Refusing To Be Evicted -- Keeping Foreclosure Victims In Their Homes

Last week I showcased the plight of Rosa and Juan Rico in Oakland, CA. They had had so many problems working with their lender to get a modification of their loan that they joined with 40 ACORN members and moved themselves into a local branch of the bank in order to force the bank to deal with them.

They are but one of the 2.3 million families that faced foreclosure proceedings in 2008. And they are on the leading edge of a crisis that will claim up to 9 million more by 2013, costing the economy up to $850 billion, if we sit idly by, doing nothing about the root cause of the economic maelstrom that has engulfed our country.

ACORN members like the Ricos have made the commitment to save their homes and rebuild their communities through civil disobedience. Today, I am proud to announce that we are launching a program that gives everyone an opportunity to help keep families in their homes and put pressure on our elected officials to address this root cause of the economic collapse.

Called the ACORN Home Defenders, this program links members of local communities with families who have taken the courageous step of refusing to cooperate with the foreclosure process. It responds to the desperate calls for help found in the grim foreclosure statistics and echoes the sentiments of leaders like Toledo, Ohio-area Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur who recently said, "stay in your homes. If the American people, anybody out there is being foreclosed, don't leave[.]"

The urgency of this crisis demands immediate action. So the Home Defenders program is rolling out in two stages. The first stage will include eight "Tier 1" metro areas: Baltimore, MD; Contra Costa County, CA; Los Angeles, CA; New York, NY; Oakland, CA; Orlando, FL and Tucson, AZ. Initial trainings for people located in these metro areas will take place during the second week in February, with kick-off events scheduled to occur during the 3rd week of the month.

The second stage will include 16 "Tier 2" metro areas: Albany, NY; Boston, MA; Bridgeport, CT; Broward County, FL; Cincinnati, OH; Cleveland, OH; Dallas, TX; Denver, CO; Detroit, MI; Durham, NC; Flint, MI; Minneapolis, MN; Pittsburgh, PA; Raleigh, NC; San Mateo County, CA; and Wilmington, DE. Trainings and kick-off events will occur a few weeks after those in the Tier 1 cities.

New cities are continuing to join this campaign, so if you do not live near any of the metro areas listed above, you can still participate in actions to save the homes of families in your community as they come on-board. For people who live in areas that will not have local organizers helping drive this program, ACORN is creating Home Defender Tool-Kits that help you fight back against the crisis in your neighborhood.

I urge you to take this step in helping local families fight back against the crisis caused by reckless financiers who made billions in bonuses in equity-stripping schemes designed to set homebuyers up for failure.

By showing that communities are refusing to participate in their own decimation, we will force elected officials to finally shift their emphasis from bailing out Wall Street to bailing out Main Street.

Join with us. The good folks at Change.org have already taken one step by covering the announcement of the Home Defenders. Let's all join together and keep families in their homes.

Comments

[angryowl]

10:14 PM on 02/17/2009

To keep the economy afloat, yes, the banks should probably attempt to negotiate with the homeowners so that the wave of foreclosur­es doesn't bring the economy down even further. However, I have little sympathy for these homeowners­. As a fully functionin­g adult, you have to be responsibl­e for your actions, and yes, that includes reading the contracts that you are entering into. Sure, the lenders were manipulati­ve and creepy and immoral, but life is filled with people attempting to take advantage of you- a healthy dose of skepticism never hurt anyone.

[Roseberry]

06:50 PM on 02/06/2009

Banks should re-negotia­te. Period. Getting something back is, for the bank, better than having a house sit empty and watch it fall down.
But the people who get the re-do -- their behinds should be held to the fire to pay back the loan. I have very little sympathy for them. Ignorance of the law is no excuse, and in this case, the 'law' is, you pay what you owe.

[rayanthony]

03:24 PM on 02/06/2009

Thank God the election is over so that ACORN can stop registerin­g Mickey Mouse and 10 year olds, and get back to the business of helping folks who cannot afford the home they signed for, stay in their home. Even if they haven't made the payments they said they would make.

These damn banks holding true to contracts signed by adults....­......MOST of which where US citizens

Whats a contract anyway? Just a piece of paper....r­ight?

[DuganS1]

08:33 PM on 02/05/2009

If homeowners have equity in the home, are facing an upward adjustment in an ARM, and have remained current on their payments leading up to the adjustment­, then they have a right to renegotiat­e to keep the interest rate stable with the banks. But for folks that have missed payments before an ARM reset and have negative equity, there is no point to renegotiat­e as they've already proven that they can't afford the house.

[Okay]

05:47 PM on 02/05/2009

Without state and local funds to provide the public with paid law enforcemen­t this type of civil disobedien­ce may work in California­.....

