Good House Keeping : Costa Mesa S & L Calls Off Eviction, Helps Gardener Buy Back Home

On Christmas Eve two years ago, burglars broke into McHomer Edmond’s garage and stole all of the gardening equipment he used to earn his living, sparking a series of events that nearly tore his life apart.

Edmond soon developed severe asthma attacks, was unable to work and fell behind on his mortgage payments. Finally, Downey Savings & Loan in Costa Mesa foreclosed on the home that Edmond bought in 1950.

But on New Year’s Eve, Edmond received a new home loan--and a new lease on life--under a deal arranged by Downey. In making the new loan, Downey turned its back on an opportunity to pocket $40,000 by selling the house to someone else.

“I’m stepping into the new year with a different outlook on life,” said a now-healthy Edmond, 62. “I can do things differently because a lot is off my mind now.”

On Thursday, Downey and Edmond closed escrow on a new $41,750 loan on Edmond’s Central Los Angeles home, which two separate appraisers recently valued at more than $80,000.

As far as Edmond is concerned, the person responsible for his recent good fortune is Gordon Calac, the very man who was supposed to evict him and sell the house on Downey’s behalf.

“To think somebody I didn’t know--a total stranger--saw that something was wrong and began trying to correct it, that makes a person feel good,” Edmond said. “I will never forget that man.”

Calac is Downey’s manager for real estate sales, a job that requires him to get rid of properties the S&L; inherits through foreclosures. Like typical lenders, Downey quickly initiates foreclosure upon non-payment, and the proceedings are usually impersonal. Calac was the only S&L; employee to visit Edmond.

“Once it became our property, I went out to the house to see it,” Calac said. “I knew immediately that this was a different foreclosed property. Usually foreclosed houses are in shambles. This one was neat as a pin. It had a well-groomed yard and was well-kept inside.”

Edmond said he bought the home in 1950 for $11,500. He paid off the mortgage in 1960, mainly with the income he earned as a garment machine operator. But seven years later, he developed a serious case of asthma, a result of 20 years of work in the sweatshops, he said.

On workers compensation, Edmond was retrained for several jobs, including those of a barber and a shoe repairman. Each time, though, doctors determined that some substance associated with the jobs--such as hair or shoe filings--aggravated his asthma.

“Then I got a truck and started gardening,” he said. “The asthma was still bad, but you got to live and you got to do something.”

His wife of 30 years died in 1982 from heart disease, arthritis and other complications, he said. He remarried last year.

Then, in 1985, Edmond said, he needed $25,000 to pay off a debt to his brother-in-law and wanted some extra money to maintain his gardening operation. He went to Downey Savings, which loaned him $32,000 in November, 1985. A month later, the burglars struck, and his world began to unravel.

He still owed money on some of the tools that were stolen, and he had no equipment to handle the few jobs that come his way during the slow winter season. With only a meager income from the Veterans Administration, Edmond was soon unable to make house payments.

“I had so many bad things happening to me that it triggered the asthma again,” Edmond said. “I went to hospital emergency wards three or four times a week. Most nights, I slept sitting up.”

The asthma attacks lasted for months and were the most severe he has had since the first attacks in 1967, he said. The illness prevented him from working, even though he was accumulating new gardening equipment.

When the foreclosure notice came in May, 1986, he said, “I was turned around and all messed up inside and couldn’t hardly think of what to do.”

Foreclosure was “another sickness, something more on your mind,” he said. “I hope nothing like that ever happens again.”

When Calac saw the house and talked with Edmond, he realized that the beleaguered homeowner did not realize how much his house had appreciated and did not understand that he could have sold the house and realized a profit of nearly $50,000.

Edmond acknowledged Thursday that he had no idea what his options were--that he simply was trying to make the monthly payments. Had he sold the house, he would have had to find another house, but at least he would have had some money, Calac said. With foreclosure, Edmond lost all his equity.

“I figured something should be done to help him,” Calac said. “This was an unusual case. This guy was a victim of circumstance. He got caught in the system.”

Calac talked to Maurice L. McAlister, Downey’s president and co-founder, who agreed to take the issue to the board of directors. The board approved a plan to sell the house back to Edmond at Downey’s cost.

Downey’s costs included not only the original principal but the seven monthly payments Edmond missed before the foreclosure and 15 months of rent. The S&L; had allowed Edmond to remain in the house without making monthly payments while it filed special reports, waited for him to become eligible for Social Security assistance and endured other delays.

The monthly payments for the new $41,750 loan are $327, just $14 more than Edmond’s previous payments.

Edmond, back at work with a still-incomplete set of gardening equipment, said he is happy to be able to make the payments--and keep his house.