Activist ejected from House Hearing 5 Detained

Dump DeMarco’ housing activists ejected from House hearing

By Arturo Garcia
Tuesday, March 19, 2013 15:13 EDT

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Topics: Ed DeMarco ♦ Federal Housing Finance Agency ♦ jeb hensarling

 

Housing activists staged a demonstration during a meeting of the House Committee on Housing Finance on Tuesday, disrupting testimony by Ed DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
According to C-SPAN, the protesters were members of several advocacy groups, including City Life/Vida Urbana, New Bottom Line, NEW ROAD, and Right to the City. At first, demonstrators stood up one at a time while DeMarco was testifying before the committee before being ordered out by chairman Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX).
After the second protester is ejected, one person can be heard saying, “I thought Barney Frank had retired,” a reference to the former Massachusetts congressman, who has accused the housing industry of fostering a climate that led to the country’s mortgage crisis.

www.homesforall.org

Shortly after the second ejection, a third person holds up a sign saying, “Dump DeMarco,” leading Hensarling to ask Capitol police to escort a group of about 12 demonstrators out of the hearing.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we’re not gonna allow you to disturb this hearing as part of the people’s House,” he said as the demonstrators were led out.
Last year, protesters gathered outside DeMarco’s home in Silver Spring, Maryland criticizing his performance.
Watch video of DeMarco’s testimony being derailed by protesters, posted on Tuesday, below

HOMES FOR ALL- Launch Wed March 13, 2013

Springfield plans tour to focus on housing crisis

By The Associated PressThe Associated Press
on March 11, 2013 at 7:22 AM

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www.homesforall.org 413-734-4948

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SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A coalition of housing advocates in Springfield will host a city-wide tour to call attention to the housing crisis in the city.
The tour is part of a national campaign to be launched Wednesday in at least a dozen cities around the country. The campaign, called "Homes For All: Defend, Reclaim, Rebuild Our Communities," seeks to focus attention on the housing crisis.
Springfield-area residents who have been directly affected by evictions, homelessness, public housing destruction and foreclosure will lead elected officials and community leaders on the tour. Stops will include vacant, foreclosed property, city neighborhoods that have been hard hit by foreclosures, a homeless shelter and tenant-owned cooperative housing.
The campaign will call on the federal government to invest new resources to created affordable, accessible and safe homes.

www.homesforall.org

March on Wall St. Banks omorrow! Right here in Springfield!

From the Springfield No One Leaves Coalition: 

REGIONAL MARCH & RALLY IN SPRINGFIELD ON MONDAY!

 MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2011 @ 11AM – MARCH ON WALL STREET BANKS

GATHER AT CENTRAL & MORRIS STS. IN DOWNTOWN SPRINGFIELD 

(BEHIND THE DUNKIN DONUTS ON MAIN STREET - MAP HERE)

We’re gearing up for the biggest action yet here in Springfield. Along with our brothers and sisters in 9 different cities throughout New England join us to march on the Wall St. Banks in downtown Springfield! Folks have committed to turning out from all over the region – from hartford to providence, and Boston to the Berkshires! We can’t sit on the side while banks continue to destroy our communities — its time to STAND UP & FIGHT BACK! 

This action will culminate in a non-violent peaceful act of civil disobedience in downtown Springfield – please respect the guidelines of Springfield No One Leaves & the Regional Bank Tenant Alliance. 

ORGANIZATIONS: PLEASE BRING DRUMS, BANNERS & OF COURSE BULL HORNS! 

11 AM - Gather & Training for March Peace Keepers (if your interested in volunteering, please e-mail us)

11:30 AM - Rally in front of foreclosed & vacant homes w/ Bank Tenant Speakers, Springfield Youth and more!

12:00 PM - THE MARCH WILL LAUNCH DOWN MAIN STREET!

If you are interested in setting up for the march or being a peacekeeper for the march, please arrive by 10:30 AM

No One Leave Tag Sale - date change!

