Did Katrina Victim Dupe Memphis Church?

Out of the kindness of their hearts, a Memphis church, the "Deliverance Church of God in Christ", bought a house for $75,000 for a husband and wife who were displaced Katrina victims from New Orleans with two teenagers.

The couple begged the church to pick them to give the house to (they lost everything in the hurricane) and told them they wanted to resettle in Memphis. They were finally picked as the family who would receive the house. The wife even even rode around with church members and picked out the house she wanted.

Later, after buying the house for the family, the church found out the woman wasn't married, and seven months after recieving the home, sold it for $88,000 and moved back to New Orleans without ever moving into the house.

2 Unrepentant About Sale of Katrina Home

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.

And who wouldn't?

"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."

But she did tell the church she was resettling in Memphis, why would the church have bought a house for her if they knew she wasn't even going to move into it.

Thompson, reached at a New Orleans phone number by The Associated Press on Tuesday, thanked the church for its generosity but said she saw nothing wrong in selling the three-bedroom, two-bath house.

Awfully kind of her.

"Do I have any legal problems? What do you mean? The house was given to me," she said. "I have the paperwork and everything."

She refused further comment and hung up.

Feeling a little guilty?

After the church settled on Thompson, real estate agent Phillips helped her pick out the house she wanted, and it was bought in Thompson's name. She took possession in February and sold it in September. Property transfer records for the resale list her as unmarried; the papers from the original sale list her as married.

If there isn't anything legally wrong with what this woman did by lying in order to use the generosity of this church to get a free home which she had no intentions of living in, there sure are some moral problems here.


[edit on 26/11/06 by Keyhole]

I saw this story on the news (I think FOX), it's a shame. But if the church just signed the house over to her with no contract she had live there for a certain amount of time before selling it, etc. I doubt there's much they can do.

Absolutely terrible.

How awful to have done that to someone, in this case a whole congregation, that was willing to help someone out like that. I am just simply disgusted. I can't even verbalize how hurtful that is to me that someone did this, and I'm sure it isn't the only case.

These people make us look bad, though hopefully they didn't let this incident tarnish their outlook on all of us here, though I could understand how that would be difficult for them.

I don't believe that there is anything legally they could do.

When I think of all of those I know that would have taken that house in a heartbeat and started life fresh again if given the opportunity, they just couldn't afford a new home based on their own finances. And to see this... :shk:

This is the part that really gets to me. (The in bold part.)

2 Unrepentant About Sale of Katrina Home

"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.

These people the CHURCH bought the house for, to live in, because they were married with two kids, who told the church that was buying the house that they wanted to resettle in Memphis, have the NERVE to say, "Take it up with God'.

If that isn't ARROGANCE and a SLAP IN THE FACE, I don't know what is!!


[edit on 27/11/06 by Keyhole]

The church donated their time and money to help them for a just cause.

I'm sure God would reward them, regardless of what those scam artist's intentions were.

[edit on 27-11-2006 by DJMessiah]