The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Flooded home makes foreclosure inevitable

American dream turns to nightmare for woman

Nancy Williams, 51, is about to lose her Middletown home to foreclosure. Williams recently underwent heart surgery and can’t afford the repair bills needed to get her home, which has been damaged by flooding, in shape to sell.

Staff photo by Gary Stelzer Nancy Williams, 51, is about to lose her Middletown home to foreclosure. Williams recently underwent heart surgery and can’t afford the repair bills needed to get her home, which has been damaged by flooding, in shape to sell.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Lakota to discuss open enrollment proposal
Updated 19 min. ago
Beach Waterpark sued for failure to deliver
Updated 24 min. ago
Coroner called to Caesar Creek Lake where boater fell overboard
12:12 p.m.
Road closing for railroad repairs
11:51 a.m.
Worker falls 20 feet from utility pole
11:14 a.m.
> More headlines

By Jessica Heffner, Staff Writer Updated 8:47 AM Friday, February 12, 2010

MIDDLETOWN — At one time, Nancy William’s home on Gideon Road was her symbol of new life. But a year later, that home, along with her hope, is crumbling.

The decaying steps and broken front door are only the beginning signs of an American dream that has turned into a nightmare. The living room is permeated with the smell of dampness. With reluctance, Williams makes her way down to the basement.

At the bottom, the floor is still wet from the last thaw. Water had overtaken the large room and garage, spilling several inches up. William’s son, Garret, spent hours pumping it away, leaving soaked piles of indecipherable household items as evidence of the flooding. A drain in the center of the room is already brimming with water again, its contents threatening to spill over once the new snowfall melts.

It’s a $20,000 mess the homeowner, who makes less than that a year working as a tax firm manager, can’t afford after undergoing open-heart surgery and renegotiating her mortgage.

“What is it that I am supposed to do anymore?” the 51-year-old said. “I don’t have that kind of money a month to give.”

A loan modification a year ago dropped Williams’ payments about $500 a month from $835. But before she could enjoy sipping coffee in her sunroom again, it all shifted — literally.

A summer of steady rainfall saturated the ground beneath the house, making the structure slide backward. The sunroom is barely attached to the front, with mold growing where the elements have seeped in. Water fills the basement each time it rains or snows. Her homeowner’s insurance won’t cover the damage.

Now a $5,000 bill has come due for attorney’s fees associated with the loan, but all of her savings went into the refinancing. A second foreclosure notice has come in the mail, but Williams said she is ignoring it because this time there is nothing left to save.

“I would love to save this house, but I have a 3 percent mortgage already. They can’t do me better,” she said. “I can’t keep living here with the problems I’ve got. It’s inhuman.”

Williams is looking for a place that will take her two cats and two dogs. Foreclosure is just the final step, she said.

“The day (it) flooded was the day I knew I had truly lost my home. It didn’t take the foreclosure notice. That just sealed it,” she said.

Share this article