Minneapolis woman, facing eviction-foreclosure, gets last-minute reprieve

Allie Shah, Star Tribune

Rosemary Williams, third woman from right (partly obscured by man), learned hours after getting an eviction notice that she doesn’t have to leave. Supporters had been prepared to fight through civil disobedience.

A Minneapolis nonprofit developer has agreed to buy the home of Rosemary Williams and strike a deal so she can stay there.

By ALLIE SHAH, Star Tribune

Last update: July 25, 2009 - 8:18 AM

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Rosemary Williams, whose fight to stay in her foreclosed home in Minneapolis has attracted national attention, has won a last-minute reprieve -- and possibly more.

Hours after getting an eviction notice Friday, Williams, standing barefoot on the wooden porch outside the house where she's lived for 23 years, said she learned that she can stay for now and, perhaps, for good.

The Greater Metropolitan Housing Corp., a local nonprofit developer, said it has agreed to buy the home from GMAC Mortgage and allow Williams to live there through a rental or other arrangement.

"It's all taken care of. We expect to close within a week," the organization's president, Carolyn Olson, said Friday evening. Olson said that she had signed the paperwork to buy the home for $90,000 and sent it to GMAC. GMAC officials could not immediately be reached.

The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office had served the eviction notice on Williams, 60, early Friday, which would have required her to leave within the next few days.

She and her supporters had planned to block authorities from removing her by using non-violent civil disobedience and scheduled a news conference Friday to detail their plans.

Instead, Minneapolis City Council Member Elizabeth Glidden announced the negotiations between a potential buyer and GMAC that would allow Williams to stay.

"We know that the Sheriff's Office is holding off," Glidden told the crowd, who cheered loudly.

Lisa Kiava, a spokeswoman for the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, said Williams had been served paperwork, adding, "we're not taking any action on the writ of execution until we have more information."

Williams is a divorced mother of three who took out an adjustable-rate mortgage to get $12,000 to pay some bills. Her payment jumped from $1,200 to $2,200 a month. At the same time, she lost her job and stopped making payments. The house went into foreclosure and was sold at an auction last fall.

She was ordered to leave the house by March 30, but she refused. The new owner, GMAC Mortgage, went to court to have her evicted.

Williams' family has lived on Clinton Avenue for more than 50 years, and she and her mother built the house where she now lives.

There are seven foreclosed homes on her block, including a boarded-up one across the street that was tagged recently with this sardonic message: "What housing crisis?"

Williams' case has attracted the interest of filmmaker Michael Moore, she said, as well as several local organizations. They include the Minnesota Coalition for a People's Bailout and the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign.

"She has become a symbol of what so many people are going through," Glidden said.

Sitting on her porch Friday after the crowd left, Williams said: "I had a sign in my bathroom that said, 'I believe in miracles.' This morning I looked at that sign and said, 'Yes.'"

Allie Shah • 612-673-4488