DATE: Sunday and Monday: October 9 & 10

PLACE: Breckwood Circle/Breckwood Blvd

TIME: 9:00AM-3:00PM

If you would like to volunteer/or for more info contact:

Candejah Pink 347-385-8049; Jean Jones 413-363-2738

 To donate items to the Tag Sale contact:

Deb LaFleur 413-209-9845

Springfield No One Leaves

Get on the bus! We have a right to the city!

Let’s Not Sit On The Sidelines While the Greedy Banks Try to Take Our Community!

 Please Join Springfield No One Leaves to March & Rally

With Right To The City (RTTC)

 We will be letting the banks know we are NOT going to be BULLIED anymore. Since they used OUR tax money to save themselves from drowning then we want the same. Stop causing our environment pain and suffering. They cause this dilemma and need to be responsible and do the right thing for US!

DATE: September 30, 2011

PLACE: Boston Common Band Stand

TIME: 2:00PM-5:00PM

 For more info please contact: 

Candejah Pink 347-385-8049; 413-342-1804

springfieldnooneleaves.org

 Springfield No One Leaves 29 Oakland St Springfield MA 0108 413-342-1804

NO ONE LEAVE TAG SALE!

Springfield No One Leaves

TAG SALE

Do you have items that are taking up unnecessary space?

Do you have toys that are in need of kids to play with them?

We are respectfully asking for and seeking donations for the tag sale.

Help us get our community back in order. We need the support of our town to provide funding to keep the movement growing.

Please come out and let’s fellowship!

DATE: Sat & Sun: September 24-25,

PLACE: Breckwood Circle/Breckwood Blvd

TIME: 9:00AM-3:00PM

If you would like to volunteer/or for more info contact:

Candejah Pink 347-385-8049; Jean Jones 413-363-2738

 To donate items to the Tag Sale contact:

Deb LaFleur 413-209-9845

The Costs of War

A good friend of Massachusetts, of poor people, of people of color, who is also a historian, journalist and writer, has a great piece in CounterPunch that mentions Springfield and what community organizers are achieving.  Check it out.

By VIJAY PRASHAD

"The impact of war is self-evident, since economically it is exactly the same as if the nation were to drop a part of its capital into the ocean"
-- Karl Marx, Grundrisse, 1857-58.

Reports come fast and furiously from the Pew Research Center and the National Urban League. The news is bad. The Pew report shows that between 2005 and 2009 every "racial" group lost wealth, but the losses were largest amongst Hispanics and Blacks. Inflation-adjusted median wealth of white households fell by 16%, but Hispanic households lost 66% and Black households lost 53%. As of 2009, the typical white household had wealth (assets minus debts) worth $113,149, which Black households only had $5,677 and Hispanic households $6,325. The myth of the post-racial society should be buried under this data.

The most dazzling fact is not this decline. It is what is to come. The National Urban League Policy Institute's latest study finds that unemployment for Blacks with four-year college degrees has tripled since 1992, and overall unemployment is near 1982 levels, namely 20%. Such numbers have not been seen since the Depression. Langston Hughes wrote that the 1930s "brought everybody down a peg or two," but that those on the darker side of the Color Curtain had not much to lose. That is no longer the case. The thirty years since 1965 provided a boost to the Black and Latino middle class, largely thanks to employment at the various levels of government (and salutations to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees for its battles to hold public sector wages). With unemployment on the rise, it will be difficult to build back those assets.

The shuttering of the U. S. industrial sector and the attack on public sector jobs hit the Black and Latino workers very hard. Rather than tax the rich and use these public funds to build up a different kind of economy (such as to make public rail networks), the Clinton administration harshly developed a massive prison archipelago and hacked at the modest social welfare system in the country. In the name of balanced budgets and supply side economics, a generation of young people of color lost access to decent education. It is difficult to try and get a job if your resume includes a stint in prison, often for non-violent economic crimes (such as employment in the drug economy, one of the few places to get a job in neighborhoods of the disposable class). The other place for employment, of course, was the military.  Read the rest at CounterPunch.

Photo from Travis Lawson's photostream at Flickr.

