Taking Action, Saving Homes, Starting the Recovery
"No homes for sale!"
"No homes for sale!"
"No homes for sale!"
It took me about 7 seconds to say that chant three times. Six seconds later another family in America entered the foreclosure process.
ACORN members know what that does to a family and to a community. So today, 300 ACORN members took over the Mitchell Courthouse in Baltimore, Maryland singing and chanting as they overwhelmed the 20 or so sheriff's deputies assigned to "protect" auctioneers from selling off foreclosed properties.
50 miles away in Washington, DC, another 120 took over two buildings on the same block where foreclosure auctions were being held.
In Baltimore, Donna Hanks, a foreclosure victim who lost her home a year ago - a home that still sits vacant in the bank's hands today - led the action and later talked to film crews about the turmoil she is going through. "I've moved six times in the last year - and I have a steady, union job. Families that are losing their jobs are even worse off than I am. That's why I came out today to help working people keep their homes."
In Washington, ACORN members snuck into one auction disguised as prospective buyers and then joined in the protest as marchers appeared outside the building. One of the building owners, angered that his property was being used to facilitate foreclosures, kicked the auctioneer out and ACORN members proceeded to follow him around refusing to let him sell homes out from under families.
13 seconds goes by pretty fast. We're talking four families every minute. It is no wonder that ACORN members are stiffening their spines, gritting their teeth, and fighting back in the face of the economic maelstrom engulfing the country. With Treasury Secretary Geithner announcing today the prospect of a $50 billion package of aid that addresses the crisis, we are heartened, but know that we need to take action now to keep hard-hit families in their homes and to keep pressure on our elected leaders to do the right thing.
Fast.
Because it is one family every 13 seconds.
Today's actions are the continuation of actions that ACORN members have been taking for weeks to keep families in their homes, including a coordinated Day of Action on January 15th, when members in over 25 cities blocked foreclosure actions.
As part of the campaign, ACORN members are in DC today for our annual Legislative and Political Conference talking with their Congressional representatives about the need for immediate action to get Americans back to work and save the homes of working families.
Next week we ratchet up the pressure. On February 19th, ACORN is launching the Home Defenders, a program that 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 made by one family every 13 seconds.
It 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 Home Defenders program is modeled on an ACORN action taken a week ago in Oakland, CA that saved the home of a West Oakland couple on the day of their eviction.
And we are partnering with the folks at Brave New Films in their launch of a new web-based resource for foreclosure victims and those in danger of foreclosure. Called Fighting For Our Homes, this is a way for people to have their own voice and tell their own stories about the foreclosure crisis - stories that show how real people and real neighborhoods are being affected.
If you want to join in the fight to get America back to work and end the foreclosure crisis in this country, you can join the Home Defenders, and sign this petition to President Obama asking for quick action. And visit Fighting For Our Homes to see foreclosure victims speaking for themselves.
Together we can get America back on her feet again.
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Comments here show a lack of compaassion for people being throown out of their homes. Most are concerned with the economics. So you throw a family out of their home, the house is devalued and put back on the market at a lower price reflecting current prices. So why not let the original owner stay and refinance at the lower price to begin with. Eliminate the foreclosure process and minimize the human cost. In 278 BC in Rome, when men went to war they could not pay their loans and interest accrued to the point that no one could pay off their loans when they returned. A compromise was adopted where the interest already paid on loans was subtracted from the principle. There are alternatives to throwing families into the street. We should be vilifying people for wanting a home for their children.
I would like to see the banks work with people to keep them in their homes but the fact is not everyone is going to be able to make a house payment. Some got in over their heads and some have lost jobs or taken pay cuts due to this economy. No one guarenteed free homes for the masses. Not even "The One." If someone absolutely cannot make their payments it's time to get them into an apartment or a rental home and let another buyer purchase the home. Disrupting auctions is only going to keep homes empty, hurt a city or counties tax revenue and drive down home values in the surrounding area.
Liberals mean well but they don't live in the real world.
Bertha,
We began this dialog earlier in another of your great posts.
I want to be a devil's advocate and ask: What exactly is wrong with a home being foreclosed? You make it sound like a terrible disease that should be avoided at all costs because it destroys the home values around it and so on. But the home values are not destroyed by the foreclosure process --- they are destroyed by what you, me and other buyers are willing to put down to buy the house!
If a house goes into foreclosure, the fact that it does not immediately get purchased by someone else is reflective of the fact that the bank is slow to come to grips with the true market value of the property.
Your goals are noble and idealistic and wonderful -- but I frankly don't see how they can work in all but a few isolated cases.
I do applaud you for trying!
-- Bill
See Bertha Lewis's Profile
Bill,
This is in response to your well-worded question, but I'm also trying to answer other folks who have commented with more vituperation.
First, I don't think anyone is saying that foreclosure as a practice should be ended. What we are saying, and have been saying for over a decade, is that the rampant fraud and manipulation that occurred in the sub-prime market, well-documented by us and others as "predatory lending", is at the heart of the current economic crisis. There can be no lasting solution to the economic meltdown without addressing the foreclosure crisis at is core.
Let me say that again: we can't fix the economic mess without dealing with foreclosures. If we can't get money flowing back into the credit system from borrowers facing foreclosure proceedings, then all the trillions of dollars in toxic assets sitting on the books of the financial industry will never be able to be valued and will either completely freeze up credit or will cause the collapse of the global economy.
We have to figure out a way to get folks paying on their mortgages again and we have to create ways for people to keep their homes. The cost to everyone is too high not to. The economy needs these loans to perform. It cannot absorb the projected $850 billion hit over 4 years that would come from doing nothing.
