Occupy Homes

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Marchers hold a banner reading "Foreclose On Banks Not People" Occupy Wall Street March 2012 foreclosure banner.jpg
Marchers hold a banner reading "Foreclose On Banks Not People"

Occupy Homes or Occupy Our Homes [1] [2] is part of the Occupy movement which attempts to prevent the foreclosure of people's homes. [1] Protesters delay foreclosures by camping out on the foreclosed property. They also stage protests at the banks responsible for the ongoing foreclosure crisis, sometimes blocking their entrances. [3] [4] It has been compared to the direct action taken by people to prevent home foreclosures during the Great Depression in the United States. [5]

Contents

History

The late-2000s financial crisis resulted in the collapse of some large financial institutions, the bailout of banks by national governments, and downturns in stock markets around the world. In many areas, the housing market also suffered, [6] resulting in numerous evictions and foreclosures; in the U.S., 3.6 million homes have been foreclosed since August 2007. [7] In 2008, a federal law termed the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was passed to spend 700 billion dollars to bail out banks. The law also specifically called for the government to encourage banks to modify loans to prevent foreclosures. However, very little money has actually been used to bail out home owners and the banks have done little to change their lending practices to help people to avoid losing their homes. [8]

The Occupy Homes movement [9] has its roots in the early 1970s, when declining working-class incomes and a lack of bank financing for low-rent properties left thousands of New York City buildings abandoned and hundreds of former tenants squatted vacant buildings on Manhattan's Upper West Side, East Harlem, Chelsea, Chinatown, the Lower East Side, and the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. [10] A similar group based in Miami, Florida, Take Back the Land, has been working to block evictions, [11] and rehousing homeless people in foreclosed houses since 2007. [12] [13] Early successful actions included the delay of an eviction of a woman in Ohio when protesters camped out in her yard, [5] convincing Fannie Mae to hold off on an eviction by holding a vigil outside a home in California, [14] delaying a foreclosure in Minnesota so that an occupant could first move out of a home, [14] and convincing a New York landlord to provide adequate heating to tenants by occupying a boiler room. [14]

National Day of Action

On December 6, 2011, Occupy Our Homes, an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street, said it was embarking on a "National Day of Action" to protest the mistreatment of homeowners by big banks, who they say made billions of dollars off of the housing bubble by offering predatory loans and indulging in practices that took advantage of consumers. In more than two dozen cities across the nation the movement took on the housing crisis by re-occupying foreclosed homes, disrupting bank auctions and blocking evictions. [15]

Saying, "The banks got bailed out, but our families are getting kicked out", Occupy Wall Street joined in solidarity with a Brooklyn community to occupy homes that were foreclosed and are now owned by banks. [16] [17] [18] A peaceful group of more than 500 staged what it termed "a National Day of Action" to fight fraudulent lending practices and "illegal evictions by banks" — the institutions Occupiers blame for the nation's economic predicament. Occupy Wall Street said there would be similar occupations in other communities and that they also will try to disrupt auctions at which foreclosed properties are sold. There were also similar occupations in Atlanta, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon. [19]

In Minneapolis, a nonprofit group, Minnesota's Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, has joined with Occupy Minneapolis protesters to live on the properties of two foreclosed homeowners. On December 6, about 50 people began occupying the home of an unemployed man who faces eviction after several heart attacks and shoulder surgery that prevented him from working at his former job as an independent contractor. A spokesperson for Neighborhoods Organizing for Change said, "Foreclosure in his case made no sense. His mortgage balance was $275,000 but the auction of his home only fetched $80,000, less than one-third of the amount he owed. Everybody, including the bank, would have been better off reducing his balance to an affordable level." [15] [20]

In Atlanta, Occupy Our Homes activists went to the courthouses in three of the area's largest counties to disrupt the foreclosure auctions happening there. The group is demanding an immediate moratorium on all foreclosures. [15] In Chicago, activists took over homes left vacant due to foreclosures. They moved a homeless mother and child, an evicted homeowner and a college student into one of the houses which had been abandoned by its owner in April and was severely vandalized. [15]

