EXTRA LETTERS: Readers respond to foreclosure story

<p class="bold allcaps">Family evicted</p> <p>EDITOR: A.P. Giannini must be turning over in his grave to see how the bank he founded is treating its customers (“Frantic bid to save a home,” Wednesday). The Figueroa family has done everything right and should have been granted a modification loan. It saddens me to see how homeowners are being treated and then to read on a following page how the Bank of America is willing to issue state employees zero percent interest loans while their pay is being reduced. This is hypocrisy at its worst.</p><p>SANDRA LANHAM</p><p><i>Cloverdale</i></p><h3>Insensitive greed</h3> <p>EDITOR: I read with both pain and disgust the comments by Michael Cantarutti regarding the Figueroa family he evicted from their home with only three days' notice (“SR family not alone in frustration over foreclosure,” Thursday). “I'm just doing my job . . . like a police officer (who breaks) up a domestic dispute.” How dare he make that comparison?</p><p>He goes on to predict that “a year later, they will tell you, if they're being honest, that this was a great time in their life (since) they no longer have any of that debt.” This from a divorce attorney and real estate investor whose wife, Carolyn Cantarutti, a real estate agent, sells the properties that she and her husband have been buying since 2004.</p><p>It is inconceivable to me that this “investor” would not have the decency to give the family time or allow them to rent back the house from him until they found a suitable home for their family. Where is his feeling for the misfortune of others?</p><p>In my view, he and his wife should be shunned as community outcasts for the blatant greed and insensitivity shown by his words. I am not aware of the details of this foreclosure process, but I have no doubt that Cantarutti would have been better off saying, “No comment.”</p><p>JOY DANZIG</p><p><i>Santa Rosa</i></p><h3>Lenders' losses</h3> <p>EDITOR: It is unfortunate that the Figueroas couldn't have received more definitive and timely information from their lenders and that they ran into a shady loan workout company.</p><p>However, it is equally unfortunate that your journalist failed to recognize that they are not the largest financial losers in this transaction.</p><p>Yes, the Figueroas lost the memories associated with their home, but they are not out any money. They made an $80,000 downpayment and subsequently took a second mortgage for $90,000. Thus, they took their original investment out of their home.</p><p>Hopefully, they used those funds for an important purpose, unlike many Americans, who treated their homes as a piggybank and purchased cars, boats and lavish vacations. Basically, the Figueroas were renters in their own home — they had little vested financial interest. In addition, they lived rent free for one year — a financial gain.</p><p>Why is there no mention of the Figueroas' lenders' losses: $30,000-plus for the first mortgage or $90,000-plus for the second mortgage holder? Homeowners are not the only victims in this financial cycle. Middle-class individuals are often lenders, investors and shareholders, and they too are feeling the pain.</p><p>JOHN TARANTINO</p><p><i>Santa Rosa</i></p><h3>A model family</h3> <p>EDITOR: I've known Traci and John Figueroa for more than 10 years, and they are the people you pray your children will grow up to become.</p><p>How conscientious members of our society suddenly become its victims is tragic. I believe that if it can happen to this model family — hard workers and great parents — it can happen to us all.</p><p>The greed and incompetence of our banking industry may have won this round, but people like the Figueroas will eventually gather together their resources with the help of family, friends and more of their own hard work and resume their lives.</p><p>The Figueroas paid taxes that supported banks when they failed a few years ago, but “what goes around comes around” doesn't apply where banks are concerned, and there will always be that person who is looking to capitalize on this mean economy and get that great deal.</p><p>MARIAN MURPHY</p><p><i>Healdsburg</i></p>