Memphis church gave homeless Katrina victim couple $75K house, couple flipped it for $88K

[Human Torch]

Jean Phillips, realtor and member of the Church of God in Christ, stands in front of a home in Memphis, Tenn., Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2006. The home had been donated to a New Orleans family displaced by Hurricane Katrina, but the family never moved into the home and soon sold it without the church's approval. Now Phillips can't locate the family. (AP Photo/Greg Campbell)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061122/ap_on_re_us/katrina_gift_house

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - A church that wanted to do something special for Hurricane Katrina victims gave a $75,000 house, free and clear, to a couple who said they were left homeless by the storm. But the couple turned around and sold the place without ever moving in, and went back to New Orleans.

"Take it up with God," an unrepentant Joshua Thompson told a TV reporter after it was learned that he and the woman he identified as his wife had flipped the home for $88,000.

Church members said they feel their generosity was abused by scam artists. They are no longer even sure that the couple were left homeless by Katrina or that they were a couple at all.

"They came in humble like they really needed a new start, and our hearts went out to them," said Jean Phillips, a real estate agent and member of the Temple of Deliverance Church of God in Christ. "They actually begged for the home." The church was also shocked by an ungrateful interview the couple gave with WHBQ-TV in Memphis. "I really don't like this area," said Delores Thompson. "I really didn't, and I didn't know anybody, so that's why I didn't move in and I sold it."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061122/ap_on_re_us/katrina_gift_house

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. The concept of a $75,000 house boggles my mind.

[Human Torch]

4. Yep, especially here in Silicon Valley, where the median price is $750K...

...not that would have been a headline: "Couple given $750K house, flip it for $880K..."

:patriot:

[Scooter24]

5. lol. $75k?!?!

I'm with you on that. $75,000 would not even get you a piece of land where I live.

A 3-bedroom, 4 bath house a block over from me just sold for 1.4 million a few weeks ago.

[EdwardM]

40. I live in a $45,000 house

It's a great house!

[hfojvt]

48. mine was $35,000 five years ago when I bought it

Low end in this town was $15,000 but most of them were occupied by renters.
That house looked pretty nice.

[IndyOp]

2. There must be 100's of stories just like this one, except the grateful

couple moved in, worked hard at their jobs, raised their kids, and did a lot of volunteer work to repay the church/other organization that gave to them in their time of need.

And THIS is the story that winds up in the media - the one story about two assholes.

:(

[Human Torch]

6. They need to back up Glenn Beck's assertion that...

...the Katrina victims were "scumbags." The media takes care of its own. Sickening, eh?

:patriot:

[YellowRubberDuckie]

26. Um, as someone who works with Katrina victims on a daily basis...

A lot of them ARE scumbags. I cannot tell you how many people forged insurance checks and treat us like dirt. They were victims after the storm hit, now most of them are just greedy and using their situation to get as much as they can out of people. Some of them are the most manipulative people I've ever seen in my life.
Now on the other side of the coin, I've seen just the opposite and absolutely enjoyed working with some of them. These are the exception however, and it's sad.
Duckie

[Human Torch]

34. There are scumbags in every single segment of humanity...

...but Beck made a "blanket statement." I don't know about percentages, but I would be willing to bet that Beck's assessment didn't come from working with Katrina victims as you have. That's the difference...you can talk about what you know and have experienced. He's talking out of his ass.

:patriot:

[YellowRubberDuckie]

36. This is true.

[brentspeak]

43. You deserve a lot of credit

for giving up your time to help the victims of Katrina. And then to be treated like garbage by the very people you're trying to help? A medal. Hopefully, karma will repay the ingrates.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

49. I work at a mortgage company....

I monitor repairs and give them their insurance funds as they need it.
Duckie

[Ezlivin]

3. With a little more work they could have gotten $98K

Really, don't any of these people watch "Flip This House"?

[SoCalDem]

7. The church would have served more people by selling that house themselves

and giving 75 families $1000.00.

[ecstatic]

15. true. what's the point of plopping out all that cash on one house

As opposed to spreading the wealth and maybe taking on one or two monthly mortgages.

[TheCowsCameHome]

24. Absolutely. Talk about all the eggs in one basket.

Wierd.

[Boojatta]

41. The church could have served even more by not selling the house.

The church could have made a deal:
the couple would get $6,500
the church would get $6,500
and 75 families would get $1,000 each.

[SoCalDem]

45. That's true....but.....

For a church...any church to "give" one "family" a large amount of money or a house, makes it seem as if the rest of the people are somehow less worthy.
What did this ONE couple do or say that somehow made them so special.

There are families who are taking care of an elderly relative and children, who would have certainly "deserved" a home of their own too.

Churches have to be kind of like parents...impartial and fair to all the "children".

Playing favorites..like giving a HOUSE to a couple seems a bit over the top, when so many people are in such dire need.