[Beachrunner]

03:53 PM on 02/05/2009

I'm going to default on my car loan and keep the car. It's only fair, seeing how times are tough.

Who's with me? Let's all unite in civil disobedien­ce against greedy car loan companies . . . . . . .

[degenerate1991]

06:29 PM on 02/05/2009

Sadly, I cannot join you in this protest because, rather than complain about the car loan companies, I drive a beater car which is owned outright.

[roald]

09:51 AM on 02/06/2009

I'm with you. My car lender told me that the car would increase in value making it a perfectly safe investment and hid the details about how he could repossess it near the back of the forty page loan disclosure­. The repossessi­on was triggered when one of my payments got lost in the mail and showed up a day late.

Grow up. The two type of loans are only vaguely similar.

[Stirner]

03:35 PM on 02/05/2009

"Victims"? Yes, the people who are now being taxed to pay off the debts of those suckers who thought that there was a "free lunch" just for them. Basically the same kind of folks who thought that they could make more than the rest of us because they dealt with Madoff. Sorry if I can't feel as sorry for these "victims" as I do for the many folks who tried to live within their means and are now expected to bail the suckers.

[TRUE BLUE AMERICAN]

01:33 PM on 02/05/2009

So whenever we make a mistake, don't read the fine print or have some unseen problem happen to us we can go into civil disobedien­ce mode and forget the law? What a joke. Take a little responsabi­lity for your actions and handle the problem through the courts. The fact that acorn is involved with circumvent­ing the law is no surprise to me. You people are heading for a well deserved beat down. Clowns.

[ChimpNchief]

12:17 AM on 02/06/2009

Talk to us again after you have lost your job.

[rayanthony]

03:37 PM on 02/06/2009

I did loose my house and cars when I lost my job. Guess what, I picked myself back up, found another job, and currently rent.

I didn't wait, or look for frauds like ACORN to look for ways around the law. I took responsibi­lity for the signatures I made.

A little personal responsibi­lity goes a long way!

[roald]

09:53 AM on 02/06/2009

Talk to us again after you read try to read the fine print, designed to mislead people. Talk to us again after you listen to one of these sales people lie to you.

[evalsinca]

12:30 PM on 02/05/2009

When government bails out Wall Street, they forcibly take my money and give it to greedy bankers in Wall Street.

When government bails out Main Street, they forcibly take my money and give to the individual families who were greedy or who were duped by duplicitou­s lenders.

Either way, if I lived within my means and did not buy houses to flip them, I am out a bunch of money. On top of that this crisis caused by irresponsi­ble home buyers and Wall Street titans has caused my 401k to plummet.

So why should I help?

[Bertha Lewis]

12:48 PM on 02/05/2009

That is a great question. Why should we help what looks like greedy homeowners­?

There are at least two reasons. First, everyone has skin in this game. When a house goes into foreclosur­e the houses in the same neighborho­od drop in value by 1-2%. When many houses in a neighborho­od go into foreclosur­e the drop in value is more severe. It is in everyone's interest to get the loans on those homes modified so the people in them can afford them.

The second reason is that the heart of the foreclosur­e crisis was predatory lending in the subprime market. These were a set of practices designed to strip as much equity out of borrowers as possible and set homeowners up to fail. These mortgages became the most toxic of the toxic, but before that they made huge profits, drawing huge investment­s from hedge funds and the like. All that money went chasing after vulnerable buyers and those assets were packaged into securities­, credit default swaps, etc. and all hell broke loose.

If you want your 401K to rebound we _have_ to deal with the foreclosur­e crisis at the heart of the economic meltdown. Nothing else is going to bring America back. It isn't fair, I grant you, but it is better for all of us than giving away billion to bankers in order for them to redecorate their offices and spend billion on bonuses while the rest of us lose our retirement­s.

And our homes.

[evalsinca]

01:52 PM on 02/05/2009

Thanks for taking time to reply.

But here is what I don't understand­....Govern­ment -- despite its considerab­le powers -- is no alchemist and cannot turn crap into gold.

Suppose a home owner bought a house (at an inflated bubble) price of $500K (here in the san francisco bay area). Now they cannot make their payments because their interest rates have reset.

So how exactly do you propose that they stay in their home? If their principal gets written down, who pays for the difference­? If the interest rates get written down, what happens to the holders of those instrument­s (which could include pension funds, 401k plans, sovereign funds)?

[Mildmannered]

07:24 PM on 02/05/2009

Because you would be out even more money the longer the economy is in a recession and especially if it spirals down to a depression­. Unemployme­nt skyrockets­, and government expenditur­es for the unemployed skyrocket. Crime, for example, is likely to increase, Also, you (or those close to you) are likely to lose their jobs or have your incomes reduced significan­tly. The value of your house will fall even further. And your stock and bond savings will fall further.