DETROIT, MI — For 22 years Baxter Jones was a certified gym teacher in the Detroit public school system. He had purchased a home in Jackson County that he had planned to retire to, when an automobile accident in 2005 that left him with a closed head injury and spinal cord damage changed everything. Following two years of intense rehabilitation, Baxter returned to work. Although capable of performing his job and willing to do so, he was refused his old job back. Baxter was bounced around between several schools, given overloaded classrooms, until his deteriorating health forced him to go on medical leave under the FMLA. With a system under the control of an Emergency Financial Manager, Baxter was fired in 2010, losing the benefits and pension he’d worked for.
Baxter’s home went into foreclosure in 2011 when he fell behind on his mortgage during his struggle to obtain his benefits. His mortgage had been paid up through 2010. Wells Fargo, a servicer for Fannie Mae, refused to grant any forbearance or modification to his contract that would allow him to keep his home, in direct violation of federal regulations. Wells Fargo made an offer to sell his home, valued at $58,000, back to Baxter for $254,000.00. By this point Baxter had sold off almost everything he had. Baxter only qualified for Social Security disability, the only income he could get, and he filed for bankruptcy in 2012.
Starting in 2013, Baxter made repeated attempts to buy back his home at market value, and was denied every time, in spite of the FHFA approved buyback policy that allowed home owners to repurchase their foreclosed homes at market value. In a cruel twist, Fannie Mae sold Baxter’s home for $100,000 before a stay of eviction issued by a District Judge was up.
Baxter began a hunger strike on the September 13, 2015. He wants the government to protect the most vulnerable and to hold accountable those who violate laws that protect people who need help.
In the last several years, Baxter Jones has been a highly visible activist, for himself and for others in Detroit, taking his fight to social media and the streets. He was one of the Homrich Nine, arrested for blocking the trucks belonging to Homrich, a private company hired by the city to shut off residents’ water. He has been a visible and vocal advocate for others in Detroit who are facing foreclosure, and a staunch advocate for the vulnerable and disadvantaged, through a Facebook page named after his familiar calling phrase “Beat Back the Bullies.”
Baxter’s story is an all-too common one: people are daily discarded by a system that values profits over the wellbeing of people. Baxter’s fight is our fight. His hunger strike continues. Where it goes is far from certain. Institutions such as Fannie Mae and Wells Fargo will do what serves their best interests first and foremost. A system that cannot provide for the most vulnerable members of society is a system in decay. It is time to “beat back” the bullies who profit from suffering and fight for a new system.
Reach Baxter at advocates4baxter.org/