[Little Wing]

47. It makes the church members feel better, and there would've been something

they could drive by once a week and think about what wonderful human beings they are for giving away an entire house.

1,000 / 75 ways? meh, where's the visual reward in THAT? :sarcasm:

[AnnieBW]

8. Geeze

I could own about 5 houses in Memphis for what I could sell mine in the DC area for! Either that, or I could own Graceland.

Guess this shows ya that no good deed goes unpunished.

[NOLADEM]

9. What's the problem? Wasn't it a gift?

I don't get the problem. Typical of a Christian charity to complain about how a gift was used. IT WAS A GIFT. You don't get to tell someone what to do with it.

These people were no doubt helped by the donation. They surely have used the money for getting their lives back in order, and if they didn't, so what?

If you were a Katrina evacuee and someone offered you a free house, you would take it in an instant, and if you didn't want to live there, you would sell it and move to where you want to live.

Look, there just might be a reason the house is $75k. Maybe the area SUCKS. Could be. Just sayin.

The house was a gift. The people did with the gift what they thought they should.

It is the church's fault for not establishing criteria if they were so concerned about controlling the use of the house.

The church would have been far better off letting them use the house for free or like others have said, sold the house and helped more people with less money per.

But I do NOT share the anger at this family. Here in New Orleans, families are having to do WHATEVER they can to move on. This to me is nothing. Tasteless? Sure. But are you really gonna concern yourself with what people think of you when your home and lives were just destroyed and someone offered you a way out? Nope.

[Kingshakabobo]

11. Of course, you are assuming they weren't scamsters from the get-go. nt

[Donnachaidh]

14. I cannot believe this church, or this realtor would give up a house

without doing *any* research to assure themselves that these people weren't scam artists. A bag of clothes, a hot meal -- yeah, here you go. A house?

uhhh no.

[gratuitous]

18. Agree and disagree

The house in the picture that accompanies the original post looks pretty substantial. Nice brick construction. Hard to tell if the neighborhood is any good from the picture, though.

But as for the folks who begged for a house to live in, to simply piss on the gift, disappear from the area without so much as a thank you and take the $88,000 they got for the house? That seems a trifle ungrateful. I join with the church folks who now have no idea if they helped a suddenly homeless family that lost everything in a natural disaster, or if they got taken by a couple of scam artists.

Yes, the house was an outright gift. People with a conscience, however, might have offered to split the money with the church; $44,000 should be enough to put the couple back on their feet, and sharing the proceeds would be a way of paying back such generosity as they were shown. Also, we don't know: The house might also have been given with the understanding that it was for the people to live in, not sell and vanish with the proceeds and then badmouth the city and people that gave it to them.

The people that will suffer for this will be the next folks who need some help, because they will get treated with the suspicion and scrutiny that these people have earned.

[Kingshakabobo]

20. The church should have placed a .........

........forgivable lien of, say, 10 years or so that would be called due in the event of sale or conversion to non-owner occupancy - That would be standard procedure for community organization gifts.

But then again......their business acumen seems to be lacking...........they must not be one of those mega-churches with Lear Jets and meth-addict pastors.......in other words - real church.

[Solomon]

19. Finally.Somebody gets it right. Thank you Noladem. You are exactly

right. It was a gift and they could do with it as they saw fit for themselves. Nothing to see here.

Wonder how many people here would accept being forced to stay in a house, to not ever be able to sell it.

[Kingshakabobo]

21. It is usual and customary for community organizations to .......

..........attach strings to gifts/grants like these. I work in the business and I've seen most organizations attach a stipulation for partial recapture in the first 9 years(based on a sliding scale). Of course, the recapture could be waived due to certain circumstances like job relocation, divorce etc.

[Tansy_Gold]

22. Exactly.

A gift is a gift. It's not a loan; it doesn't have conditions.

My friend bought a leather coat because it was on sale, even though it didn't fit her. A year later, she gave it to her daughter who lived in Chicago. But then the daughter moved to LA and gave the coat to a friend. My friend was outraged. "Why didn't you just give it back to me?" she screamed on the phone to her daughter.

"Because you gave it to me. It was mine, it wasn't yours any more."


Tansy Gold

[Christa]

25. I so agree with you

It was their house - and they can do with their own house whatever they want to.

It's their business too - what they do with their own property.

[KSU Wildcat]

28. That will teach them fundys a thing or 2...nt

[Blue_Tires]

32. i see what you are saying

and the couple had every right to do what they wanted with the home, but this shit was BEYOND shady...we'll see if karma catches up with them somehow

[NOLADEM]

35. Karma? Are you fucking kidding me?

These people just had their entire region flooded to the rooftops in a man-made and natural disaster the worst this nation has ever seen, their homes destroyed, their neighbors flooded, their community wiped out, their land made poisonous, their jobs vaporized, their children's schools washed away.