Calling the December 6 demonstrations and actions just a "warm-up" for actions of the next few months, Max Rameau, a housing activist with Take Back the Land, one of the organizations that has aligned itself with the Occupy Our Homes movement, said, "This is an important practice round for our 2012 spring offensive". [15]

Continuing actions

On December 6, 2011, members of Occupy Atlanta began an occupation of the home of Brigitte Walker, a former Army Staff Sergeant who was medically discharged in 2007. Unable to keep up with payments on her reduced salary, her home was scheduled to be auctioned off on January 3. At a press conference on December 20, it was announced by members of Occupy Atlanta and State Senator Vincent Fort, who Walker had contacted for aid, that they had successfully renegotiated her loan to a monthly payment she could afford that would allow her to stay in her home. [21] By late December hundreds of other foreclosure victims were being defended by local branches of the Occupy movement. [22]

Reaction

Conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart said the movement's new focus is "fomenting civil unrest, fomenting class warfare" and that this action shows that Occupy Wall Street is not "an authentic grass-roots movement but a political maneuver backed by organized labor and remnants of the ACORN community-organizing group aimed at boosting President Obama's re-election campaign". [19] [23]

Speaking on CNN, law professors Sonia Katyal and Eduardo Peñalver compared the occupation of foreclosed homes to earlier social protests that brought about positive legal change. In their opinion, the Occupy Homes movement demonstrates an obvious connection between the Occupy Wall Street protestor's disobedience (the occupation of parks and streets) and their complaints of economic inequality, political corruption and the excessive power of banks. They point out that the financial institutions that brought about the current recession, often using illegal procedures such as robo-signing, now own the very homes that were lost due to their illegal practices and they believe that Occupy Homes forms a tighter link between its acts of occupation and its political objections. [24]

New York writer, filmmaker, and Occupier Astra Taylor wrote:

Not only does the occupation of abandoned foreclosed homes connect the dots between Wall Street and Main Street, it can also lead to swift and tangible victories, something movements desperately need for momentum to be maintained. The banks, it seems, are softer targets than one might expect because so many cases are rife with legal irregularities and outright criminality. With one in five homes facing foreclosure and filings showing no sign of slowing down in the next few years, the number of people touched by the mortgage crisis—whether because they have lost their homes or because their homes are now underwater—truly boggles the mind. [22]

See also

Related Research Articles

Foreclosure

Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan.

OneWest Bank

OneWest Bank, a division of CIT Bank, N.A., is a regional bank with over 60 retail branches in Southern California. OneWest Bank specializes in consumer deposit and lending including personal checking and savings accounts, Money Market accounts, CDs, and home loan products. OneWest also offers small business checking, savings, CD and Money Market accounts as well as small business loans and treasury management products.

Equity stripping, also known as equity skimming, is a type of foreclosure rescue scheme. Often considered a form of predatory lending, equity stripping became increasingly widespread in the early 2000s. In an equity stripping scheme an investor buys the property from a homeowner facing foreclosure and agrees to lease the home to the homeowner who may remain in the home as a tenant. Often, these transactions take advantage of uninformed, low-income homeowners; because of the complexity of the transaction, victims are often unaware that they are giving away their property and equity. Several states have taken steps to confront the more unscrupulous practices of equity stripping. Although "foreclosure re-conveyance" schemes can be beneficial and ethically conducted in some circumstances, many times the practice relies on fraud and egregious or unmeetable terms.

Mortgage discrimination or mortgage lending discrimination is the practice of banks, governments or other lending institutions denying loans to one or more groups of people primarily on the basis of race, ethnic origin, sex or religion.

City Life/Vida Urbana commonly known as "City Life," is a social justice group in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1973, a group of local residents and activists with roots in the civil rights, feminist and anti-Vietnam War movements founded the Jamaica Plain Tenants Action Group, now City Life/Vida Urbana. Since 2008, City Life has focused on preventing evictions of both former owners and renters resulting from a rise in foreclosures. City Life/Vida Urbana is currently based in Jamaica Plain, with satellite memberships in East Boston, Brockton, Lynn, Quincy, and Worcester.

