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We are the 99 percent

Articles tagged foreclosure defense


Tell the Bankers that the People are Too Big To Fail

Posted 10 years ago on May 15, 2013, 10:21 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags: direct action, foreclosure defense, occupy homes

May 20th: Day of Action

Homeowners VS. Banking Execs

Showdown at the Department of Justice


Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Jail?

Millions of underwater homeowners have paid the price for Wall Street's crimes. From mortgage fraud to predatory lending, it's time to put bankers in jail.

Join Occupy Homes, dozens of underwater homeowners, and hundreds of allies from across the country as we take action and risk arrest at the Department of Justice.

Bring Justice to Justice Rally: May 20th @ 1pm Gather: Freedom Plaza, 14th Street and Pennsylvania Ave NW – March to Department of Justice @ 1:30pm

With Occupy Homes, Home Defenders League, Campaign for a Fair Settlement, and community and faith leaders

Five years after Wall Street crashed the economy, not one banker has been prosecuted for the reckless and fraudulent practices that cost millions of Americans their jobs, threw our cities and schools into crisis, and left families and communities ravaged by a foreclosure crisis and epidemic of underwater mortgages.

Record profits are back at the bailed-out banks. Meanwhile:

  • Homeowners and communities have lost billions to Wall Street’s foreclosure crisis;

  • Millions more families face foreclosure in the coming months;

  • Communities of color have been impacted the most.

This March, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, testifying before a U.S. Senate committee, admitted that big banks and their executives have escaped prosecution simply because they are too wealthy and powerful. "Too big to fail” banks are officially “too big to jail."

The time is now for Congress and the Obama administration to make Wall Street pay us back:

  • Prosecute Wall Street bankers for stealing our homes, savings and livelihoods;

  • End the foreclosure crisis;

  • Reset mortgages to their current value (“principal reduction”);

  • Restore and rebuild wealth stolen from communities of color hardest hit.

Since the crisis began, Americans from all walks of life have banded together to help each other. Working through community organizations, civil rights groups, the Occupy movement, and community and faith leaders, we have shared our stories, lobbied, petitioned, and even faced arrest for occupying our own homes and demanding justice.

During the Wall Street Accountability Week of Action in Washington, D.C., May 18-23, families on the front line of the foreclosure crisis will travel from around the country to Washington, D.C., to make their voices heard. The week will include community organizing, home-defense training, and non-violence and civil-disobedience training.

On Monday, May 20, at 1:00pm, home defenders, as well as faith and community leaders will rally to Bring Justice to Justice – demanding an end to the “too big to jail” policy, and relief for families and communities devastated by the financial crisis and foreclosure epidemic.

13 Comments

#D6: Reclaim Our Homes, Reclaim Our Future - Occupy Our Homes Kicks Off Year Two of Housing Justice Organizing

Posted 11 years ago on Oct. 17, 2012, 3:11 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags: occupy our homes, atlanta, foreclosure defense, los angeles

occupy our homes atlanta at the home of Jacqueline Barber

via Occupy Our Homes. Be sure to check out their website for more information on how you can support on-going occupations to save homes from foreclosure, including active campaigns like this one to save the home of cancer patient Jacqueline Barber in Atlanta, the Hernandez family currently being harassed by LAPD in Los Angeles, and many more!

Four years after an economic meltdown precipitated by Wall Street greed, fraud, and recklessness in the housing market, Americans continue to face an epidemic of unjust foreclosures. While homeowners and renters seek help to keep their homes, banks have rushed to foreclose and evict, and in too many communities, homes remain vacant while neighbors sleep on the street.

But homeowners, housing justice activists, homeless advocates, and occupiers have come together to fight back under the banner of the Occupy Our Homes movement. Community organizations and occupy groups came together last December to challenge the housing crisis and confront the crooks at the banks who are stealing our homes. On December 6, 2011, scores of groups around the country participated in a day of action for housing justice, launching the Occupy Our Homes movement.

Homeowners, renters, and the homeless joined forces to fight the banks and reclaim our communities. All over the country, activists declared housing a human right. We came together, occupying our homes to prevent eviction, disrupting foreclosure auctions, restoring vacant homes to community use, and protesting the banks that caused this mess in the first place.

