Rosemary Williams still asks visitors to take off their shoes before entering her home.

As of yesterday, it was still her home.

Williams is the 60-year-old Minneapolis mother and grandmother fighting foreclosure despite repeated failed attempts to modify her mortgage. Last Friday, Hennepin County sheriffs' deputies changed the locks and sealed the house on Clinton Avenue that she and her mother bought together 26 years ago. Dozens of neighbors and activists broke in soon after and have since staged a 'round-the-clock sit-in.

It's not surprising that Williams' plight is being followed around the world, nor that she's been featured on everything from Minnesota Public Radio to "Nancy Grace." What's surprising is how many people still think this fine mess is all Williams' fault.

"I was even ostracized by my own African-American community at first," she said, having a bite of lunch between a morning news conference and a stress-busting afternoon swim at a local pool. "They said, 'How could you let this happen?'"

As far as I can tell, her most egregious offense was having a mother who dropped dead of a stroke. A community activist who lived through segregation and whose spirit helps keep her in the fight, Williams' mother also helped her financially. After her death six years ago, problems snowballed. Williams, who is divorced, lost her job as a midwife and doula. Her siblings wanted their inheritance. A family member developed medical issues. And she was determined to keep her daughter at Howard University.

So she did what millions of Americans have done. She took out an adjustable-rate mortgage, not fully grasping what "adjustable" meant. When her monthly payments rose from $1,200 to $2,200, she turned to numerous agencies to help her find ways to reduce her payments and remain on the block where her family has lived for 55 years. She calls the experience the "foreclosure washing machine."

"You make a call and they say, 'Here are the people you need to talk to.' And you call those people and they say, 'Sorry, we can't help you.'" She laughs. "Washed around. Washed around."

While negotiations with the current owner, GMAC Mortgage (servicing the mortgage on behalf of Aurora), have failed on several occasions, GMAC was back at the table Wednesday. Williams remained hopeful a deal will be reached.

Prentiss Cox, on the other hand, remains outraged at all the finger-pointing toward homeowners like Williams.

"I have been fascinated the last two years to have a front-row seat to the rewriting of history," said Cox, a consumer protection law expert at the University of Minnesota Law School and a former assistant attorney general. "It's amazing to see how effective people in the financial services industry are at getting their own version of history incorporated in a way that works for them."

In reality, he said, the financial services industry has exploded in the last 15 to 20 years, "by inventing products that took advantage of the limits of consumer understanding and the irrationalities that most people have. No one ever made clear that you may be putting your home at risk. They promised lower monthly payments, and said you could pay it all back by just refinancing in the future because home prices always go up. It was an optimistic pitch, yes, that worked in the short term for the people selling it."

There were more than 17,000 foreclosures in the Twin Cities metro area in 2008, with the north side of Minneapolis hit the hardest. Cox, who five years ago predicted a foreclosure crisis, says there was never a level playing field between a lender and homeowners like Williams.

"Were homeowners responsible? Yeah, absolutely, for not being shrewd and tough enough to say no. It's not as if homeowners were going into banks and saying, 'Hey, can you give me a loan that will explode in two years, and an appraiser who will say my house is worth more than it absolutely is?' Then we threw a trillion dollars at the banking industry, and for homeowners? Absolutely no help from the government. It's probably good, then, that people barricade themselves in their house."

Actually, Williams stepped out Wednesday to support another woman fighting eviction. Linda Norenberg of Robbinsdale said she was inspired by Williams to fight foreclosure on her home, which her father built in 1944. She, too, sought advice from countless agencies after being given the run-around by her bank.

Williams is thinking bigger now.

"Whether I stay in this house or not is not the ultimate goal," Williams said. "The issue is to unify, and get fair mortgages and moratoriums issued on foreclosures. If you don't have your house, your mental health goes, too."

Gail Rosenblum • 612-673-7350 • gail.rosenblum@startribune.com