Candlelight vigil to support the Dunwell family

Fannie Mae is still pursuing a no-fault eviction of the Dunwell family even though the Dunwell family has stated their willingness and offered to pay rent, or purchase the home back at the current market value with an agreement to share any future equity appreciation. On Saturday, we will join together as a community to hold a candlelight vigil in support of the Dunwell family and make it clear to Fannie Mae that enough is enough! No-fault Evictions after foreclosure destroy our communities, leave families and children without homes and depress the value of homes throughout the neighborhood by creating more vacant and boarded up homes. 

GREED IS NO REASON TO EVICT! Come out and join the fight this Saturday! 

We are determined to stop the eviction of the Dunwell family and no-fault evictions after foreclosure throughout Springfield. 

We will block this eviction if necessary!

CANDLELIGHT VIGIL W/ THE DUNWELL FAMILY -- SATURDAY APRIL 23rd, 7:00 PM

20 Hughes Street, Springfield, MA (in Forest Park off Belmont Ave via Woodlawn St.) 

David, Yanick and their 3 daughters (8, 11 and 13) are at risk of being evicted by Fannie Mae, after their home was foreclosed on by Bank of America.

The Dunwell’s fell behind in their mortgage payments only after David lost his human service job of 17 years due to severe state and federal budget cuts to Bridgewell, the private agency that he worked for.  He had no union and no protection. Bridgewell workers are now organizing with SEIU Local 509 so they’ll have protection from such treatment. Prior to losing his job, the Dunwell's had kept on their mortgage.  

In spite of his setback, David has recently been able to return to full-time work, and his wife Yanick also works full-time as a health care worker.  They have a dual income and a reliable, rent-paying tenant downstairs. 

With their current income, they could afford to purchase their home back from Fannie Mae at real market value, or to pay reasonable rent!

This case is so simple! Don’t evict no-fault! Sell back to the Dunwell family at real market value or accept rent and market occupied. The Dunwell’s are even willing to share any future equity appreciation with the bank. This is a better deal for Fannie Mae! 

For more information see www.springfieldnooneleaves.org 

Photo from KRUMNews photostream at Flickr.

Update on the Lennon Family eviction

Take Back the Land is reporting potentially good news for Catherine Lennon and her family.  As you read about the organizing in Rochester, New York, remember that you can get involved in foreclosure prevention right here in Springfield, through the No One Leaves Campaign.  By the way, there'll be a civil disobedience training April 20, Time and place still TBA, for those who want to be involved in or supportive of this work.

In a major victory for those fighting back against the foreclosure crisis, mortgage and foreclosure giant Fannie Mae began talks with Catherine Lennon about the Rochester, NY home from which she was forcibly evicted just one day before. The negotiations, initiated by US congresswoman Louise Slaughter (NY-28), took place after Take Back the Land- Rochester (TBL- Rochester) organized a 2 week long eviction defense of the Lennon home, which ended in dramatic fashion with a SWAT team followed by a phalanx of police and multiple arrests. The goal of the talks is to get Lennon and her family back into their home.

Catherine Lennon lived at 9 Ravenwood Ave. in Rochester for seven years. Economic hard times forced some of her children and grandchildren to move into the home and the family to miss some mortgage payments. Bank of America began foreclosure proceedings shortly after Catherine's husband died of cancer. Fannie Mae, recipient of a $90 billion taxpayer bailout, took over the home and proceeded to evict the extended family of 11.

While the eviction was set for Monday, March 14, 2011, the community had other plans. TBL- Rochester organized a community eviction defense, with neighbors and supporters physically blockading the home for two weeks, preventing the family from being forced out. All that ended on March 28^th as Rochester police brought the SWAT team and an estimated 25 police cars, to forcibly execute the eviction. 7 eviction defenders were arrested, including a 70 year old neighbor still in her pajamas. However, the eviction defense did not end the fight, it only started the second phase.

After a flurry of supporter calls, emails and viral videos of intense media scrutany, the very next day, US congresswoman Louise Slaughter (NY-28) directly intervened, convening a conference call between Catherine and high level Fannie Mae officials, who are now re-reviewing her case. In addition, TBL- Rochester was contacted directly by the offices of Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, both of whom committed to step up efforts to assist the family.