And we showed time and again that when people fought for their homes, they could win.

But the fight is far from over. Despite dozens of victories for homeowners around the country, banks are still choosing to foreclose instead of taking payments. Banks are still refusing to negotiate with families who seek only a fair solution that keeps them in their home. Banks are still using fraudulent tactics like robo-signing to speed through illegal foreclosures—months after a weak settlement meant to stop this practice. Bank-owned houses continue to sit empty and untended, destroying property values and pushing more and more families underwater.

A year since the start of the Occupy Our Homes movement, we are recommitting to reclaiming our homes and our futures. On Thursday December 6th 2012, we call on communities to turn the spotlight on the crisis that continues to hold our neighborhoods and our economy hostage.

We will take action together:

  • Eviction defenses/home occupations
  • Reclaiming vacant homes for the homeless
  • Establishing foreclosure and eviction-free zones
  • Foreclosure auction sit-ins
  • Marches on the banks

Occupy Our Homes started with a simple idea: bring the bold, creative energy of the Occupy movement into hard-hit communities and build power through victories for the 99%. We've won homes, churches, community landmarks, and stopped evictions while relieving debt and reclaiming land along the way.

On Thursday December 6th, 2012, we’ll re-invest in this movement to defend our homes, hold Wall Street accountable, and affirm the human right to housing. Join us in solidarity with homeowners, tenants and the homeless to build a just housing system—for the 99%.

If you as an individual or any Occupy group or community-based organization are interested in participating in the D6 actions, please complete this form and someone from Occupy Our Homes will be in touch.

occupy LA reclaiming our homes

7 Comments

Tomorrow in Atlanta: The People vs. Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac. Homes Are For People, Not Banks!

Posted 11 years ago on Sept. 9, 2012, 7:09 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags: fannie & freddie, occupy our homes, atlanta, foreclosure defense

There are 6 vacant homes for every 1 homeless person in America

Where: Meet at the Buckhead MARTA Station in Atlanta, Georgia
When: Tomorrow at 10:30am
RSVP on Facebook

On September 10, 2012, HUNDREDS of people from all over the southeast will converge on Fannie Mae's regional headquarters in Atlanta to demand an end to their abusive practices and to declare housing as a human right.

BUSES ARE SET TO COME IN FROM CHATTANOOGA, MIAMI, CHARLOTTE, AND ORLANDO.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac control over 60% of the mortgages in the US. After gambling with people's money, and buying up subprime mortgages during the housing bubble, they were placed under conservatorship of the US government in 2008, receiving billions of taxpayers dollars. Now, 4 years later, they continue to put people out of their homes, and are the biggest obstacle to fixing the housing crisis. Edward DeMarco, who currently oversees both Fannie and Freddie through the FHFA, refuses to offer principle reduction to help over 16 million underwater homeowners find relief and stay in their homes. They are more cruel than even the big banks when it comes to evictions, and post foreclosure options, and to top it all off, have begun selling off foreclosed properties in bulk to the same investors and hedge-funds that crashed the economy in the first place.

Its time to put a stop to this, and to demand the wealth that was stolen from our communities be restored. Thousands of people are fed up are ready to fight back, and are coordinating actions across the country against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to occur in the same week.

Our demands include:

  • Principal Reduction for all underwater homeowners to real market value
  • an end to Fannie and Freddie Evictions, and the right to rent after foreclosure
  • the sale of foreclosed properties to occupants and non-profits at the same discounted rate they are offering to shady investors
  • that they turn over vacant and abandoned properties to community controlled entities to provide long term affordable housing

Click here to read the stories of people fighting back: http://wearethefanniefreddie99.tumblr.com

11 Comments

Chicago: #OccupyObama

Posted 11 years ago on Sept. 4, 2012, 4:50 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags: anti-war, dnc, foreclosure defense, chicago, immigration, lgbtq

The United States is in need of change, now more than ever, and that change must come from the people. We can no longer rely on politicians to save us. Politicians are bought and sold by the very interests that are destroying our society, and our president Barack Obama is no different. After coming into office under the guise of hope and change, we have seen more of the same policies and actions that brought us to our current situation. Now more than ever it is time for a real change.

