by Calculated Risk on 12/09/2011 08:30:00 PM

This is a special case ...

From the Press Democrat: Bank donates Carinalli house to homeless agency (ht Tom)

An aging, two-bedroom ranch house at the west edge of Santa Rosa, seized in foreclosure proceedings from bankrupt financier Clem Carinalli, will soon become a housing complex for people who have lost their homes.

The house, which sits on two acres and is valued at $290,000, was donated by Luther Burbank Savings to Community Housing Sonoma County, a nonprofit that has helped create 179 units of low-income housing since 2003.

The donation of the foreclosure property is unprecedented in Sonoma County and possibly nationwide, housing advocates and bankers involved in the deal said.
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Carinalli's assets, including 248 North Bay real estate properties ... according to bankruptcy documents.
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Luther Burbank Savings, which had loaned Carinalli $19.5 million, foreclosed on 19 of his properties and sold all but one ...

Considering the glut of foreclosed homes in the county ... [Georgia Berland, executive director of the Sonoma County Task Force for the Homeless] said she hoped other banks might follow Luther Burbank Savings' example.

Biggs said he thought that was unlikely, calling the donation the result of “a unique set of circumstances,” including the cluster of Carinalli foreclosures and the home's marginal appeal to buyers.