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

Irvington, NJ – A march and rally against foreclosures was held here on July 21. It was sponsored by the Coalition to Save Our Homes and the People’s Organization for Progress (POP). The event tied the suffering of homeowners directly to the predation of Wall Street. The demands were: end robo-signing; reduce mortgage principals to current value; prosecute banksters; make banks obey the rule of law.

Speakers denounced the banks for causing the mortgage crisis. Sharon Hand of POP and Carol Gay of the Solidarity Singers condemned lenders for issuing mortgages that they knew homeowners could not repay. They said the banks’ actions were violations of human rights. The affected homeowners must take action to prevent foreclosure, including demands on public officials to meet their responsibilities to citizens.

Another speaker said all issues of people’s economic justice trace directly to Wall Street. The main way the financial sector makes money now is by fraud, theft, embezzlement and gambling. JPMorgan Chase dropped $7 billion at the tables of the Wall Street big casino and nearly triggered another 2008-style financial collapse. Meanwhile young people in the cities are killing each other in the streets because they don’t have jobs and are desperate. They need to stop fighting each other and fight their real enemies.

Susan Newton of POP, who has worked as a mortgage underwriter, gave practical advice. She said if you need credit, always talk to several lenders. Remember the banks are not interested in your needs; instead they are looking out for ways to make money from you.

The Solidarity Singers performed several songs during the program, including Tom Bias’s anthem, Foreclosure Song. Bias also related how the banks had worked him and his family over in their struggle to avoid foreclosure.

The Black Orchid Drummers performed at the end of the rally. The gathering headed off to march through Irvington’s business district. The town authorities had denied a permit to march in the street, first on one pretext, then on another. We marched on the sidewalks anyway and it worked to our advantage. Passersby raised fists, shook hands and called out in agreement, and took informational fliers. Some defied the permit denial and marched in the street.

The protest proceeded to the local branch of Wells Fargo to “pay a visit.” The marchers chanted “You can’t rob the bank, but the bank can rob you!” and “Banksters: Not too big to fail, not too big to jail!” The Black Orchid Drummers played throughout the march, pulling people out of shops and stores. The community was with us.

Marchers headed back down to Civic Square and heard from POP Chairmen Lawrence Hamm. He said that the way banks raised mortgage payments amounts to stealing. Monthly payments are increased by thousands of dollars per month and homeowners simply cannot pay that much. He emphasized that Black people lost more personal wealth in the mortgage collapse than at any time since the Civil War. Bankers never think about the suffering they cause because the problems never affect them that way. He congratulated all the participants for holding a great event, and said we will continue to build a powerful movement against foreclosure.

To conclude the day, it was said that we will continue the local struggle and the focus on distressed homeowners. The longer term strategy is to look closely into the millions of ‘missing’ mortgage promissory notes that give rise to the robo-signing abuses. There was massive financial wrongdoing by the banks in the issuance of mortgage based securities. When we know what happened to all those notes we will know will where the bodies are buried in the mortgage mess. Then we will be able to lay the struggle of the homeowner right at the doorstep of Wall Street.

#IrvingtonNJ #WallStreet #Foreclosures #HousingStruggles #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress #CoalitionToSaveOurHome

Irvington, NJ – In spite of a winter storm, the Coalition to Save Our Homes marched and rallied here, Oct. 29, against home foreclosures. The group maintains the wave of foreclosures is due to overpricing of the home market by mortgage lenders. They want mortgage principals reduced to amounts that homeowners can pay.

“The citizens didn’t cause the foreclosure crisis, the banks did,” said Sharon Hands of the People’s Organization for Progress. “Greed and corruption did it. People living in their homes didn’t say, ‘Oh, I want to live in a box’ or ‘I want to be homeless.’” She said that the Irvington administration should do more to keep residents in their homes. Members of the Newark Teachers’ Association and Residents for a Better Community of Irvington also participated.

The Coalition is gathering signatures on a petition to New Jersey Attorney General Paula Dow demanding that she take action against lenders for overpricing the market. They want the penalty to be reduction of principal to a true market value.

Irvington police escorted the marchers through heavy snow and traffic on Clinton Avenue. The group also chanted demands for better health care and jobs for all. In spite of difficult driving conditions drivers waved and honked their horns to show approval.

Kathleen Witcher of the Irvington NAACP spoke at a closing rally. She cited big increases in property taxes as an additional burden on homeowners and said action must be taken to keep Irvington from turning into a ghost town. The event ended with the call on the banks to “give the money back” that they had overpriced.

#IrvingtonNJ #Foreclosures #HousingStruggles #CoalitionToSaveOurHomes

The protest is being organized by the Coalition to Save Our Homes, which includes People’s Organization for Progress; NAACP, Irvington Branch; Newark Teachers’ Association (NJEA); and Residents for a Better Community of Irvington.

According to the Coalition to Save Our Homes (C2SOH), “the financial system created the mortgage mess and it has to take the weight. The mortgage market was rigged and that happens to be illegal. If a buyer was misled into paying $300,000 for a house that was worth only $180,000, the mortgage must be reduced by $120,000. Sorry, bank, you just got no right to that dough. They have to give the difference back. We are heartily sure Adam Smith would agree. We want NJ Attorney General Paula Dow to agree also and take action to compel a fair market write down of mortgage principals.”

