Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now

Last updated
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now
AbbreviationACORN
Formation1970
Type Non-governmental organization
Legal statusActive; defunct (US)
Region served
  • United States
  • Peru
  • Argentina
  • Mexico
  • India
  • Canada
  • United Kingdom

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is an international collection of autonomous community-based organizations that advocates for low- and moderate-income families by working on neighborhood safety, voter registration, health care, affordable housing, and other social issues. They, along with a number of other community unions, are affiliated under ACORN International. [1]

Contents

Organization

In the US, ACORN was composed of a number of legally distinct nonprofit entities and affiliates including a nationwide umbrella organization established as a 501(c)(4) that performed lobbying; local chapters established as 501(c)(3) nonpartisan charities; and the national nonprofit and nonstock organization, ACORN Housing Corporation. ACORN's priorities included: better housing and wages for the poor, more community development investment from banks and governments, better public schools, labor-oriented causes and social justice issues. ACORN pursued these goals through demonstrations, negotiation, lobbying for legislation, and voter participation. [2]

Unlike in the US, ACORN groups in other countries have little organizational funding. [1] Under the ACORN model, most members are volunteers. Employed union organizers come from those working in local ACORN campaigns rather than from existing organizations and are paid a low wage. [1] The union works on local and national level campaigns. [1]

History

Founded in 1970 by Wade Rathke and Gary Delgado, [3] at its peak ACORN had over 500,000 members and more than 1,200 neighborhood chapters in over 100 cities across the U.S. [4] [5] In 2002, ACORN International was created to aid the spread of ACORN's model to other countries. [6] There are currently ACORN affiliates in Cameroon, Canada, Czech Republic, England, [7] France, [8] Honduras, India, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Peru, Scotland, [9] Tunisia, United States, and Wales. [7] [10]

In the US, ACORN suffered a damaging nationwide controversy in the fall of 2009 after James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles secretly made, edited and released videos of interactions with low-level ACORN personnel in several of their offices, leading to several investigations by state officials that concluded the videos were inaccurately portraying the personnel as encouraging criminal behavior. [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] The organization didn't recover from the negative publicity in the US and dissolved, [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] with ACORN members and organizers forming new organizations such as the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) Action. [23] [24] [18] ACORN groups outside of the US continued unaffected. ACORN, under ACORN International, still works within the US through its Home Savers Campaign, for example. [25]

Issues and actions

Predatory lending and affordable housing

ACORN investigated complaints against companies accused of predatory lending practices. ACORN also worked to support strict state laws against predatory practices, organized against foreclosure rescue scams, and steered borrowers toward loan counseling; [26] Following a three-year campaign, Household International (now owned by HSBC Holdings and renamed HSBC Finance Corporation), one of the largest subprime lenders in the country, and ACORN announced on November 25, 2003, a proposed settlement of a 2002 national class-action lawsuit brought by ACORN. The settlement created a $72 million foreclosure avoidance program to provide relief to household borrowers who were at risk of losing their homes. [26] The settlement came on the heels of an earlier $484 million settlement between Household, Attorneys General, and bank regulators from all 50 U.S. states. [27]

Voter registration

Since the 1980s, ACORN conducted large-scale voter registration drives, [28] focusing primarily on registering poor and minority citizens. [29] [30]

Education

In 2001, ACORN opposed the privatization of some New York City schools, favoring its own Charter School plan. [31]

Gun control

In 2006, ACORN intervened on behalf of Jersey City, New Jersey, in a lawsuit brought against the city challenging a local ordinance that limited individuals' handgun purchases to one gun a month. [32] The Hudson County Superior Court struck down the ordinance on the grounds that it violated the New Jersey Constitution's Equal Protection clause, and a state statute prohibiting towns and municipalities from enacting firearms legislation. [32] On September 29, 2008, the New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division denied ACORN's appeal of the Hudson County Superior Court's decision striking down Jersey City's ordinance. [33]

Home Defender Program

In 2009, ACORN advocated allowing homeowners delinquent in their mortgage payments to remain in their homes pending a government solution to the housing foreclosure crisis. ACORN introduced a program called the Home Defender Program, intended to mobilize people to congregate at homes faced with foreclosure to "defend a family's right to stay in their homes." [34] [35]

In a 2007 case in Washington state, in which seven temporary employees of ACORN were charged with submitting fraudulent voter registrations, ACORN agreed to pay King County $25,000 for its investigative costs and acknowledged that the national organization could be subject to criminal prosecution if fraud occurred. [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] In May 2009, six ACORN employees in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty to charges of a combined total of 51 counts of forgery and other violations while registering voters during the 2008 election cycle. [41]

