Keyword: foreclosure
USA, Fending off the mortgage industry: Savvy activists are winning in court and on the streets, keeping people in their homes
By Valeria Fernández , ColorLines. April 13, 2009.
How one Detroit community group is saving homes and protecting human rights over the right of a corporation to make a profit.Before she was evicted from her own home, Kendra Washington took a walk around her Detroit neighborhood. She found an empty home and decided to squat with her two children. “I refused to get my kids put out on the street,” said the single mother who moved into a vacant Housing and Urban Development house.
New York passes new protections for tenants in foreclosure
Stop Evictions Foreclosure
The New York Legislature did pass a set of comprehensive amendments to various provisions of the foreclosure laws and procedures. The new foreclosure law, in addition to extending the availability of settlement conferences for homeowners to all home loans (not just the subprime loans covered last year), includes some key tenant-related provisions:
Philadelphia, Penn Haven protests poverty
Students from Penn Haven join other activist groups in a Center City demonstration against federal foreclosures
Students from the elite USA University of Pennsylvania, vowing civil disobedience, join in demands for zero evictions and foreclosures. Their actions reflect a growing awareness in the USA that the future of the vast majority of people in the US is at risk. They are ready to fight back if their government won't.
USA, Report on Renter's Rights violations in Foreclosed Properties
Protesters locked together inside Stony Ridge house against eviction (Toledo, USA, May 2010, J.D. Pooley/Sentinel-Tribune)
Despite a federal law enacted in 2009 to protect renters living in foreclosed properties, many tenants across the country are still being threatened with eviction and are being forced to leave their homes on short notice. A report released by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, Staying Home: The Rights of Renters Living in Foreclosed Properties,
explains the impact of the new law and discusses problems with its implementation, and summarizes the results of a 50-state survey of developments in state laws protecting tenants living in foreclosed properties since early 2009.
Rochester, USA, Homeless Squatting In Foreclosed City Homes
The Local Action Group (LAG) in Rochester is continuing to move "homeless people" into people-less homes. Raising housing to a human right
. Starting in January 2011 the TakeBack the Land movement will launch its winter offensive with sustained actions in key mid west cities.
Take Back the Land-Rochester has liberated two (2) homes in Rochester, NY and is planning eviction defenses for more. In the video, we meet the family saved from the street and Ryan Acuff talks about the organization's objectives.
USA, Support the National Moratorium on Economically-Motivated Evictions!
Dear Friends and Allies,I am writing to you today to request your support of our sign-on letter addressed to Congress and HUD calling for a national moratorium on economically-motivated evictions. In this time of escalating displacement by foreclosures and evictions, the Campaign to Restore National Housing Rights is demanding that our elected representatives make good on their many promises to provide our communities with much-needed relief from this instability.
Protesters march against foreclosures in Philadelphia
Protesters took to the sidewalks in Center City. (Tom MacDonald/For NewsWorks)
Two dozen people braved the cold to march around Center City to protest mortgage foreclosures.
Chanting save our homes, Members of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign took to the sidewalks in Center City, visiting closed banks to complain about how they are handling the current foreclosure situation.
New Report: “Simply Unacceptable” Homelessness and the Human Right to Housing in the U.S.
The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty has released a report card grading the United States on its response to homelessness and its compliance with the human right to housing. “Simply Unacceptable”: Homelessness and the Human Right to Housing in the U.S.
issues failing grades in more than one category, according to international standards.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors reported a 9 percent increase in family homelessness last year, and with 1.2 million foreclosures expected in 2011 – more than any other year in American history – advocates anticipate it will only get worse.
Tuesday, Dec. 6, National Campaign to reclaim houses
Communities across America will take direct action on Tuesday, Dec. 6, to challenge Wall Street profiteering that has created a housing crisis for millions of families.
USA, New wave of foreclosures threatens market
Up to 7 million homes are potentially eligible but haven’t been repossessed (Paul Sancya / AP file)
While banks repossessed fewer homes in February than a month earlier, borrowers continued to fall behind on their payments, adding to the inventory of properties headed toward foreclosure that have yet to be put on the market, according to RealtyTrac.
USA: Faces of Resistance
A family goes into foreclosure every 13 seconds in the United States of America. This video, “Faces of Resistance,” takes the statement of one family in foreclosure and connects their crisis with the national housing crisis that affects every resident in this country. Members of the Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC), a USA organization led by the poor, are mounting a foreclosure defense campaign using the experience of our members. Daily we will document the steps we take to hold onto Esther Smith’s home in hopes that others facing foreclosure can know that they are not alone and will reach out to us at info@ppehrc.org
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Catherine Lennon wins in Rochester: eviction is stopped!
Catherine Lennon- the woman Van Jones called 'the Rosa Parks of the foreclosure crisis'- won a reprieve from eviction due to a recent New York Supreme Court ruling. The ruling stays her eviction, which was set for Wednesday, August 17, 2011, and sets up a court date where Fannie Mae and Bank of America must prove they have the paperwork to evict her in the first place.“Ripples become streams, streams become rivers. . . Thanks to TBTL and all who are uniting to create a sea change in this country, ZERO EVICTIONS, YES!!!!” said Mary Bricker-Jenkins, the USACAI convenor.
Protesters march against foreclosures in Philadelphia, PHILADELPHIA, february 2011
Protesters took to the sidewalks in Center City. (Tom MacDonald/For NewsWorks)
USA, Effort Takes Shape to Support Families Facing Foreclosure
Jonathan Westin, an Acorn organizer, comforted Denise Parker, whose house was being foreclosed on, after she spoke at an Acorn training session in Brooklyn.
By FERNANDA SANTOS Published: February 17, 2009 As resistance to foreclosure evictions grows among homeowners, community leaders and some law enforcement officials, a broad civil disobedience campaign is starting in New York and other cities to support families who refuse orders to vacate their homes.