Loss mitigation is used to describe a third party helping a homeowner, a division within a bank that mitigates the loss of the bank, or a firm that handles the process of negotiation between a homeowner and the homeowner's lender. Loss mitigation works to negotiate mortgage terms for the homeowner that will prevent foreclosure. These new terms are typically obtained through loan modification, short sale negotiation, short refinance negotiation, deed in lieu of foreclosure, cash-for-keys negotiation, a partial claim loan, repayment plan, forbearance, or other loan work-out. All of the options serve the same purpose, to stabilize the risk of loss the lender (investor) is in danger of realizing.

This article is a subordinate article to the subprime mortgage crisis. It covers some of the miscellaneous effects of the crisis in more detail, to preserve the flow of the main page.

Take Back the Land is an American organisation based in Miami, Florida devoted to blocking evictions, and rehousing homeless people in foreclosed houses. Take Back the Land was formed in October 2006 to build the Umoja Village Shantytown on a plot of unoccupied land to protest gentrification and a lack of low-income housing in Miami. The group began opening houses in October 2007 and moved six homeless families into vacant homes in 2008. By April 2009, the group had moved 20 families into foreclosed houses. As of November 2008, the group had ten volunteers. Take Back the Land volunteers break into the houses, clean, paint and make repairs, change the locks, and help move the homeless families in. They provide supplies and furniture and help residents turn on electricity and water. Though the occupations are of contested legality, as of December 2008 local police officers were not intervening, judging it to be the responsibility of house owners to protect their property or request assistance.

The 2010 United States foreclosure crisis, sometimes referred to as Foreclosure-gate or Foreclosuregate, refers to a widespread epidemic of improper foreclosures initiated by large banks and other lenders. The foreclosure crisis was extensively covered by news outlets beginning in October 2010, and several large banks—including Bank of America, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup—responded by halting their foreclosure proceedings temporarily in some or all states. The foreclosure crisis caused significant investor fear in the U.S. A 2014 study published in the American Journal of Public Health linked the foreclosure crisis to an increase in suicide rates.

Project No One Leaves

Project No One Leaves (PNOL) is a Boston non-profit tenants' rights organization which provides legal education to people living in foreclosed homes to enable them to understand and protect their legal rights. The group was established in 2008 by members of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau who specialized in housing law in response to a perceived spike in foreclosures and mass evictions in low-income Boston neighborhoods.

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Occupy Atlanta has included protests and demonstrations. Occupy Atlanta began on October 6, 2011 in Woodruff Park, located in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. As part of the Occupy movement, it is inspired by Occupy Wall Street which began in New York City on September 17.

Occupy movement

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Occupy Buffalo

Occupy Buffalo was a collaboration that included a peaceful protest and demonstrations which began on October 1, 2011, in Buffalo, New York, in Niagara Square, the nexus of downtown Buffalo opposite the Buffalo City Hall. It is related to the Occupy Wall Street movement that began in New York City on September 17, and called for economic equity, accountability among politicians and ending lobbyist influence of politicians. Protesters camped overnight in Niagara Square as part of the demonstration.

Occupy movement in the United States

The Occupy movement began in the United States initially with the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City, but spread to many other cities, both in the United States and worldwide. This list article is an alphabetical, non-chronological summary of Occupy events that have occurred in cities in the United States.

Occupy Baltimore

Occupy Baltimore was a collaboration that included peaceful protests and demonstrations. Occupy Baltimore began on October 4, 2011 in Baltimore, Maryland, in McKeldin Square near the Inner Harbor area of Downtown Baltimore. It is one of the many Occupy movements around the United States and worldwide, inspired by Occupy Wall Street.

Occupy Redwood City

Occupy Redwood City was a collaboration that began with peaceful protests, demonstrations, and general assemblies in front of the historic San Mateo County Courthouse in Redwood City, California. The demonstration was inspired by Occupy Wall Street and is part of the larger "Occupy" protest movement.

Occupy Minneapolis

Occupy Minneapolis [OccupyMN] is a grassroots collaboration that began in October 2011 with a series of demonstrations in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Protesters have staged numerous occupations, most notably of the Hennepin County Government Center plaza.

Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca (PAH) is a Spanish grassroots organization that takes direct action to stop evictions and campaigns for housing rights.