So we are doing this to force decision-makers to deal with this crisis now.
sorry, foreclosures clear the market and reset prices to an affordable level. with the exception of those people who had to move and decided to buy a home most of these people losing their homes today are victims of themselves. while they deserve some empathy, sympathy is not warranted nor is interference in the clearing process so that more prudent people are finally able to buy a well priced home.
ACORN missed their chance to uphold their organization during the Phoney Voter Fraud outcry from the Republicans by putting people in front of the camera that did a pi ss poor job of clearing themselves. The st ink the Republicans put on this organization will always be there. Better late than never does not apply here.
Phoney?
The stink on this organization was well earned and was not put there by Republicans.
So, you and your organization are protesting banks taking back property is that is rightfully there's from people who can't afford to make payments any longer? Is that right? Well, why doesn't everyone just quit their job, stop making mortgage payments and then call you guys to come save the house for them? This is ludicrious! This entitlement mentality is what is killing this country and your organization is poster child for entitlements. If you lose your job, you can't make payments on whatever it is you financed, then guess what, you lose it. Why is that cruel? What has changed since America was created? Why do YOU, your organization and those you represent feel that they can get something for nothing? Guess what, I was too was very close to losing my house and had foreclosure proceedings started against me. It was a horrible feeling, but you know what? I came to terms that I might lose my first home and then worked extremely hard to figure out alternatives and am happy to say that I am still in my home, but not after a lot of hard work and creativity.
Your organization has completely lost it's original vision and now you have become a fringe group that is just out to spread the lie that corporations are bad and people are victims of them. What a complete lie and you should be ashamed that your message has become what it has become.
A beautiful and well-crafted response CommonSense! Some folks just don't want to work for things, they want things to be given to them.
I've got an even better idea. Why don't banks NOT loan anyone money for anything and we don't get it until we have the money for it? These evil banks that loan us money so we can get what we want, they should just stop loaning money and see how happy that makes the American people?
You want a $300K home, then you better have $300K to buy it. You want a car? You better have what ever amount of money it costs, or you don't get it.
Entitlement = death of the individual = death of America as we have always known it.
And since you are going after the bad banks that take back what is there's Ms. Lewis, maybe while you are in Baltimore, you could protest our wonderful Mayor Dixon and let her know how evil she is for taking bribes for government contracts and also how she stole gift cards for the poor that were donated by hard working citizens and used them as gifts to her friends. Do you think your organization can take some time to do that, since you are truly concerned about the poor?
You must be channeling Ann Coulter.
Of course the people who entered into these loans are victims. I mean they did not know they could afford the increased payment on a $500k house when the rate changed after 5 years. They looked at it as living in a $500k house on a $30k a year salary.
Bless you for your hard and courageous work. Foreclosures serve no one and hurt everyone.
The people being foreclosed upon are not "victims."
Laws vary by state, but typically these individuals are at least 120 days behind on their house payments.
What are the banks supposed to do? Should they just allow the people to live there for free?
These "victims" signed a promissary note that required them to make periodic payments. The note spelled out perfectly clearly what would happen if these payments weren't made.
I couldn't agree more, but with Obama as the president, people honestly believe that he is going to take care of them. That Ft. Myers, FL thing yesterday was so sad. Americans that are in tough times temporarily are now demanding that our government provide for them. Give them homes, cars, jobs, benefits, all for free and all just because...
Truly a sad time in America when everyone becomes dependant on the government and what the government can do for them. Sad.
American citizens get more stupid every year. You are correct. Many people honestly believed that Obama would provide for their every need.
What are you doing to curtail corruption in your organization? What are you doing to insure that your employees are paid minimum wage and prevented from turning fraudulent voter registration forms?
See Bertha Lewis's Profile
Thank you for this question.
ACORN is involved in a range of activities that deeply resonate with the best of the American spirit: strengthening families, valuing work, increasing participation in our democracy. Our foreclosure campaign is a good example of this. The question of "corruption" is just a conservative talking point based on an internal leadership transition that is positioning ACORN for the 21st century.
Re: minimum wage: ACORN's starting salary is in the mid to upper 20K, comparable to many other non-profits. Our hourly pay is compliant with all minimum wage laws and in many states exceeds them.
What you many not know about our voter registration program is that in most jurisdictions we are either required or requested to turn in ALL voter registration forms, whether they are problematic or not. We separate the applications in to piles, including one that contains applications we think are bad, and then cooperate fully with law enforcement in prosecuting the relatively few numbers of bad actors defrauding us and the system.We found all the bad cards first, flagged them, and cooperated in investigations. To say that ACORN was involved in fraud is like saying Best Buy is involved in theft when its employees shoplift.
These cards represented 1.5% of our total number, about 60,000 out of 1.3 million. This is better than the DMV.
Thank you for the opportunity to set the record straight.
I guess rampant corruption isn't rampant corruption if conservatives are talking about it.
"Hourly pay compliant with all minimum wage laws"---I guess Wal-Mart is OK then.
Their hearts are in the right place, but home prices are too high. These foreclosures have got to happen so prices can finally drop and people aren't forced to sign over their life for a overpriced house.
Let foreclosures happen, let the greedy banks drown. Once home prices plummet, we can finally start buying our homes at reasonable prices. This includes the people who had their homes foreclosed on.
The actions mentioned in the article will do nothing but keep prices high and out of reach from the average American (unless they're willing to sign up for a predatory loan).
Exactly.
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