Karma? These people were due a good turn. Not saying I agree with it all, but every one of us would have done the same thing if we had nothing, needed everything and were offered an imperfect solution. They made do.

Are you telling me you could have stared your wife in the face and said' I turned down the free house worth $80,000 because we aren't planning on living here long....Let's get back in the car and get some sleep.'? I couldn't.

[Blue_Tires]

37. the story said the church wasn't even sure they were real victims

the 'couple' also said they wanted to resettle in Memphis....


if they were honest-to-god victims of the tragedy, and simply changed their minds, then i take back what i said....but this is looking more and more like some hustlers trying to cash in on some gullible church's sense of generosity

[mondo joe]

38. The burden is on the church to manage its giving. Sounds like they may

have seriously messed up.

[Dorian Gray]

42. Yes , I think you have a point, Mondo joe

the church did mess up. They should have been much more careful about giving the money to this couple who may or may not have been scammers. Being in the business of grant giving myself, there is a lot of oversight that I do in order to make sure that the money and/or goods that we donate are used in the proper way for the proper purposes. I'm not giving "gifts." I'm giving "grants."

The church does claim that it was a gift, however, and as such, the couple should be able to do with it what they wanted. Having said that, I think that they probably did take advantage of the church, and if the church leadership was better organized, they would have made it a charitable donation in the form of a grant with the proper stipulations. They could have kept the property in the church's name and allowed the couple to live there while getting back on their feet. They could have done a lot of different things. Sadly, as a result of their lack of due dilligence, it looks like some hucksters took advantage of their good natures and their good hearts. Which is awful, though I don't know if it is punishable or illegal. Unethical? Yeah.

ETA: That's quite a nice home for $78,000-$88,000! I wish I could get a place here in NYC that big for that much!

[XOKCowboy]

39. I totally agree.. I chuckled when I first read the article...

but then again I'm not a fan of churches in the first place much less those that give with "conditions". Sounds too much like Compassionate Conservatism.

I certainly don't blame that family whatsoever. I do hope that they use the 80K to resettle in NOLA but I'm certainly have no sympathy for the church.

[brentspeak]

44. Uh, yeah.

In all likelihood, the church is pretty liberal. Which would make you look pretty....

[Donnachaidh]

10. uhhh -- the operative word here was GIVE, wasn't it?

How is it any of the church's business WHAT they did with it? I say good for the couple -- they got something they could use, and they got to go home. To NOLA.

[BlackVelvet04]

12. Sounds to me like the church didn't consider it a gift at all....

that there were strings attached.

They GAVE her the house and she rightly assumed it was hers to do with as she pleased. Did she sign a pledge to stay in that house? I doubt it. Maybe she is separated from her partner and wanted to go home.

[ecstatic]

13. If the money was used to buy a nicer house, then I see nothing

wrong with the picture. If truly Katrina victims, the couple needs way more than a house. They also need cash. Ironically, I think Joshua Thompson said it best when he said, "Take it up with God." When you give to someone else, it's supposed to be out of the kindness of your heart, trusting that it will work out for the best. If the person on the receiving end is dishonest, it's tragic, but at least your conscience is clear (or at least should be--same concept applies to tithing).

[Nimrod2005]

16. Good move --- Well done!!!

[Horse with no Name]

17. Do we not remember the entire Katrina story?

One has to wonder if the "church money" came from all that faith based money that our government gave the churches to help the survivors.
*IF* one person was able to get enough money out of the government(and I have no doubts about where this money came), then it was worth whatever they had to say or do to get it.
The money should have gone directly to the people to start with and NOT to the churches.
Many of the churches were DENYING help to those that were not of their faith. So if this couple lied to get the help they should have been given in the first place, I, for one, don't give a flying fuck.
I hope they took their $88k back to New Orleans and are successful in rebuilding their lives there.

[TheCowsCameHome]

23. $75k won't buy a tool shed around here.

Geez. What a deal.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

27. Where do you guys live!?

Here in Oklahoma City there are some small, historic, yet redone houses you can buy for under that.
Duckie

[TheCowsCameHome]

29. New England coastline.

Everything is out of sight. Building lots in a subdivision down the road are starting at 325K.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

31. Jesus.

[AlCzervik]

33. i grew up in mass and now i live in Ca. which was good because the obscene

housing prices here made me feel right at home.

[AlCzervik]

30. the key word is "Gave" not "Let use" or "Borrow" now that being said

i think it's pretty tacky what they did but again "Giving" usually implies no strings attached.

[bobbolink]

46. yup, all us homeless people are bad, so no use trying to help us at all.

Why am I not surprised?

[-..__...]

50. A couple of snakes in the grass took advantage of someone elses charity.

What else is new?

[slaveplanet]

51. It's not stealing

When ability in garnering sympathy trumps the discernment of the giver.

Giver beware...takers of the world are in no short supply.