During the 2008 election season, ACORN gathered over 1.3 million voter registration forms in 21 states. Project Vote estimated that 400,000 registrations collected by ACORN were ultimately rejected, the vast majority for being duplicate registrations submitted by citizens. Project Vote estimated that only a few percent of registrations were fraudulent, based on past years and samples from some drives in 2008. [42] Project Vote estimated that 450,000 of the registrations collected by ACORN represented first-time voters, while the remainder were address changes submitted by citizens updating their addresses. [42]

ACORN has fired employees for fraudulent registration practices and turned them over to authorities. [43] [36] [44] [45] [46] [47] Of 26,513 registrations submitted by ACORN over a nine-month period in San Diego County, California, 4,655 were initially flagged, but 2,806 of those were later validated. County officials said this resulted in a 7% error rate by ACORN, compared to usually less than 5% for voter drives by other organizations. [48]

In plea deals in a 2009 Las Vegas case, former ACORN field director Amy Busefink and ACORN official Christopher Edwards pleaded guilty to "conspiracy to commit the crime of compensation for registration of voters," in connection with a quota system for paid registration staff. [49] Edwards was sentenced to a year's probation and agreed to testify for prosecutors in charges against ACORN and against Busefink. Busefink appealed her case to the Nevada Supreme Court, challenging the constitutionality of the statute. [50] [51] In April 2011, ACORN entered a guilty plea to one count of felony compensation for registration of voters, for which they were fined $5,000, [52] but did not concede that the law was constitutional. [51]

ACORN International

ACORN International was created in 2002 [6] as an offshoot of ACORN to aid the spread of ACORN's model to other countries, [1] including Argentina, Canada, Mexico, and Peru. [53] The first ACORN branch in the UK opened in Bristol in 2014 by three people, two of whom were graduates of the Community Organisers programme. [7]

Other groups are affiliated with ACORN: for example, Living Rent in Scotland [9] and Alliance Citoyenne in France. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

Predatory lending refers to unethical practices conducted by lending organizations during a loan origination process that are unfair, deceptive, or fraudulent. While there are no internationally agreed legal definitions for predatory lending, a 2006 audit report from the office of inspector general of the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) broadly defines predatory lending as "imposing unfair and abusive loan terms on borrowers", though "unfair" and "abusive" were not specifically defined. Though there are laws against some of the specific practices commonly identified as predatory, various federal agencies use the phrase as a catch-all term for many specific illegal activities in the loan industry. Predatory lending should not be confused with predatory mortgage servicing which is mortgage practices described by critics as unfair, deceptive, or fraudulent practices during the loan or mortgage servicing process, post loan origination.

Nativo Lopez-Vigil was an American political leader and immigrant rights activist in Southern California. Lopez was a national president of the Mexican American Political Association and the national director of the Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamericana, a community service and advocacy organization for Mexican and Latin American immigrants throughout the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Ritchie (politician)</span> American politician

Donald Mark Ritchie is an American politician and a former Minnesota Secretary of State. Ritchie was elected the 21st Minnesota Secretary of State on November 7, 2006. He was re-elected in 2010.

The United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) is the official non-partisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. The cities are each represented by their mayors or other chief elected officials. The organization was founded in light of the Great Depression and was formed under Herbert Hoover until its original charter was signed at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., on the eve of the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Brunner</span> American politician and judge (born 1957)

Jennifer Lee Brunner is an American attorney, politician and judge. She is currently an associate justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, a position to which she was elected after serving as a judge on Ohio's Tenth District Court of Appeals. On June 8, 2021, Brunner announced her candidacy for Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court in the November 8, 2022, general election. Brunner is a member of the Democratic Party who served as the Ohio Secretary of State; Brunner was the first woman to serve in this capacity. She took office after sixteen years of Republican control, which included two four-year terms by her predecessor J. Kenneth Blackwell, who oversaw the 2000 and 2004 state elections. Brunner served only a single term as Secretary of State. When it came time for re-election in 2010, she instead made an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate. Prior to being elected Secretary of State, Brunner worked in the Ohio Secretary of State's Office and served as a County Judge in Franklin County, Ohio. She also owned her own private practice; during her private practice career, she focused on election law and campaign finance law. She represented a broad range of candidates, businesses, political parties and committees before the Ohio Elections Commission on quasi-criminal matters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brennan Center for Justice</span> Liberal law and public policy institute at New York University School of Law

The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law is a liberal or progressive nonprofit law and public policy institute. The organization is named after Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. The Brennan Center advocates for public policy positions including raising the minimum wage, opposing voter ID laws, and calling for public funding of elections. The organization opposed the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC, which held that the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent political expenditures by nonprofits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Subprime mortgage crisis</span> 2007 mortgage crisis in the United States

The American subprime mortgage crisis was a multinational financial crisis that occurred between 2007 and 2010 that contributed to the 2007–2008 global financial crisis. The crisis led to a severe economic recession, with millions of people losing their jobs and many businesses going bankrupt. The U.S. government intervened with a series of measures to stabilize the financial system, including the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Center for Voting Rights</span> American non-profit organisation

The American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR) was a non-profit organization founded by Mark F. "Thor" Hearne that operated from March 2005 to May 2007 and pushed for laws to reduce voter intimidation and voter fraud, and supported requiring photo ID for voters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2013 Guinean parliamentary election</span>

Parliamentary elections were held in Guinea on 28 September 2013 after numerous delays and postponements. President Alpha Condé's party, the Rally of the Guinean People (RPG) emerged as the largest party in the National Assembly with 53 of the 114 seats. Parties allied with the RDG won seven seats and opposition parties won the remaining 53 seats. Opposition leaders denounced the official results as fraudulent.