Read more at takebackroc.rocus.org or takebacktheland.org. 

Photo from Michael Moore's site.

Rochester grandmother evicted, Take Back the Land members arrested

How much sense does it make to forcibly evict a woman and her seven children from a home they already have and move them into a state-funded shelter?

Our brothers and sisters at Take Back the Land have been standing watch every day to try to prevent Catherine Lennon and her children from the house they used to own.  Today, Rochester police swept in and arrested six members and a neighbor who had the nerve to object to the eviction and to the 25 cruisers that invaded the neighborhood.  The International Alliance of Inhabitants has an eyewitness report of today's events. 

Last week at Arise a woman stopped in to pick up some flyers on the potential cuts in family shelters.  We were talking about homelessness and eventually she asked the classic question, one of the questions that helped start Arise.

"Why are there so many boarded up buildings and yet the shelters are full?"


You can ask that question tomorrow when you call your attorney general and ask her/him to negotiate the toughest settlement possible with the big banks.  Crime Doesn't Pay has a number you can call that will direct you automatically.  the site helps explaoin why every call is important.

Locally, you can support the No One Leaves  Campaign.  We're working to stop foreclosures and prevent evictions right here.  An eviction blockade may not be too far in the future.

A few more calls, if you're willing, on behalf of the Lennon family and Take Back the Night:

Make Calls to Step up Political Intervention
Voice your support for the family and your horror at the heavy-handed police tactics:

Rochester Mayoral Candidates
Mayoral candidate Alex White at 585-315- 7687
   Thank for his support
Mayoral candidate Bill Johnson at 585.465.9370
   Come out publicly to support the family and stop the eviction
Mayoral candidate Tom Richards at 585-697-0924
    Come out publicly to support the family and stop the eviction

U.S. Congress
Representative Louise Slaughter at 585-232-4850
    Pressure Fannie Mae to negotiate
Senator Chuck Schumer at 212-486-4430
    Pressure Fannie Mae to negotiate

Rochester City Council
Neighbor and Councilman Dana Miller at 585-428-6048
   Thank him for his support and tell him to keep on.

Rochester City Marshal
City Marshal Responsible or Eviction: Sande Macaluso at 585-544-4888

What's going to happen to us?

8:00 am.: It's minus 13 degrees outside right now, and I wonder: what's going to happen to us?

President Obama wants to halve the funding for the  Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps eligible families pay for some of their heating costs.  This is only one of the many cuts affecting poor people that we'll be writing about in the next weeks, but one that is much on my mind as I sit by my little electric heater. This is the third year I've decided that I just didn't have enough money to put oil in the tank that provides central heating for my apartment, and instead to get by with my gas stove and space heater.  But this was more or less a choice for me.  Many don't have that choice.

The other issue really on my mind right now is housing.  Yesterday about thirty people from the No One Leaves Campaign stood outside the home of the Diaz family, as we attempted to shame Wells Fargo and potential buyers into calling of the auction of the Diaz family's home.  We didn't succeed yesterday, but the fight is not over.

More than 12,000 homes were foreclosed in Massachusetts last year.  What happens to people forced back into the rental market?  What options do they have?  Not many now, and ever fewer after the Obama and Patrick administrations get done with us.  And Obama and Patrick are supposed to be on our side!  Just keep remembering: none of these cuts would even be necessary if the rich were paying their fair share of taxes, if banks were loaning out the money we, the taxpayers, gave them, if we weren't in a state of perpetual war.Just to get this discussion started, take a look at this great flyer done by WRAP: Sorry that I'm unable to reproduce it fully.

Diaz auction postponed to Thursday

About 15 of us showed up this morning at 9:30 (auction scheduled for 10 am.) to try to stop the auction of  the Diaz family's home on Champlain St..  We chanted, held signs, and listened to a few speakers, including Ms. Diaz.  You can read the story of the predatory banks and their war against Ms. Diaz here.

