From the NY TIMES-Former California Homeowners Lash Out at Builder

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER

Published: April 2, 2009

LOS ANGELES — A major home builder that helped fuel the country’s building boom is now under attack for what some homeowners and builders say was its role in the bust that followed.

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Monica Almeida/The New York Times

A protest was held Thursday in Los Angeles during KB Home’s annual shareholders’ meeting.

Several former homeowners spoke here on Thursday about their disenchantment with the builder, KB Home, at its annual shareholders’ meeting. The speakers said the company had pushed them into high-risk, high-interest loans for homes they could not afford and eventually lost to foreclosure.

During the meeting, a few dozen construction workers, many of whom had their work dry up when the home-building market imploded in Southern California, protested across the street.

“I tried to communicate to the board members to try to do better for people in the future,” one of the former homeowners who addressed the board, Santiago Ramos, said after the meeting.


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