New Jersey is one of the states hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis in the country. Irvington is as hard hit as any municipality in the state.

The collapse of the housing bubble began in 2005. First to go was the subprime mortgage market. It led up to the great financial crisis of 2008.

After that home prices dropped drastically. Now more than 10 million mortgages are much higher than current prices, i.e., ‘underwater.’ That’s because the houses were never really worth what they were sold for.

There is also another side of predatory lending: banks abusively concentrated subprime mortgages on minorities. After all, they have always redlined against lending in African American and Latino neighborhoods.

Irvington is dead center on all counts. It is a 95% black African American/Haitian/Latino community. Two years ago 9% of all its homes had been foreclosed since 2005. That is more than four times the rate in mostly white census tracts.

Banks got bailed out because they are too politically connected to fail. They didn’t get all that money because anybody loves them and it didn’t lead to recovery. By the same token home buyers must gain economic justice by their own efforts, i.e., by people power. There will be no recovery until home buyers gain economic justice.

#IrvingtonNJ #Foreclosures #HousingStruggles #CoalitionToSaveOurHomesC2SOH

Protesters circled in front of the bank and spread out to surrounding corners to distribute fliers and talk to passersby. They chanted “No foreclosures! No evictions,” “You can’t rob the bank but the bank can rob you,” and the classic “No justice, no peace!”

An open letter of demands to John Stumpf, the CEO of Wells Fargo, and signed by POP Chairman Lawrence Hamm was given to the branch manager. The letter said the housing bubble was entirely caused by lending institutions. They must bear the costs of its consequences.

The letter said lenders manipulated the mortgage market to sell houses for more than their true market value. Therefore housing values must be written down to what the houses are actually worth. Bank have also hiked credit card rates and fees and charges of many kinds to pay for their losses in the housing bubble; therefore these rate hikes, charges and other abuses must be ended.

Chairman Hamm said Congress takes months to pass any measure that helps the people (like extension of unemployment benefits) and then needs a 900-page document to do it. When Congress bailed out the banks with a $700 billion line of credit under TARP, on the other hand, it took three days and a twelve-page document. He charges Wachovia and Wells Fargo with having particular responsibility for having entrapped African-American and Latino borrowers in subprime mortgages that started off with low interest rates but soon rose as high as 15%, causing huge numbers of foreclosures.

POP members handed out hundreds of fliers to notify people of the upcoming May 22 march against foreclosure and homelessness in nearby Newark. The struggle continues!

#IrvingtonNJ #CapitalismAndEconomy #HousingStruggles #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress

Irvington, NJ – “Forty acres and a mule!” and “You stole us. You sold us. You owe us,” chanted here, Feb. 23, demanding reparations for African American people. The march was sponsored by the People’s Organization for Progress (POP) and the New Black Panther Party.

The first chant refers to Field Order 15 issued by General W.T. Sherman in 1865. The intent was to furnish a livelihood to Black freedmen after the end of slavery. Sherman’s field order was the first attempt to give reparations to the victims of slavery. It was never successfully implemented.

POP Chairman Lawrence Hamm brought out the history of the struggle for reparations for 250 years of stolen labor and 100 years of Jim Crow segregation. Slave labor created immense wealth that built this country through the production of cotton, corn and other agricultural products.

“People spoke and prayed to end slavery,” said Hamm, “but it took guns and cannon to end slavery because you could not reason with the slave masters.” 220,000 freedmen joined the Union Army and 40,000 laid down their lives.

With the end of Reconstruction in 1877 the progressive measures of Black legislatures were nullified. “The Black Codes and segregation became the law of the land,” Hamm said. Slavery was reinstated through sharecropping, the convict labor system and segregation. The convict labor system created vast wealth – the railroads of the late 19th century were largely built on convict labor. The legend of John Henry commemorates that contribution.

Black people were never paid for any of it.

“Some of us don’t just want a check,” said Zaid Muhammad of the New Black Panther Party. “We want it [reparations] to happen in a way to break the back of this system so that what happened to us can never happen again. You can’t put a number on the pain and suffering. The ghost of that suffering is still with us.”

He noted the presidential campaign of Barack Obama is said to be ‘beyond race.’ “How is it gonna be beyond race when you get beat every day by the police, when we don’t have jobs and suffer from gentrification and police brutality?” demanded Muhammad. “Race ain’t goin’ nowhere, not now.”

Instead of downplaying demands like reparations during the presidential campaign, Muhammad said, “Now is the time to accelerate this issue,” and other issues of the people’s agenda.

The march was organized by Ingrid Hill, Chair of the POP reparations committee, who raised the question of self-determination, saying, “We need money that we control so we can restore ourselves to what we were before.”

Workers of every nationality should support reparations for African American people. It is a just demand. Monopoly capitalism in the United States rests on the inequality and the systematic discrimination directed against African Americans and other oppressed nationalities within this country’s borders. It is a system of racist discrimination that benefits the big corporations at the expense of all working people. Reparations now!

#IrvingtonNJ #News #AfricanAmerican #PeoplesOrganizationForProgressPOP #FieldOrder15 #Reconstruction