Bloomfield Woman Struggles to Save Home of Terminally Ill Father

If the story of Bloomfield resident Diane Ostering seems familiar, you may want to check out her online petition.

Ostering – who recently underwent foreclosure proceedings while trying to save her terminally-ill father’s home – is asking her lender, Wells Fargo, to modify her mortgage so that she can keep the house.

Ostering’s foreclosure experience was detailed in a NJSpotlight report:

“While Ostering’s experience is unique to her, its broad outlines tell a story that too many New Jerseyans know -- at least in part -- all too well. She has been struggling for several years to save her home, which she shares with her elderly father and sister. She has been promised help from lending institutions and state programs, only to have promised assistance disappear for no reason.”

In her online petition, Ostering explained how she arrived in her predicament:

“My dad is a veteran of the US Army, a union laborer, who stood on a picket line for 2 years in all kinds of weather when the union went on strike to save jobs for the “American Youth”, though he was subsequently forced to retire when the union was broken, leaving many bills to be paid. Soon after Dad’s retirement in the late 1990’s I was laid off. After 2 years I found another full-time job and was able to help get our family back on our feet. Things were going great and I was never late with my mortgage.”

But then things took a turn for the worse again, according to Ostering:

“When the economy crashed in 2009, I again lost my job. Since then I have had several temporary and longer-term jobs, but ASC (WELLS FARGO) denied all 5 or more modification requests… With our mortgage in distress, we cannot afford to remodel or to sell, even if we had somewhere else to go. The State of New Jersey blames WELLS and WELLS blames the State of New Jersey and I’m caught in the middle and drowning.”

See the full online petition here.