Brigitte Walker graduated high school in 1985, and entered the military instead of going directly to college. “I decided I would join the military while I figured out what I wanted to do next…I wound up staying in.” She served in Bosnia, Korea, Kuwait, and was stationed in Egypt after 9/11, and she received multiple decorations and commendations, including a NATO medal. She went to Iraq with the 834th AG Postal Company, 3rd Army. Like a lot of women in the military, her service record is actually downplayed by the misleading distinction of “non-combat role” in a situation where everywhere is a combat zone. “We don’t get credit for everything we did because people say, ‘oh, you were a postal unit,’ but we were the first boots on the ground. We did everything. We built everything we needed. We did force protection, perimeter check, everything…It was bombs and guns every day.”
She bought her house while on active duty and qualified for it with her full Staff Sergeant’s salary. But being exposed to the vibrations from close mortar fire day after day damaged her spine and left her with a crippling case of PTSD; she was put on medical hold in 2004 and went through surgeries and rehabilitation, hoping for a full recovery. Instead, she was medically retired in 2007 after 22 years of service. “That’s when my hardships started…I asked for help from my bank at the very beginning, but they said they couldn’t help me until I missed a payment.” [This is a common misrepresentation.] “Then when I missed payments, they still wouldn’t help me.”
That part of her story is nearly universal, especially in Georgia. The Home Affordable Modification Program passed in 2009 was intended to fund 4.1 million loan modifications; to date, just over 300,000 have actually been done. The state of Georgia is now 3rd in foreclosures nationwide (up from 4th) but is dead last in loan modifications.
Chase Bank owns Walker’s mortgage as well as that of Valerie Jones, the other homeowner being defended from foreclosure by Occupy Atlanta, and that of Vita Lee, the 103 year old woman whom the Fulton County Sheriff refused to serve with an eviction notice. Their relationship to Brigitte Walker has been filled with misrepresentations, lost paperwork, delays, and contradictory information. “I was told that I could not include part-time work as part of my income…Then after I was already denied [modification], someone else told me that I could.”
Walker is currently on 90% disability. The home where she lives with her partner, Ajai Craig, is pleasant and filled with photographs of family, Ajai’s children as well as Brigitte’s sister Shamika who is in the Navy and Brigitte’s grown daughter Tiffany who is in the Army and stationed in Korea. “I sometimes feel like I don’t care, they can just take it. But I don’t want to move out of this house. This is the last big thing I got before I left the military. It’s a symbol to me.”
Occupy Atlanta and the rest of the Occupy movement are clear where the responsibility lies. The financial industry used the global economy as a giant slot machine, one that always paid out for them because when their speculations proved foolish the government stepped in to bail them out. They created the housing bubble and when it burst, shifted the consequences onto tax payers. The banking industry continues to make record profits and in fact continues the practices which created the crash of 2008. Meanwhile millions of homeowners, including Ms. Walker, have mortgages that are underwater as a direct result of the finance industry’s speculation on derivatives. Millions more have lost jobs because of the wrecked economy. The banks have not only not suffered any consequences from their reckless behavior, they drag their feet on making loan modifications even when given the money and a mandate to do so.
“I don’t understand the thinking here. They have dollar bills where their conscience should be…We’ve become pawns in this thing. Collateral damage, that’s what we’ve become.”
