Less than a month later, right after the baby was born, they received notice that Wells Fargo had foreclosed on Morrison's mortgage and taken title to the house June 6.

They had to get out. And they had lost their $3,000. I couldn't reach Kia Morrison - who is also identified in court papers as the property owner - to comment for this column.

Jones began making frantic phone calls, to no avail. Lance Haver, the city's director of consumer affairs, intervened when their water was cut off last month.

Haver said he was rebuffed when he asked Wells Fargo to show some mercy by giving Jones and her family time to raise money to find another place, provide them a specific date to vacate, and restore the water until then.

"They're living in limbo, that at any moment, they could be thrown out," Haver said.

He argued that having the house occupied until it was resold would prevent vandalism.

"It was my hope that the mortgage company would have a heart in recognizing the family was victimized.

"They don't stand to lose a single cent - and in fact, by having the family there, they're protecting their interests."

But the bank declined to do anything. Haver had the water turned on himself. Bank attorney Martha Von Rosenstiel said, "I don't have any information" about the occupants being victims of a scam.

She told me she couldn't discuss the specifics of the case, and said her job was to get her client "possession of a property they own."

Haver said he explained the scam at length to the lawyer's assistant and said the bank was just being "meanspirited, cold and heartless."

There already are - incredibly - 100,000 people on the PHA waiting list. If PHA sells off thousands of units, as spokesman Kirk Dorn told me yesterday it might, the situation will be even more dire for people needing affordable housing.

"There's a crisis in affordable housing that's getting worse every day," said tenant activist Phil Lord. "It's evident that things are changing in a way that hurts people who are on the fringes;

they're vulnerable to this kind of scam."

Wilhelmina Jones mourns the loss of the paycheck that would have bailed them out. Her daughter, Janaya, 24, has returned to work as a hairdresser at a South Philadelphia salon and is trying to rebuild the business she lost during her maternity leave.

They're trying to figure out how to get the money together to find another place to live.

"It's horrendous the burden we've been inflicted upon because these people want to pull a scam," Jones said. "Something needs to be done." *

E-mail porterj@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5850. For recent columns: