$4 billion of the settlement will go to consumer relief, but it's still not clear where that money would go. $3.3 billion was earmarked for foreclosed homeowners as part of the Independent Foreclosure Review Settlement, which resulted in most homeowners, many of whom had lost their homes, receiving checks of $300 to $500.

“The first priority of the settlement should be to keep people in their homes,” said Jaymie Kelly, who has lived in her south Minneapolis home for 30 years and is now facing imminent eviction by JPMorgan Chase and Freddie Mac. “JPMorgan Chase refused to work with me after I fell behind on a predatory loan, even though I had paid for my home five times over. Now they want to evict me from my home of 30 years. I am not interested in a settlement check. I want a negotiation with principal reduction to stay in my home.”

Kelly, who bought her home in 1983 for $74,900, has paid $425,000 for it over the years. When Chase foreclosed on her, they claimed she still owed $255,000. Instead of modifying her loan, they sold her home to Freddie Mac, which is aggressively pushing to evict.

Kelly is fighting an eviction defense campaign with Occupy Homes MN. On Oct. 8, 150 community members blockaded the sheriff's attempt to evict her. JPMorgan Chase and Freddie Mac have filed for another eviction order to remove Kelly from her home, but Kelly is not going anywhere.

“No settlement check could make up for the trauma of being forced out of my home of 30 years,” said Kelly. “If this settlement doesn't keep me in my home, my community will. I am not leaving.”

#MinneapolisMN #HousingStruggles #JPMorganChase #HomeForeclosures #OccupyHomesMN #HouseStruggles #JaymieKelly

Kelly, who has paid the value of her home five times over, was scheduled to be evicted by Freddie Mac and the Hennepin County sheriff's department at 10:30 this morning, on her daughter Sinead's 23rd birthday, but a rapid community response forced the sheriffs' deputies to reschedule.

“The government is shut down, but Freddie Mac evictions are still considered an essential service. But the power of community is too big to fail,” said Kelly. “Today's blocked eviction is the greatest birthday present I could give my daughter. I am not moving, and my neighbors stand with me.”

Freddie Mac, which operates under the federal agency FHFA, is continuing its evictions of Kelly and others in spite of the government shutdown.

“Sheriff Stanek and the big banks don't want to do their dirty work in front of 150 community members,” said Nick Espinosa, an organizer with Occupy Homes MN whose family successfully fought off foreclosure last year. “But we will be ready for them at any hour of the day or night. Jaymie's not going anywhere, and neither are we.”

#MinneapolisMN #HousingStruggles #Evictions #governmentShutdown #HomeForeclosures #OccupyHomesMN #HouseStruggles #JaymieKelly #FreddieMac

Minneapolis, MN – 75 community members turned back 30 sheriffs who were trying to evict people from the Ceballos home, July 24. Two home defenders were arrested in acts of civil disobedience.

Under orders from Sheriff Richard Stanek, deputies kicked in the door without warning at 12:40 p.m. One home defender was cut out of a barrel filled with concrete by deputies wielding a jackhammer and saw.

During the eviction attempt, community members drove sheriffs into the backyard, where they retreated after boarding up the property. The Ceballos' family, friends and neighbors removed the boards and returned into the home.

JPMorgan Chase Bank had told the Ceballos family that they were considering them for a loan modification, but then filed for eviction at the same time. This process is known as dual tracking and is illegal under the national mortgage settlement. On July 22, Chase asked for another loan modification application from the Ceballos family, which they accepted July 23.

“Yesterday we went to Chase because they said they would help us,” said Jonathan Ceballos. “Today the sheriffs show up at our house to evict. The question is, to the sheriffs and to Chase – who are you helping? They want to see another empty house but it's not going to happen, because we the people are here to support one another. We hope Mayor Rybak will not send police to attempt another eviction of my family while we continue to negotiate with the bank. We don't need any more arrests.”

The Ceballos family lives in south Minneapolis' Eviction Free Zone, a community where neighbors have pledged to stand up against unjust evictions.

#MinneapolisMN #HousingStruggles #Evictions #JPMorganChase #HomeForeclosures #RichardStanek

Public discussion of foreclosure is usually confined to government and banks, experts and government, etc. That won’t work because it leaves out the power of the people. The mortgage wreck is a systematic fraud against homeowners by the banks.

Esmay Parchment bought her home in Irvington in 2004. At the time sales and turnover were everything in the housing market. Price fixing by the banks was universal. Speculators flipped houses every day to rake off profits from zooming prices. Huge closing fees were to be had by realtors.

Parchment’s realtor prevented her from looking at the basement of the home she bought, which had problems. The city inspector’s report made no mention of major defects of the roof. Her attorney alerted her to none of these dangers.

Then the mortgage market began its collapse, and the economy went into crisis. Nonetheless Ms. Parchment paid her mortgage every month plus an extra $1000 for early principal reduction.

In 2009 she applied for a mortgage modification. The servicer took her package of documents and did nothing, only to ask months later that she re-apply. The runaround happened repeatedly. Millions of homeowners have had the same experience with the Obama administration’s Home Affordable Mortgage Program (HAMP). It was a scam to allow banks to string homeowners along so that millions of foreclosure filings would not hit the courts all at once.

In 2012 Parchment had serious health issues. Appealing to the mortgage servicer for help, she was told, “The bank is in business to make money.” A little later she was told she would receive no modification. Currently her house is valued at half what she paid for it, but she holds 60% of equity against the price she paid. If there were any such thing as justice she would gain full ownership plus a 20% rebate of current value, based on the fraudulent original pricing.

Earlier this year she began to attend meetings of the Coalition to Save Our Homes. “Then I realized I was not the only one,” she said to a storm of applause.

Linda E. Fisher of Seton Hall Law School had earlier told the assembly of the “mind-boggling level of fraud” by mortgage bubble lenders. They made loans they knew borrowers could never repay. Brokers falsified mortgage applications; falsified documents were submitted in closings: mortgage security trustees cannot verify that they own mortgage notes. Court rulings favorable to homeowners have shown fraud.

Mortgage securities investigator Laura Walsh went even further. She charged that trustees never verified that mortgages allegedly belonging to securities issues were actually held by them. She charged that many mortgage based securities contain no mortgages at all. Many are held by retirement funds. Retirees might think there is $100 million in a mortgage fund for their pensions but there is nothing there. “We want people to be held accountable,” she said, calling for enforcement of securities laws.

Homeowner Michael Spruill said mortgage bust terminology deals with water – banks get bailouts, mortgages are under water. “They sucked money out of our community and poured it back on us,” he said. “If nothing is done they will continue sucking that money out of us. The same people are investing in prisons while schools are being closed. They don’t want to educate us. If you are educated you understand the government has responsibility – deregulation allowed it all to happen.”

Irvington Township Councilman David Lyons replied, “When a banker, a respected member of the community, tells you that you can afford a home you believe him. But he’s no more than a thug. If a thug on the street took your money he’d be in jail.”

Cynthia Johnson talked of a high note of homeowner resistance last year when many individuals joined and picketed at her mother’s house in Orange on the day she was scheduled for eviction, forcing a postponement. After that, ongoing people’s struggle forced giant JP Morgan Chase to admit it had no financial interest in the house. Johnson said her mother had been subjected to so much stress she still won’t leave home for fear she will not be able to get in when she returns. Speaking of local officials, she said “Leaders should step up and be leaders. If they empty out the cities nothing will be left.”

The Irvington Municipal Council had passed a resolution the day before that included a list of action items to address the mortgage crisis, appended below. The resolution was read aloud at the end of the assembly, in an inspiring atmosphere of people’s unity.

The meeting was sponsored and organized by a range of grassroots people’s organizations including the Coalition to Save Our Homes, NJ Communities United, the Irvington Branch of the NAACP and the People’s Organization for Progress.

Big financial corporations are the dominant institutions of United States society. Government and regulators are controlled by them. Their unquenchable thirst for profits is swallowing the means to meet every human need. But they have a weakness: a great many people hate them. The hearing showed that when people come together in a united effort to oppose them the struggle can indeed surge upward. What happened in Irvington can happen in virtually any community in the United States.

The action items of the municipal resolution are as follows:

• There must be federal and state criminal investigations of lender wrongdoing in the housing bubble. • County prosecutors must investigate wrongful lender claims of foreclosure standing for possible criminal violations. • There must be comprehensive and uncompensated write-downs of overvalued mortgage bubble principles to reflect the true market values of homes. • Eminent domain must be used as a tool for mortgage principal reduction. • Bring mass pressure for an Essex County moratorium on foreclosure evictions until mortgage principals are reduced to true market value. • The County needs to put procedures in place to determine whether or not plaintiffs hold a valid interest before foreclosures can proceed in court. • The State of New Jersey must make more timely allocation of funds for homeowner assistance. • Enforce Irvington's vacant property ordinance to bring much-needed revenue to local coffers and offset the negative budget impacts of the foreclosure crisis. • Bring a class action suit on behalf of homeowners against the banks. • Congress must speedily approve an appointee to head the FHFA, which holds Fannie Mae in receivership, who will proceed to write mortgage principals down according to Pres. Obama’s directive.

#IrvingtonNJ #HousingStruggles #mortgageCrisis #CoalitionToSaveOurHomes #HomeForeclosures

All roads lead to Wall Street. Both predatory lending and closings of public schools are due to Wall Street’s plunder of every human need in order to seize money for its profits.

Both predatory lending and school closings are particularly aimed at communities of people of color. Essex County, New Jersey, in which the cities of Newark and Irvington are located, has the highest foreclosure rate of any county in the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut region. Irvington and Newark are among the hardest hit in Essex. Both have high concentrations of Black and Latino people. Also, more than 20 Newark schools have been closed in the last three years. All but one are in areas that serve African American neighborhoods.

Also, combined struggles on more than one front strengthen every area of the people’s struggle for economic justice. The battles for a real national health care system for all, a good quality public school education for all, full employment in good-paying jobs, and others, are closely linked.

For several years there has been a huge uproar in Newark against school closings. Thousands have turned out at public meetings to oppose the actions of the dictatorial Trenton-imposed administration.

Annette Alston of the Newark Teachers’ Association said students find themselves suddenly forced to attend charter schools far from where they live. There is a new teachers’ evaluation rubric that is either not understood by administrators or abused by them. Teachers are forced out of their jobs and careers for no good reason. A recent study found charter schools in Newark outperform public schools. However, the study did not take into account that charter schools select students from households with high parental involvement; they expel others they do not want, and so forth. It is only being done to save money on public schools. Years ago women were attacked for being witches, she said. Now teachers, who are mostly women, are being attacked. It also appears that a large proportion of affected teachers are black.

Kathleen Witcher of the Irvington NAACP, and a retired educator, gave an evaluation of charter schools based on her family’s experience. Her children went through Newark public schools and went to colleges like Stanford, Rutgers, and USC; one has a PhD. She has grandnieces in charter schools. Her monitoring turned up things she called horrendous. Students are not taught mathematics from axioms but from ditto sheets – just plug in the numbers and keep going. A grandniece won a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school but couldn’t write essays because they had not been taught in charter school. Meanwhile the state of New Jersey is being allowed to shortchange public schools.

Sharon Smith of Parents Unified for Local School Education (PULSE) quoted Dr. Martin Luther King who spoke of people who sleep through a revolution. She said we are in a revolution now and must find new responses. Public schools are destroyed by the lack of resources while charter schools get all the latest equipment, for instance. On Jan. 9, people from 18 cities concerned with a “new mode of education that is destroying our children” went to Washington to meet with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

There is no sustainable, positive change coming from charter schools. It all stems from Wall Street demands for profits. The group filed a Title 6 complaint (civil rights violation) against school closings. The group won a federally-supported grass roots tour of affected school districts and a federal hearing on school closings. Also, six schools in Newark named for closing remain open.

Still there is no new investment in affected school districts, with wholesale firing of teachers. Potentially 185,000 students are in danger of having their schools closed. PULSE is planning a “Journey for Justice” to keep schools open.

The evening was a definite step toward building a broad front of unity in the people's struggle for economic justice. The linkage of issues went a long way toward showing the problem is capitalism itself.

#IrvingtonNJ #PoorPeoplesMovements #WallStreet #EducationRights #Capitalism #PublicSchools #CoalitionToSaveOurHomes #HomeForeclosures

Community supporters marched the boards and 7000 petition signatures on behalf of Jessica English – a homeless single mother who has recently reclaimed an abandoned Wells Fargo home – to demand the bank call off their illegal eviction attempts and negotiate with English. English has come home from work twice over the past two weeks to find that Wells Fargo had boarded up her home while she was gone – which is illegal without a court order under Minnesota law.

Meanwhile, at the capitol, banker-turned-Senator Jim Metzen, D-South Saint Paul, refused to allow the Homeowner Bill of Rights to be heard in the commerce committee because the bank lobbyists had not agreed to it, effectively killing the bill. The commerce committee instead advanced a different foreclosure bill the night of March 13, SF 1276, that would merely codify existing foreclosure laws.

In previous years Metzen worked to kill legislation pushed by the Minnesota Coalition of a People’s Bailout that would have put a moratorium on home foreclosures.

“There is no excuse for refusing to even hear a modest bill that could stop thousands of Minnesota foreclosures just because the banks it seeks to regulate haven’t signed off on it,” said Nick Espinosa, of Occupy Homes.

#StPaulMN #WellsFargo #HousingStruggles #HomeForeclosures #JessicaEnglish #HomeownerBillOfRights

“Houses are for keeping families together, not for tearing communities apart,” said English. “As Wells Fargo turns its back on vacant homes that add blight to the community, one in 45 children is homeless every night. I think it’s time that we start asking why and start providing the answers to do something about it.”

With the full support of the neighbors on the block, Jessica and Occupy Homes fixed up the home, cleaning up broken glass, tearing up carpet stained with human waste, and turning the water back on. A housewarming party attracted 50 neighbors and supporters. Several days later, a march on Wells Fargo Home Mortgage from Jessica’s house drew 200, with 13 people peacefully arrested.

Wells Fargo, however, has repeatedly sent management to change the locks on the property, in flagrant disregard of due process laws. Minnesota law states that only a judge can order the eviction of a resident from a property. On March 8, three Minneapolis police officers attempted to carry out an illegal eviction of the home, telling the four volunteers occupying it they had to leave. The supporters turned the police away, telling them they needed permission from a judge and a warrant to enter the home. The police left, but they could return at any time.

“Homelessness in Hennepin County is at a six-year high. Shelters are overflowing, and it’s been another brutal winter,” said Nick Espinosa, an organizer with Occupy Homes MN. “Our demand to turn the home over to a community group for affordable housing is a common sense solution that makes sense for everyone.”

#MinneapolisMN #WellsFargo #HousingStruggles #HomeForeclosures #OccupyHomes #JessicaEnglish

Minneapolis, MN – 13 people were peacefully arrested Feb. 27 as they marched on Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, demanding the bank turn over vacant homes to community control and calling for fairer banking practices.

The march, organized by Occupy Homes MN, Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, and allies from faith and labor communities, began at the home of Gayle Lindsey, fighting her foreclosure with Occupy Homes and her neighbors in the Foreclosure and Eviction Free Zone. It proceeded to Jessica English’s reclaimed vacant home, which had been abandoned by Wells Fargo and turned into a drug house. English, a single mom of four experiencing homelessness, has rehabilitated the house with Occupy Homes as a place to raise her children.

“As a homeless mom, it’s sickening to see all the vacant homes Wells Fargo owns that attract crime in Minneapolis,” Jessica told the crowd. “Wells Fargo abandoned this home, letting it turn into a drug house that brought blight on the community. Now the community has come together to welcome my family home and demand that Wells Fargo turn over vacant homes to community control for affordable housing. We are restoring what Wells Fargo destroyed.”

From there, the crowd of 200 took the streets and marched through the gates of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, where they were met by a heavy police presence. They brought 20 bags of trash cleaned up from their neglected vacant home, demanding Wells Fargo clean up their own mess.

The crowd then continued to the 26th Street bridge over I-35W, where internationally renowned hip-hop artist Brother Ali performed from the back of a pickup truck. After about 20 minutes, police moved in to ask the crowd to disperse. 13 people sat in the middle of the road linking arms in an act of civil disobedience, and were arrested.

“Today was living proof that the housing justice movement is alive and well. It's inspiring to see people from so many communities – Somali families trying to send money home, security guards on strike, college students, neighbors reclaiming their neighborhood from crime and blight, even Wells Fargo employees – all coming together to stand for a change to Wells Fargo’s practices,” said Anthony Newby, executive director of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change.

#MinneapolisMN #WellsFargo #HousingStruggles #affordableHousing #HomeForeclosures

Newby was charged after attempting to help the law firm employee, who fell during a protest where dozens of supporters demanded justice for Minneapolis homeowner Monique White. Monique was then facing imminent eviction at the hands of Freddie Mac – the government- sponsored mortgage giant known for its enormous taxpayer bailout and consistent refusal to negotiate with struggling homeowners.

Around 40 supporters packed the courtroom to support Newby, a founding member of Occupy Homes MN. When asked if he had any final words for the court, Newby said: “I look forward to the day when the executives who crashed our financial system receive the same degree of scrutiny I did over the past week.”

This trial is part of an aggressive trend of prosecutions by the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul targeting the non-violent Occupy Homes movement. It comes on the heels of the outrageous riot charges leveled by the city of Minneapolis at the peaceful protesters arrested defending the Cruz family home last spring. These charges all represent attacks by elected officials on those working to prevent foreclosures and evictions in the Twin Cities.

“The only assault I see happening here is the assault on our right to protest,” said Nick Espinosa, who testified on Newby’s behalf this week.

On Feb. 1 the judge threw out the disorderly conduct charge based on a lack of evidence. On Feb. 4 the jury acquitted Newby of assault and found him guilty of trespassing. He will pay a small fine and the charges will drop from his record within a year if he complies with the terms of his sentence.

“Today’s victory in court has renewed my commitment to stand against the corruption and greed of the financial industry,” said Newby. “I’m ready to get back to work building a more just and equitable world for hardworking families across Minnesota.”

#StPaulMN #HousingStruggles #HomeForeclosures #OccupyHomes #MinnesotaNeighborhoodsOrganizingForChange #AnthonyNewby

Local 1199 of the SEIU organized a protest on behalf of Grace Alexander, one of its members and activists. Like millions of others she has been getting a runaround for years in her efforts to modify her mortgage to something she can pay. Now she is close to foreclosure.

She has a lot of company. Local 1199 has more than 800 members whose mortgages are under water.

Scores of union members and activist supporters rallied outside the Harborside Financial Center mall. The protesters were introduced to a delegation of local elected officials who had agreed to talk to the bank for Grace Alexander. Security people tried to intimidate the protesters. They tried to stop the crowd from coming in the mall. They demanded, “no pictures.” No one paid them any mind. The protesters chanted, carried signs, and walked in a circle in front of the bank as the delegation went in. Security called the police, who declined to intervene.

The crowd went outside to continue the rally. Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, who is up for re-election, promised to hold citizens’ hearings on predatory lending. His challenger, Stephen Fulop, said the same.

The mortgage disaster is the responsibility of the banks, which drove the economy into crisis and were rewarded for it with huge bailouts. It is high time elected officials took notice of what this is doing to communities.

Government ‘homeowner assistance’ programs time and again turn out to be bank bailouts in disguise. They are worse than useless. The protest showed the only way to get out of the mortgage mess.

The right approach is to go right after the banks: the source of the problems. Grace Alexander’s brave act of breaking the ‘veil of silence’ helps other distressed homeowners, who tend to keep their problems to themselves. The event inspired rank-and-file members to see their union as an effective organization in the fight for many causes of social justice. Hopefully many other unions will follow 1199’s example.

#JerseyCityNJ #HousingStruggles #HomeForeclosures #SEIULocal1199 #MayorJerramiahHealy

• People who have already lost their homes would supposedly be compensated $3.75 billion. It might sound like a lot but it is peanuts. If the banks really had to pay up for predatory lending, about $1 trillion in homeowner compensation would be a good start.

• In return for this puny cost-of-doing-business expense, the government will end efforts to hold lenders responsible for paperwork abuses like improper accounting of payments and excessive fees.

• The money would go to reduce payments for people who could then stay in their homes. That is, banks will reduce a few mortgages and avoid foreclosure losses. It is a write-off of money the banks would lose anyway. This way the banks get to keep something. The ‘settlement’ is only the latest bank bailout in disguise.

• The ‘settlement’ will end a review of 4 million mortgages ordered in 2011 by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a division of the Treasury Department. The banks paid the expenses of the review, which meant they could do things their own way. Now the review is ending because the banks say it is too expensive.

The lesson, as so many times before, is that distressed homeowners must join together to find their own solutions. They must end their personal isolation. The Coalition to Save Our Homes, the People’s Organization for Progress, and many other community and labor organizations have worked with distressed homeowners. We have marched and protested at bank locations, exposing the real culprits in the mortgage bubble. We demand a hearing for homeowners by the New Jersey Attorney General. We demand a federal criminal investigation of Wall Street's wrongdoing in the mortgage bubble.

Last year many people banded together and stopped a foreclosure eviction in Orange of Susie Johnson, forcing mighty JP Morgan Chase to admit it held no financial interest in her home. We recently brought a strong turnout to a New Jersey Appeals Court hearing of a case that highlights everything that is wrong with the judicial process in foreclosure.

United struggle is the right path for distressed homeowners to follow, not dependence on treacherous government programs. The power of the people is not just a fine-sounding ideal. It is a real force in the world, the only one the vast majority of the people can depend on.

#NewarkNJ #WallStreet #HousingStruggles #bankBailout #CoalitionToSaveOurHomes #HomeForeclosures

Trenton, NJ, – The people’s struggle against foreclosures took a new turn before the New Jersey Court of Appeals here, Dec. 19.

Foreclosure today is capitalism in chaos, a capitalism of swindling even on its own terms. New problems require new tactics of struggle.

In early December, Attorney Adam Deutsch was invited to speak to the Coalition to Save Our Homes, a group in Essex County that organizes homeowners to take the initiative in the struggle against predatory lending. He suggested that one thing people can do is turn out and pack the courtroom when important foreclosure defense motions are presented.

He later mentioned a case in progress that shows the marks of chaos. The bank, HSBC, had never met the requirements of law to prove it held a financial interest in the mortgage. In the foreclosure trial the judge pointed out to the HSBC attorney that the mortgage note, the crucial point of the bank’s financial interest in the property, had not been submitted to the court. The attorney replied that no defense was being made.

No one would argue that, if someone walked into a store when no one was there, they could lawfully clean out the till and walk off with the money. The judge should have stopped right there and not allowed HSBC to continue until it proved it had a claim on the house. Instead HSBC was allowed to proceed. This defect and others in HSBC’s case were not removed in the foreclosure hearing when final judgment (i.e., order of foreclosure) was granted against the homeowner.

A big problem for the defense appeal is that the homeowner did not come to court to defend before judgment of foreclosure was issued. The defense therefore had to deal with procedural issues of delays in filing, as well as seizure of property by a bank with no proven financial interest in it. The defense also says lower court decisions were made in error and should be reversed.

These issues figure in millions of predatory lending cases. Courts far too often exhibit a double standard. Homeowners are excused for nothing and banks for anything.

The difference in the Dec. 19 hearing was that homeowners, activists, and organized labor representatives showed up in court. A case that ordinarily would have been heard before an empty courtroom was heard before a body of citizens with their own sense of justice. The discomfort of the bank’s attorney was obvious. He began in a mumbling tone of voice and an attendee called out, “We can’t hear you.” Ordinarily that is a big no-no in court but the only result was that the attorney spoke up. He distanced himself from the issue of ownership of the mortgage note. The court asked if the bank had submitted properly certified proof of ownership – the defense contends it had not – and the response was a stammered, “I guess so.”

Decisions are not delivered at appeals court hearings. The judges take the case under advisement and issue their decision later.

However the decision turns out, the day showed the way forward. The people’s forces felt a sense of unity and empowerment. We can fight the banks, we can fight foreclosure. We don’t have to settle for making the best of a bad situation. We can attack the bad situation itself. If there is no justice in the halls of justice we will bring our own standard of justice. We will depend on ourselves to build a broader, stronger, more united movement for people’s economic justice, and we will succeed.

#TrentonNJ #HousingStruggles #crisisOfCapitalism #CoalitionToSaveOurHomes #HomeForeclosures #AttorneyAdamDeutsch

Minneapolis, MN – 200 community members successfully took over a vacant home in South Minneapolis the night of Dec. 6, for a veteran made homeless by foreclosure. They are demanding that the house be turned over to community control through a nonprofit, as the Occupy Homes movement marked its first birthday. Internationally renowned hip-hop artists Brother Ali and Chuck D of Public Enemy led the anniversary celebration.

Community members gathered at the nearby home of Bobby Hull, a veteran who won his home from Bank of America last year, for a dinner and celebration of victories of the past year. “We took over this house last year,” said Hull, “and this year I want to take over this neighborhood.”

“I see boarded-up cribs, and I see people in the streets, and I see banks that get bigger and bigger,” said Public Enemy’s Chuck D, speaking at the celebration. “And it’s the most criminal thing that ever could happen. Never have so many been screwed by so few.”

Homelessness in Hennepin County is at a six-year-high, a near crisis situation. One in four people who are homeless are veterans. Nationwide, there are 3.5 million homeless people and nearly 19 million vacant homes. “Why not put homeless people, or people who have gone through foreclosure like us, into these vacant homes?” asked John Vinje. “At least they’ve got somewhere safe and warm to live.”

During his performance inside Bobby’s house, Brother Ali, who made headlines in June for his arrest defending the Cruz house, spoke movingly about the time he and his son spent homeless. “Anyone who’s lived in a house that the police have smashed through, where someone comes into your house with a gun, you know that traumatizes you for life. I still have to sleep away from the door when I stay in a hotel.”

The community then marched to a nearby home made vacant by the foreclosure crisis, where John Vinje told the story of how US Bank and Freddie Mac foreclosed on and then evicted him rather than modify his loan – in spite of their programs to help veterans. “Because of US Bank and Freddie Mac, my family is now split up in three different parts of the metro area,” he said. “It wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t your fault. It was their fault. This is not the country that I fought for.”

50 people were still in the house as of 9:30 pm. “Whose house?” they chanted. “Our house!”

#MinneapolisMN #Minneapolis #HousingStruggles #HomeForeclosures #OccupyHomes #ChuckD #BrotherAli

“POP demands that criminal investigations of bank misconduct in the mortgage bubble be undertaken and federal and state levels. The first priority must be to find out what happened to the supposedly ‘missing’ mortgage notes. The investigations must also look into the actions of the banks in the overpricing of homes, selling them for much more than they were worth. Finding of both civil and criminal wrongdoing must be prosecuted.”

POP and C2SOH scheduled a Nov. 1 protest rally in Trenton, the New Jersey state capital, to demand an investigation. Other demands are that Governor Chris Christie release $300 million in federal funds for distressed homeowners that has been held up, and that mortgage principals be reduced to reflect the true market value of overpriced homes.

“Every government program to supposedly help distressed homeowners has turned out to be a bank bailout in disguise,” said a spokesperson for the campaign. The Home Affordable Mortgage Program as a case in point. Millions of homeowners have been strung along for months by banks, having to file extensive applications time after time only to be denied and then saddled with charges and fines by the banks for the delay!

Bank criminality in abusive loans that were designed to fail and the Three-card Monte games they played with mortgage notes were criminal violations. There has not been a single criminal prosecution for any of it.

POP and C2SOH are reaching out to other organizations and people in a petition addressed to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Already it has met with an eager response. Work is under way for a coordinated effort. Everyone wants this to happen.

#NewarkNJ #HousingStruggles #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress #AttorneyGeneralEricHolder #CoalitionToSaveOurHomes #HomeForeclosures

Newark, NJ – A protest against predatory lending took place here, Sept. 15, at the Broad Street branch of Wells Fargo Bank. It was the joint effort of the People’s Organization for Progress (POP) and the Coalition to Save Our Homes (C2SOH).

Demands included immediate mortgage reduction, an end to foreclosure by banks that do not own the mortgage, and a five-year moratorium on foreclosures. The overall demand was to end Wall Street’s lawless reign of financial terror and make banks obey the law.

Many speakers, including distressed homeowners, took turns on the bullhorn to denounce predatory lending. The Newark area is hard hit by the depression. There are many issues. Foreclosure and homelessness are epidemic. Community violence claims lives every few days. The public schools are being closed and privatized in the areas where black people live. Mayor Cory Booker, a ‘rising star’ of the Democratic Party, is trying to sell off and privatize the city water system against intense community resistance.

Many protesters spoke on the bullhorn. Housing is a human right! There should be no poverty at all in the United States. Everyone should have a nice place to live. No one should ever have to worry about where their next meal is coming from. The problem is that capital’s need for profit eats up every human need.The government must take action against predatory lenders.

Protesters mingled with passersby throughout the event. A couple of people took POP and C2SOH literature and passed it out. Several distressed homeowners were given self-help information and were told about C2SOH. People raised their hands in solidarity. It became clear that everybody hates Wall Street, homeowner or not.

A key demand that was voiced at the protest is that special prosecutors be appointed at federal and state levels to investigate civil and criminal wrongdoing by financial corporations. There has been vast financial misconduct, much of it criminal, as well as predatory lending. The economy is in depression. Financial chaos is everywhere. Yet no one has been investigated, no one has been prosecuted and no one has gone to jail for all the harm that has been done. Regulators do nothing, Congress does nothing.

It is time to appoint special prosecutors to get the job done. It is important to clear up what happened to those millions of ‘missing’ mortgage promissory notes. We do not believe the usual excuses about ‘slicing and dicing’ in financial trading. The banks are hiding something. Let prosecutors investigate and find out. Let the chips fall where they may. As protesters chanted, the banks are “Not too big to fail, not too big to jail.”

#NewarkNJ #WallStreet #HousingStruggles #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress #CoalitionToSaveOurHomes #HomeForeclosures

Minneapolis, MN – About 30 people assembled outside the Hennepin County Government Center here, August 1, to stand in solidarity with Occupy Homes’ Nick Espinosa and to demand all charges against community members involved in defending the Cruz family home be dropped. Nick Espinosa has been charged with riot in the third degree, along with other Occupy Homes activists. The charge is baseless.

Espinosa told the crowd that trumped-up charges against anti-foreclosure activists were an attempt at intimidation on the part of city officials. He also denounced the coordinated repression that is being directed against the Occupy movement.

Also speaking was Deb Konechne, who is active in the Occupy movement and the Welfare Rights Committee. She said that it was important to defeat the repression that was being aimed at the Occupy movement, all people engaged in civil disobedience, and the anti-war activists who were raided by the FBI.

After the gathering, people went upstairs to pack the courtroom for Nick Espinosa’s pre-trial hearing.

#MinneapolisMN #HousingStruggles #HomeForeclosures #InjusticeSystem #OccupyHomesMN #NickEspinosa

On October 20, 2011, hundreds of people participated in a demonstration in front of U.S. Bank in downtown Minneapolis to draw attention to the fact that over 25,000 Minnesotans lost their homes to foreclosure in 2010 alone. Seven people were arrested in the intersection in front of the bank and charged with “interfering with pedestrian and vehicular traffic.” Four of them were scheduled to go to trial for that charge on July 30, but on July 20 the prosecutor added the charges of unlawful assembly, public nuisance and not complying with a ‘peace officer.’

In the July 30 hearing, Judge Daniel Moreno sided with the defense’s motion against adding the new charges. He encouraged the prosecution to charge the protesters with petty misdemeanors instead of misdemeanors and, when they would not, he encouraged the accused to do a straight plea to him directly so that he could give them a lesser punishment. All four protesters pled out to petty misdemeanors, despite the prosecution’s courtroom antics to prosecute them to their fullest extent in an effort to crush the local anti-foreclosure movement.

Nationally, the Occupy movement is facing increasing police brutality, police infiltration and trumped up charges. Locally, the Minneapolis city attorney’s office has decided to try to shut down the growing movement of people standing in solidarity with families struggling to save their homes from foreclosure, by giving protesters outrageous charges. For example, the city prosecutors have escalated charges on the 14 protesters who defended the Cruz family home on May 30. Prosecutors at the City Attorney’s office originally charged these supporters with trespassing, but now they are facing riot in the third degree, which is a gross misdemeanor and carries a sentence of up to one year in prison and a $3000 fine.

In the week leading up to the July 30 court date, many progressive groups, including the Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout, the Anti-War Committee and the Minnesota Committee to Stop FBI Repression, issued action alerts to their supporters asking them to call Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, Assistant City Attorney Mary Ellen Heng and City Attorney Susan Segal as a part of a pressure campaign to defend the right to protest and the Occupy movement. There will be continued pressure on the mayor and the city attorney’s office as the Cruz defendants’ cases head to trial.

#MinneapolisMN #HousingStruggles #OccupyMinneapolis #HomeForeclosures #InjusticeSystem

Chicago, IL – Over 150 marchers gathered at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago May 16, to march against home foreclosures and evictions. They chanted, “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!” and young people from Occupy Wall Street held signs saying, “No more foreclosures.” The protesters marched through the streets, stopping outside corporate banks that benefited from the Wall Street bailout, but which continue to foreclose on working people’s homes.

Protesters were greeted with smiles and delight. Construction crews stopped work to wave and passersby in Chicago’s Loop shouted support from across the street. Curious onlookers came out of buildings to grab leaflets, or stood by their office windows and watched out of glass lobbies, as police scurried to keep up with the marchers. This is one of several protests opposing war, poverty and oppression leading up to Sunday’s big rally and march against U.S. war and NATO.

Upon arriving at Daley Plaza the leaders of the protest began singing “Our house! In the middle of the plaza!” to the popular tune by the 1980s ska group Madness. A crowd then gathered to watch a play portraying the intimidation and oppression that happens every day in Cook County, Illinois. Actors, young and old, Latino, African American and white performed a foreclosure and eviction scene with the banker demanding his payment, ordering the sheriff to throw a family out on the street. The use of heavily armed sheriffs to evict people across the country traumatizes children as well as adults.

