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Last week, Mark Steven Diamond — who was found guilty of bilking older homeowners in the Chicago area out of money through a reverse mortgage scam — was sentenced in federal court to a 17-year prison term. In the fallout of the sentencing, an organization in Illinois is seeking to codify a home preservation program for seniors into state law, according to reporting by CBS News.
House Bill (HB) 5506, known as the Senior Home Preservation Program Act, would “provide grants to agencies to provide minor rehabilitation services to legacy resident low-income senior homeowners to preserve the habitability and safety of their homes,” according to a synopsis of the bill on the website of the Illinois General Assembly.
Rev. Robin Hood, who helped to found a coalition called Fix Our Homes Illinois, assisted with writing the bill and recently held a town hall meeting about it. Stories stemming from people who have identified themselves as Diamond’s victims are motivating Hood to keep pursuing the legislation, which has yet to move out of the Illinois House and into the state Senate.
“You’ve got plenty of supporters,” Hood told CBS. ”It’s time now to move it to the Senate. Sen. Lakesia Collins — which we’re in her district right now, the 5th District — agreed to carry the bill in the Senate, which is huge.”
Hood’s aunt was one of Diamond’s alleged victims, he said during the sentencing.
“Mark Diamond took predator to another level for me,” Hood said, according to local reporting from WGN-TV. “I don’t believe he has any remorse.”
Those who became wrapped up in the web of Diamond’s alleged scheme hope to see the measure become law. David Herron, whose late dementia-impacted mother signed what she thought was paperwork for home renovations from Diamond, never saw the promised work start. It came out later that the paperwork she signed was for a reverse mortgage, Herron told the outlet.
When asked if she had ever received any money from the arrangement, Herron said no. “Never. Not one penny,” he told the outlet.
Diamond was found guilty of inducing his targets to sign reverse mortgage loan documents but never completing the work he was said to have promised. Last week, Diamond was sentenced to 17 years in federal prison while earning a verbal reprimand from the judge.
“Buying a home is part of the American dream,” Judge Franklin Valderrama reportedly said to Diamond, according to WGN-TV. “You, Mr. Diamond, turned that dream into a nightmare.”
Ugh.
On this and a few other fronts, this has not been a great year for the repuration, messaging, and creditability of RM originators.
When I came into the industry, leadership was very strong about treating borrowers as if they were our parents or grandparents. In those days, I received calls asking me to address moral questions. Historically, many times such questions were answered by asking if the originator would feel good about doing that to their grandparents. I really did not want to hear the answer. Today the prominent response is if that originator did not do the loan, another originator would. It is an interesting but hardly welcome change in our outlook.
Then another issue has been on the rise. Who is our customer, the borrower or the referral source? Several have said that they are realizing the “client” is the referral source. Where should and do our responsibilities lie? It seems nowadays fewer and fewer situations arise where referral partners are providing poor advice. Suddenly referral sources have no bad apples unless the referral source starts giving his referrals to a competitor.
The change in attitudes seems to have gradually come about. Let us hope this is a circle where the dominance of attitudes return to where they once were.