicating matters was the fact that their mortgage had changed hands and it wasn’t clear who the lender was.
“No one knew where to send the payments,” Randy said. “With her being so sick, she really hadn’t known what to do, and I hadn’t known what was going on.”
After her death in 2014, Randy struggled for the next three years to get back on track. But the lender was unwilling to work out an arrangement. Foreclosure was imminent—until the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Attorney General’s Office referred Randy to the SUN Initiative. After years of uncertainty, he found clarity working with SUN staff.
