by Marvin J. Ramirez
Marvin J. Ramírez
In times of despair and confusion, when there is no hope in a system of statutes that mostly benefits the elite – the bankers – people finally find a way out.
And this happens when foreclosures keep growing, and bankers increase their harassment tone to evict those homeowners who have fallen victims of the same banks’ unethical lending practices.
This time, though, homeowners are fighting back with one tool: organizing in civil disobedience.
Community leaders and some law enforcement have started to join homeowners in New York to support families who refuse the orders to vacate their homes.
“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, published in The New York Times. “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.”
As reported in the Times, the community organizing group, ACORN, unveiled the campaign with a spirited rally on Feb. 13 at a Brooklyn church and will roll it out in at least 22 other cities.
More than 40 New York ACORN members and allies rallied at the Nassau County foreclosure auction and bid $0 on home after home. ACORN member Suzanne Gray was in tears as she explained how happy she was that her family’s home, which was supposed to be sold at this auction, had been saved by ACORN. She had come to ACORN the day before, just in time for ACORN Housing to stop the sale.
The city of Oakland has been one site of said scenarios.
In Oakland, 40 ACORN members “moved in” to a Wells Fargo Bank, with a cot and sleeping bags, to demand that the bank work with ACORN members Rosa and Juan Rico, who have been trying for months to get the bank to negotiate with them in modifying their loan. With an impending foreclosure, they could be the next family on the street if the bank does not work with them.
According to news reports (November 2008), so far this year about 3,800 of the adjustable rate subprime loans in Oakland have reset or been adjusted to a higher interest rate. That number is expected to climb in the next several years as many subprime loans are scheduled to reset. In addition, recent statistics indicate that the foreclosure crisis is continuing to expand and the adjustable rate mortgage loan resets will not fully peak until 2011.
The slogan of the day for you victims of banks’ fraud is: Do not leave your home. Contact Oakland ACORN: caacornoaro@acorn.org. Phone: 510-535-9882.