With the upcoming presidential election, we are going to be given two sides of the same corporate coin. Without question, we reject the idea that Mitt Romney, the man behind Bain Capital, can do anything other than gut what remains of the public sector, destroy what remains of our social services, and empower corporations to further take over our country.

Barack Obama's agenda is not so different from that of Mitt Romney's. If Obama is elected we will continue to see more human rights abuses, the rolling back of our constitutional rights, and a continuation of the silent coup that corporate America is executing on what remains of our sham of a democracy.

Beginning today, Occupy Chicago will join with activists around Chicago and take a stand. We will highlight the contradictions between President Obama's promise of “hope and change” and his actual policy decisions during a four day occupation of his campaign headquarters. Each day will feature actions, teach-ins, and opportunities to share in community and grow our movement. Join us!

RSVP on Facebook

September 4: 5PM Central, Jackson&Lasalle: Reject President 1%: End Obama's War On the World's 99%

September 5: Protest Mortgage Debt/Foreclosures at at Fannie Mae's Midwest Regional Offices

September 6: Democracy

More below.

Read More...

130 Comments

2,500 March on Wall Street South: We Need Jobs, Housing, Justice, Not War!

Posted 11 years ago on Sept. 4, 2012, 2:36 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags: students, immigrants rights, labor, anti-war, dnc, foreclosure defense, wall street south, charlotte

2,500 March on Wall St. South

"DNC/RNC = 1%"

(more images below)

via Occupy Wall Street South:

Braving extreme heat, more than 2,500 people from throughout the South and across the U.S. filled the streets of Charlotte on Sun., Sept. 2 for the March on Wall Street South. The demonstration confronted the banks and corporations headquartered in Charlotte that are wreaking havoc on communities throughout the country, and raised a people’s agenda for jobs and justice as the Democratic National Convention convenes here.

Participants came from cities throughout North Carolina, including Winston-Salem, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, Rocky Mount, Greenville, Asheville, Fayetteville, Greensboro, and Wilmington. Many traveled hours from cities such as Baltimore, MD; Atlanta, GA; Greenville, MS; Washington, DC; Tampa, FL; Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, PA and New York, NY. A bus of more than 40 people, many of whom being foreclosed on by Bank of America and who are unemployed, spent 15 hours traveling from Detroit, MI.

The No Papers No Fear bus, which left Phoenix, AZ on July 29 with more than 40 undocumented people to arrive in Charlotte for the DNC, also joined the march with a spirited contingent against the deportations and criminalization of immigrant communities.

Also on the march were an unemployed workers contingent, a Southern labor contingent, a contingent against U.S. wars being waged at home and abroad, a no war no warming contingent, an LGBTQ contingent, and more.

“This was an historic demonstration that built an unprecedented level of unity between so many different groups and struggles on a grassroots level,” said Yen Alcala, an organizer with the Coalition to March on Wall Street South and Occupy Charlotte. “The March on Wall Street South showed what is possible when we unite, and pointed the finger at those who are responsible for the injustices being experienced by the 99% – the banks and corporations, and a political system that is controlled by the 1%. Building people’s power from the bottom up is the only solution to win jobs and justice for poor and working people.”

Along the march, demonstrators stopped in front of the Bank of America’s world headquarters and Duke Energy’s headquarters. At each stop, people who have been directly impacted by the practices of these banks and corporations –whose homes are being foreclosed on, who have massive amounts of student loan debt, and whose communities are being devastated by coal mining and energy rate hikes — spoke out and exposed these profit gauging institutions.

“The March on Wall Street South was a tremendous success,” said Elena Everett, another Coalition organizer. “Our message for jobs and justice was heard loud and clear by the bankers and the politicians of both parties. But this is just the beginning. We know that the only way that real change has ever been won is when people come together, get organized, and build social movements to raise demands to the powers that be. And that’s exactly what we’re doing — building a movement for jobs, education, healthcare, the environment, housing, and against wars, racism and bigotry, deportations, and jails.”

Throughout the remainder of the week, the MOWSS coalition will be supporting actions and events being developed by other groups, including the Undocubus and the Southern Workers Assembly on Sept. 3 at Wedgewood Baptist Church. The Coalition will also be mobilizing support for the reoccupation of Marshall Park being led by Occupy Charlotte.

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