We'd been out there about ten minutes when this white man in his 60's walked up and told us to go away.  Apparently he is a "neighbor" from down the street.  A few folks tried to talk to him but he just walked back down the street, shouting things like, "If you can't pay your mortgage, don't buy a house!"  I know that neighborhood fairly well and it is pretty white.  Some racism at play here?

A few minutes later a police cruiser pulled up and the officer told us we'd have to make sure we moved if any traffic came by, and we said we would, and then moved so he could pass.  (You have to understand that Champlain St., like five or six other streets in a row that run off Berkshire, are nearly cul de sacs, connected by a little road at the end used only by the few people with houses on that road.  In other words, no traffic.)

A few minutes after that, a car pulled to the side of the road-- the auctioneers from Wells Fargo National Bank!  Then along came another cruiser.  This officer said we were upsetting several elderly people in the neighborhood-- couldn't say which ones-- and that if we didn't have a permit, we'd have to leave.  While Lara was attempting to negotiate with the officer, the auctioneers decided they weren't going to go ahead that day after all, and they postponed the auction until Thursday at 2 pm.  

Of course, we'll be back on Thursday, also, with even more people (want to join us?) and a little more clarity on the permit situation.  I think we don't need one as long as we're in motion, or if we were to be on the Diaz' property-- not too easy unless we want to be knee-deep in snow.  But we'll figure it out.  No auction!  Not today, not Thursday, not ever!  Join the No One Leaves Campaign!

Foreclosure protest this Monday!

No One Leaves Campaign to Protest Foreclosure Auction of Diaz Family Home 
                      

SPRINGFIELD, MA On Monday February 7th at 10am, Wells Fargo National Bank, as trustee for an asset-back securitized loan pool, will foreclose on the home of Maribel Diaz, who lives with her three children, Josue, Maribel and Freddie, at 129 Champlain Avenue in Springfield. At 9:30 am, Springfield residents will gather to protest the auction, demand that the bank work with Ms. Diaz to give her a fair and non-predatory loan, and make clear that we will oppose anyone whose business plan is to foreclose and evict the Diaz family from their home.

The Diaz family has lived in their home since 2006, when Ms. Diaz took out a mortgage with WMC Mortgage Corporation through Millennium Mortgage to buy a home for her family to live in. She received a predatory loan. One mortgage, with a principal of $157,600 was an adjustable rate mortgage with a 7.25% interest rate that is scheduled to jump to 14.75% by 2013. That mortgage also had a balloon payment of $149,000, to be paid at the end of 30 years. Mrs. Diaz was never informed of the balloon payment. Her other mortgage, was a fixed rate mortgage with a 11.35% interest rate! Worse, the mortgage company included her then boyfriends income on the mortgage application to qualify her for the loan, but only made the mortgage out to her! 

Her mortgages were quickly sold by WMC Mortgage Corp. to Litton Loan Services who then sold her mortgages to Saxon Bank and Chase Bank. Now Wells Fargo, as trustee, is moving to foreclose. A securitized loan, the foreclosure of Ms. Diaz’s home comes in the wake of the recently decided Ibanez vs. US Bank case, which showed that banks must prove that they have the right to foreclose on an owner before they do so.

“This loan is a prime example of the predatory practices of banks that have helped create the housing bubble and the economic collapse that followed,” say Jeff Napolitano, a No One Leaves coalition member.

These same banks have received billions in taxpayer bailouts and are recording record profits while they move to foreclose and evict families throughout Springfield, leaving families homeless, homes vacant and our neighborhoods in disrepair.

With support of the Springfield No One Leaves Bank Tenant Association, Ms. Diaz and her family are continuing to work to try and get the bank to call off the auction and work with them. If Ms. Diaz is successful, we will hold a rally and press conference at the Diaz family home.

The No One Leaves Campaign is a community-based campaign working to organize residents in foreclosed homes and prevent mass evictions and displacement after foreclosure that are destroying our community. For more information visit www.springfieldnoooneleaves.org

Contact: Malcolm Chu  - 718-666-6872                       nooneleavesspringfield@gmail.com