JR Fleming with the Chicago-based Anti-eviction Campaign said, “This is not a housing crisis. This is a human rights crisis! Third World poverty conditions exist right here in Chicago. We need a one-year moratorium on foreclosures. We need to bail out the people instead of Wall Street.” The crowd then did a call and response chant, “Moratorium! Moratorium!” Fleming explained they want a one-year moratorium, effective immediately.

Jorge Ortiz with Communities United Against Foreclosures delivered thousands of petition signatures to a spokeswoman for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. Dart’s spokesperson tried to deflect the issue of foreclosure and evictions by talking about Sheriff Dart’s support for legal protections for renters. Ortiz said, “dialogue was continuing” but some angry protesters began to shout, leading the Sheriff’s spokesperson to exit the small stage quickly.

The rally ended with calls for more protests, including the big rally at Petrillo Bandshell in Chicago’s Grant Park at 12:00 noon on Sunday, May 20. The speakers list includes the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Los Angeles Chicano leader and target of FBI repression Carlos Montes, Students for a Democratic Society and Iraq Vets Against the War. Then the crowd will march to McCormick Place, where the NATO war-makers are meeting. The military veterans plan to return their medals in protest of U.S. and NATO wars.

#ChicagoIL #HousingStruggles #HomeForeclosures #CommunitiesUnitedAgainstForeclosures #ChicagobasedAntiEvictionCampaign

Orange, NJ – On May 4, the fraudulent eviction order against Susie Johnson of Orange was cancelled. The eviction order was for May 10. JP Morgan Chase, named as plaintiff in the eviction, was forced to admit it does not own Ms. Johnson’s mortgage. The cancellation came about because of the power of the people.

The struggle shows, and will continue to show, that the power of the people is not just a nice saying. It is a real force in the world.

The struggle started with a previous eviction order for March 30. The Coalition to Save Our Homes (C2SOH) issued a call to stop the eviction. Over 30 people turned out from C2SOH, the People’s Organization for Progress, NJ-NOW, Parent Advisory and Student Academy, the New Jersey Industrial Union Council, SEIU Local 1199, CWA Local 1080, Occupy New Brunswick, Occupy Newark and others.

The power of the people forced the Sheriff’s office to back off, postponing the eviction to May 10.

There is enormous anger at the way banksters have swindled people and forced them out of their homes. On March 30 the Susie Johnson struggle became a focus of the people’s anger.

C2SOH already had in progress a protest to demand the Attorney General of New Jersey hear the complaints of victims of predatory lending and prosecute lenders for their many violations of law. On April 11, a working day, 45 people from all over the state, again representing many organizations, went to Trenton in support of our battle-cry: “The banks swindled people! Make them give the money back!” The NAACP provided especially noteworthy support from all over the state. Many victims of predatory lending spoke, including Cynthia Johnson, on behalf of her mother. That day the Susie Johnson struggle made an important step toward becoming a statewide issue.

We went to the Hughes Justice Complex to turn in our letter of demands and our petitions to the Attorney General’s office. They would not let us in. We had to give our documents to the State Police.

It was as if the Attorney General thought he needed police protection against the people’s just demands. The Attorney General actually helps banksters who break the law. They have no excuse in the world for avoiding their obligations to us, the people.

Because of our ongoing work and the power of the people, the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs responded to the case of Susie Johnson when strongly pressed by people’s attorney Bennet Zurofsky. JP Morgan Chase Bank, named as plaintiff on the May 10 eviction order, had to admit in writing to the Department of Community Affairs that it had never owned or managed Susie Johnson’s mortgage.

In response, the People’s Organization for Progress swung into action with its hardened protest veterans. On April 28 we exposed Chase Bank, named on the eviction order, with a picket line in front of its Broad Street office. Other members of C2SOH joined in. We really made this culprit feel the heat.

On May 3 POP organizationally endorsed civil disobedience for May 10, and noted the names of those who committed to it. At Chairman Lawrence Hamm’s proposal, we set up a daily picket at Wells Fargo, another culprit, vowing to hammer Wells every day with protest until May 10.

People’s attorney Michelle Munsat was bearing down on the banks with a court filing on behalf of Susie Johnson. On May 4 the banks’ attorney notified Michelle that the eviction order was cancelled. The banks have no further plans for action at this time.

The banks had to admit they were trying to evict someone when they had no proof they own (and doubtless don’t even know themselves who owns) her mortgage. This was a huge setback for them.

Millions of people have lost their homes but we stopped this eviction. It is indeed an inspiring victory. At the same time, it shouldn’t be a rarity. It’s the way things should go every day.

The Coalition to Save Our Homes will press forward more vigorously than ever its campaign to pressure New Jersey Attorney General Jeffery Chiesa to hear the victims and prosecute predatory lenders for their many violations of law.

There are countless issues of economic injustice in this time of crisis and depression. Public schools are being abolished, students are drowning under a mountain of debt, people are denied medical care because they can’t afford it and millions are unemployed. We will work tirelessly with others to build a mighty, united, ongoing people’s movement for economic justice. Power to the people!

#OrangeNJ #HousingStruggles #CoalitionToSaveOurHomesC2SOH #JPMorganChase #HomeForeclosures