Trump voter lost her home to new Treasury secretary

When U.S. president-elect Donald Trump named his Treasury secretary,Teena Colebrook felt her heart sink.

She had voted for the Republicanon the belief that he wouldknock the moneyed elites from their perch in Washington, D.C. Andshe knew Trump's pick for Treasury Steven Mnuchin all too well.

OneWest, a bank formerly owned by a group of investors headed byMnuchin, had foreclosed on her Los Angeles-area home in theaftermath of the 2008-2009 financial collapse, stripping her of the two units sherented as a primary source of income.

"I just wish that I had not voted," said Colebrook, 59. "I have no faith in our government anymore at all. They all promise youthe world at the end of a stick and take it away once they get in."

Ihave no faith in our government anymore at all. They all promise youthe world at the end of a stick and take it away once they get in.- TeenaColebrook

Less than a month after his presidential win, Trump's populistappeal has started to clash with a cabinet of billionaires andmillionaires that he believes can energize economic growth.

The prospect ofMnuchinleading the Treasury Department drewplaudits from many in the financial sector. A former GoldmanSachsexecutive who pivoted in the early2000sto hedge fund managementand movie production, he seemed an ideal emissary to Wall Street.

When asked on Wednesday about his credentials to be Treasurysecretary,Mnuchinemphasized his time runningOneWest which notonly foreclosed onColebrookbut also thousands of others in theaftermath of the housing crisis caused by sub-prime mortgages.

"What I've really been focused on is being a regional banker forthe last eight years,"Mnuchinsaid. "I know what it takes to makesure that we can make loans to small and mid-market companies, andthat's going to be our big focus, making sure we scale backregulation so that we make sure the banks are lending."

'He doesn't want the truth'

But the prospect ofMnuchinleading the Treasury DepartmentpromptedColebrookand otherOneWestborrowers who say they unfairlyfaced foreclosure to contact The Associated Press.Colebrookwishesshe could meet with Trump to explain why she feels betrayed by his cabinet selection after believing that his presidency could restorethe balance of power to everyday people.

"He doesn't want the truth," she said. "He's now backing hisbuddies."

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The Trump transition team has been sensitive to preserving trustwith its voters. Senior adviser Kellyanne Conway publicly warnedthat supporters would feel "betrayed" if former critic Mitt Romneybecame the choice forsecretary of state, for instance.

For Mnuchin, the fundamental problem stems from the recession. His investor group was the sole bidderto take control
of the troubled bank IndyMac in 2009. The group struck a deal thatleft the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission responsible for takingas much as 80 per cent of the losses on former IndyMac assets andrebranded the troubled bank as OneWest.

The combination of OneWest's profitability, government guaranteesand foreclosure activities drew the ire of activist groups like theCalifornia Reinvestment Coalition. It found the bank to beconsistently one of the most difficult to work out loanmodifications with even though OneWest never drew a major responsefrom government regulators.

By June of 2014, five years after taking over OneWest, Mnuchinsold the bank for $3.4 billion US at a tremendous profit.

Foreclosure being challenged

Colebrook said she learned the hard way about OneWest's tactics,after the regional bank acquired her home lender, First Federal Bankof California, in late 2009.

In 1998, she bought a triplex for $248,000 in Hawthorne,notfar from Los Angeles International Airport.

She rented out two of the units and lived in the third. Colebrookrefinanced her mortgage in order to renovate the property and helpbuy additional homes to generate rental income.

By the time the financial crisis struck in 2008, she had aninterest-only mortgage on the triplex known as a "pick-a-payment"loan. Her monthly payments ran as high as $2,000 and only coveredthe interest on the debt. Then she got ensnared in the economicdownturn.

"All my tenants lost their jobs in the crash," Colebrook said."They couldn't pay. It was a knock-on effect."

Over five years, she tried unsuccessfully to adjust her loan withOneWest through the Treasury Department's Home AffordableModification Program. But she said that OneWest Bank lostpaperwork, provided conflicting statements about ownership of theloan and fees and submitted charges that were unverified and causedher loan balance to balloon.

By the time she lost her home inforeclosure in April 2015, the payoff balance totalled $517,662.

Colebrook said she is still challenging the foreclosure in court.

She now lives with her boyfriend in the small California city ofSan Luis Obispo. She volunteers at a homeless shelter, knowing thatshe could just as easily have ended up there.

"I cook at the homeless shelter because there but the grace ofGod go I."