> > > NY Times, February 18, 2009 > Resisting Home Evictions Becomes a Group Effort > By FERNANDA SANTOS > > 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. > > The community organizing group Acorn unveiled the campaign with a > spirited rally on Friday at a Brooklyn church and will roll it out > in at > least 22 other cities in the coming weeks. Through phone trees, Web > pages and text-messaging networks, the effort will connect families > facing eviction with volunteers who will stand at their side as > officers > arrive, even if it means risking arrest. > > "You want to haul us out to jail? Fine. Let the world see how > government > has been ineffective," Bertha Lewis, Acorn's chief organizer, said > in an > interview. "Politicians have helped banks, but they haven't helped > families in the way that it's needed, and these families are now > saying, > enough is enough." > > At the onset of the foreclosure crisis, the problem was regarded by > some > as one of a homeowner's own making, the result of irresponsible > decisions made by families who chose to live beyond their means. But > as > foreclosures spread across the country, devastating even solidly > middle-class communities, the blame has slowly shifted to the > financial > companies that made questionable loans and have received billions of > dollars in federal aid to stave off collapse. > > In recent months, a budding resistance movement has grown among > Americans who believe they have been left to face their predicament on > their own — and the Acorn campaign is an organized expression of that > frustration, Ms. Lewis said. Instead of quietly packing up and turning > their homes over to banks, homeowners are now fighting back. > > On Feb. 9, a man scrawled a message on the roof of his house in a > suburb > of Los Angeles: "I Want 2 Be Heard." Then he barricaded himself inside > when deputies showed up to evict him, surrendering after a few > hours. In > October, a woman in San Diego chained herself to her front porch after > the bank that held her mortgage refused to renegotiate the terms. She > remains in her home, but has received a second eviction notice. > > And last year in Boston, neighbors and activists locked arms outside > eight buildings that had been foreclosed upon to prevent the > authorities > from forcing residents onto the streets. > > Sheriffs in some places have also taken a stand. In Wayne County in > Michigan, Sheriff Warren C. Evans, suspended all evictions starting > Feb. > 2 until the federal government implements a plan to help homeowners > facing foreclosures. > > In Cook County in Illinois, which includes Chicago, Sheriff Thomas J. > Dart directed a lawyer to review all eviction orders to protect people > who kept on paying rent after the buildings where they lived had been > seized by banks. In Butler County in Ohio, Sheriff Richard K. Jones > ordered his deputies not to evict people who had no place else to go. > > "This is a cold place in the winter and I will not give people a death > sentence for not paying their debts," Sheriff Jones said in an > interview. "These are human beings, responsible middle-class people > who > fell on hard times, and I just can't toss them out onto the streets." > > Acorn's strategy is modeled on a movement the group led in the 1980s, > when squatters occupied and set out to renovate thousands of abandoned > city-owned buildings in New York, Philadelphia and Detroit, among > other > cities. The motivation was to solve what Ms. Lewis has called "the > working family's housing crisis." > > In cities like Orlando, Fla., which has one of the nation's highest > foreclosure rates — and Boston, Houston, Baltimore, Oakland, Calif., > and > Tucson, Ariz. — Acorn organizers have been creating networks to > alert a > homeowner's neighbors when an eviction has been scheduled or deputies > are on the way. Some volunteers will summon friends and relatives to > converge at the home, while others will be in charge of notifying the > news media. Organizers are also recruiting lawyers willing to defend > for > no fee those who are arrested. > > The campaign, called Home Defenders, enlisted about 500 participants > during meetings held Friday and Saturday in New York and five other > cities. Ms. Lewis and other organizers said that they believed the > number will reach into the tens of thousands within weeks. > > "This is a desperate, last-ditch effort by folks who are working two > or > three jobs, single mothers, elderly people who don't know what else to > do to save their homes," said Ginny Goldman, Acorn's lead organizer in > Texas, where the campaign began in Houston on Saturday. > > The rally in Brooklyn, at Brown Memorial Baptist Church in Fort > Greene, > drew about 150 people. There were homeowners, Acorn members, community > advocates and candidates for the City Council. One councilman, Mathieu > Eugene, was carrying a slab of papers as thick as a large dictionary, > each sheet representing, he said, a family facing foreclosure in his > district, which includes parts of Crown Heights, Flatbush and > Kensington. > > The church's pastor, the Rev. Clinton M. Miller, opened the gathering > with this prayer: "If anybody here is facing foreclosure, God, we ask > that a miracle be made and a home be saved." > > Then, between homeowners' sharing their plight, the crowd chanted, > "Enough is enough." > > One homeowner, Myrna Millington, 73, who lives in Laurelton, Queens, > said that she had to take a second mortgage on her home of 38 years to > pay for repairs that turned out to more extensive than originally > planned. What Ms. Millington did not know was that she had signed > for a > subprime loan, which carried interest rates so high she could not keep > up with the payments. Her house was foreclosed on in September. > > "I may lose my home, but I'm only leaving in handcuffs," Ms. > Millington > said. > > Another homeowner, Denise Parker, a mother of three who works as a > housekeeper at two Midtown Manhattan hotels, bought a home in > Springfield Gardens, Queens, in 2005 with an adjustable interest rate > that, after two years, went up every six months. Her payments > started at > $3,500 and now are $5,050 a month, she said. She fell behind last year > and her house is scheduled to be auctioned off on Friday. > > "I refuse to leave the home that I've worked so hard to keep," Ms. > Parker, 42, told the audience. "I will not let the bank take my home > and > I will not leave." > > Eviction resistance actions are scheduled for Thursday in cities > including New York, Oakland and Houston. Organizers will try to > recruit > enough volunteers to form a human wall on the sidewalk to avoid being > arrested for trespassing. But occupying a house or having people > attach > themselves to a home could also be a tactic. > > The campaign has earned praise and raised concern. Sheriff Dart, in > Illinois, said it was a "slippery slope when you have individuals > deciding whether they can lawfully remain in their homes." > > Sheriff Jones, in Ohio, equated the planned resistance to "chaining > yourself to a tree that's about to be cut down" and said that though > he > may not agree with it, he sympathizes. > > In Washington, Acorn has found a staunch supporter in Representative > Marcia C. Kaptur of Ohio, who, during a discussion last month about > the > $700 billion bailout package for financial companies, took to the > floor > of the House and instructed people to "stay in your homes — if the > American people, anybody out there, is being foreclosed, don't leave." > > In an interview, Ms. Kaptur said, "I'm thrilled that the American > people > are rising up and exercising the power that Wall Street has taken away > from them." > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Internet group address: http://groups.google.com/group/ChicagoMayDay To send e-mail: [email protected] To unsuscribe: [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
