Elderly Woman Faces Eviction Over Alleged Fradulent Bank Loan

An 82-year-old woman is facing eviction from the South Los Angeles home where she has lived for 50 years because of a loan she and her family say is fraudulent and a misunderstanding.

Ruby Smith and her family are fighting to save the home where Smith has raised her children and grew old with her husband before he passed away a few years ago.

"This is my first home, this is just where I live," Smith said.

Smith said she found herself in a financial nightmare and possible eviction over a bank transaction years ago.

"She was going to get a loan to buy a new car," said Smith's son Gary Harris.

But the bank where she applied for the loan told her she did not qualify and referred Smith to a broker.

"A few weeks later, she found out that she had a $400,000 loan taken out against her house," said one supporter at the rally.

The money from that loan had already been transferred.

"She asked what she could do to annul it and they told her to send the money to a title company," the supporter said.

Smith sent about $287,000 and made some payments on the loan over time.

Alliance for Californians for Community Empowerment, a grassroots organization, is reviewing Smith's paperwork, trying to her sort it out.

"She paid thousands of dollars over the years in an attempt to pay off the loan as well as pay lawyers to try to straighten this out," the supporter said.

Smith's family was also questioning a document with her late husband's signature, dated after his death.

"How can he have put his name on this three year's later," Harris asked. "Someone has forged this."

Smith has a court hearing scheduled for June. She is hoping to stay in her home at least until then.

"I still have hope and I'm going to fight. They are just going to have to drag me out of here," Smith said.

Smith said she is willing to make a payment arrangement with the bank, but she is running out of time. Her scheduled eviction date was Tuesday.