The Making Home Affordable program of the United States Treasury was launched in 2009 as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The main activity under MHA is the Home Affordable Modification Program.

References

  1. 1 2 Sherter, Alain (December 6, 2011). "No place like home: "Occupy Wall Street" targets foreclosures". CBS News . Retrieved June 11, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Occupy Our Homes Atlanta to hold protest at Peachtree Center Wells Fargo". CBS46 News. August 3, 2012. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
  3. ↑ Hansen, Jamie (November 17, 2011). "Occupy Petaluma ups the ante". Argus-Courier. Retrieved April 15, 2012.
  4. ↑ "Occupy protests move to foreclosed homes". Yahoo Finance. 7 December 2011. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  5. 1 2 Maddow, Rachel; Leitsinger, Miranda. “Foreclosed homes, empty lots are new ‘Occupy’ targets”, MSNBC, December 2, 2011 (phrase "Occupy Our Homes" presented at 7:04)
  6. ↑ Daley, Suzanne (27 October 2010). "Foreclosure in Spain Can Mean Lifetime Debt to Bank". The New York Times.
  7. ↑ Ivry, Bob; Keoun, Bradley; Kuntz, Phil (27 November 2011). "Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks $13 Billion Undisclosed to Congress". Bloomberg.
  8. ↑ "Transcript: Help for Homeowners?". NOW on PBS. February 6, 2009. Retrieved April 15, 2012.
  9. ↑ Tady, Scott (November 25, 2011). "5 Q's with Anti-Flag". Beaver County Times. Retrieved April 15, 2012.
  10. ↑ Harkinson, Josh (December 6, 2011). "Occupy Movement Targets Foreclosed Properties". Mother Jones. Retrieved April 15, 2012.
  11. ↑ Jones, Van (April 1, 2011). "VIDEO: 'This Is Not America': SWAT Team Evicts Grandmother, Community Fights Back". michaelmoore.com. Archived from the original on April 4, 2011. Retrieved April 2, 2011.
  12. ↑ Jervis, Rick (December 10, 2008). "Homeless turn foreclosures into shelters". USA Today . Retrieved January 4, 2008.
  13. ↑ Lush, Tamara (December 21, 2008). "Homeless advocates 'liberate' foreclosed houses". SFGate . San Francisco Chronicle. Associated Press . Retrieved January 4, 2008.
  14. 1 2 3 Hartmann, Thom.From Occupy Wall Street To Occupy The Living Room, The Talk Radio News Service, November 14, 2011.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 Les Christie (December 6, 2011). "Occupy protesters take over foreclosed homes". CNNMoney. Retrieved December 7, 2011.
  16. ↑ "Occupy Wall Street Goes Home". OccupyWallStreet.org. December 1, 2011. Retrieved April 15, 2012.
  17. ↑ Epstein, Lisa (December 5, 2011). ""Occupy Our Homes" Day, Tuesday, Dec. 6, to Launch National Campaign". 4closurefraud.org. Retrieved April 15, 2012.
  18. ↑ "Prosecuting Wall Street". CBS News. December 4, 2011. Retrieved April 15, 2012.
  19. 1 2 Hampson, Rick (December 6, 2011). "Occupy group aims to move people into foreclosed homes". USA Today. Retrieved April 15, 2012.
  20. ↑ Susanna Kim (December 7, 2011). "Occupy Our Homes Campaign Launches Against Foreclosures Indoors". ABC News. Retrieved December 7, 2011.
  21. ↑ "Occupy Our Homes Victory in Atlanta". Thestockmarketwatch.com. December 20, 2011. Retrieved April 15, 2012.
  22. 1 2 Solnit, Rebecca (December 22, 2011). "Occupying Wall Street, Shipping Ports, and Hearts". Mother Jones. Retrieved April 15, 2012.
  23. ↑ Hamilton, Walter; Reckard, E. Scott; Willon, Phil (December 6, 2011). "Occupy movement moves to neighborhoods". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 15, 2012.
  24. ↑ "Occupy's new tactic has a powerful past - CNN.com". CNN. 16 December 2011.

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