Ross James Miller is an American attorney and politician. He is a Democrat, currently the Clark County Commissioner for District C since 2021, the former Secretary of State of Nevada and 2012–2013 president of the National Association of Secretaries of State. Elected at the age of 30, he was the youngest secretary of state in the history of Nevada and the youngest secretary of state in the country at the time of his election. Miller was not eligible to run for a third term per term limits established by the Nevada Constitution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of the 2000s United States housing bubble</span>

Housing prices peaked in early 2005, began declining in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Project Vote</span>

Project Vote was a national nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that worked to mobilize marginalized and under-represented voters until it ceased operations on May 31, 2017. Project Vote's efforts to engage low income and minority voters in the civic process included voting rights litigation and the provision of training, management, evaluation, and technical services. Its last executive director was Michael Slater, who had worked for Project Vote since 2004. In May 2017, the staff announced that Project Vote would suspend operations indefinitely due to difficulties maintaining funding.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James O'Keefe</span> American conservative filmmaker

James Edward O'Keefe III is an American political activist who founded Project Veritas, a far-right activist group that uses deceptively edited videos and information gathering techniques to attack mainstream media organizations and progressive groups. Both O'Keefe and Project Veritas have produced secretly recorded undercover audio and video encounters in academic, governmental, and social service organizations, purporting to show abusive or illegal behavior by representatives of those organizations; the recordings are often selectively edited to misrepresent the context of the conversations and the subjects' responses. O'Keefe served as chairman until he was fired from the organization in February 2023.

In the United States, squatting occurs when a person enters land that does not belong to them without lawful permission and proceeds to act in the manner of an owner. Historically, squatting occurred during the California Gold Rush and when colonial European settlers established land rights. Squatting also occurred during the Great Depression in Hoovervilles and also during World War II. Shanty towns returned to the US after the Great Recession (2007–2009) and in the 2010s there were incidents of squatting in foreclosed homes, sometimes by people who used fraudulent documents of ownership. In some cases, a squatter may be able to obtain ownership of property through adverse possession.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Occupy Homes</span> Housing activist movement in 2010s United States

Occupy Homes or Occupy Our Homes is part of the Occupy movement which attempts to prevent the foreclosure of people's homes. 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. It has been compared to the direct action taken by people to prevent home foreclosures during the Great Depression in the United States.

Stephen Bradberry is a community organizer in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. In 2005, he served as the lead organizer for the New Orleans chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). He was awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for his work on behalf of victims of Hurricane Katrina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Project Veritas</span> Former far-right activist group in the U.S.

Project Veritas is an American far-right activist group founded by James O'Keefe in 2010. The group produces deceptively edited videos of its undercover operations, which use secret recordings in an effort to discredit mainstream media organizations and progressive groups. Project Veritas also uses entrapment to generate bad publicity for its targets, and has propagated disinformation and conspiracy theories in its videos and operations.

Voter suppression in the United States consists of various legal and illegal efforts to prevent eligible citizens from exercising their right to vote. Such voter suppression efforts vary by state, local government, precinct, and election. Voter suppression has historically been used for racial, economic, gender, age and disability discrimination. After the American Civil War, all African-American men were granted voting rights, but poll taxes or language tests were used to limit and suppress the ability to register or cast a ballot. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 improved voting access. Since the beginning of voter suppression efforts, proponents of these laws have cited concerns over electoral integrity as a justification for various restrictions and requirements, while opponents argue that these constitute bad faith given the lack of voter fraud evidence in the United States.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is an international collection of autonomous community-based organizations that advocated for low- and moderate-income families by working. The association was founded in 1970 by Wade Rathke and Gary Delgado, and, at its peak in the US, had over 500,000 members and more than 1,200 neighborhood chapters in over 100 cities.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 D. Beck and R. Purcell (2013). International Community Organising. Bristol: Policy Press.
  2. ↑ "New Report Finds Widespread Local Use of Affordable Housing Program Being Currently Debated in Congress". ACORN (press release). July 23, 2002. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved October 9, 2008.
  3. ↑ Walls, David (Summer 1994). "Power to the People: Thirty-five Years of Community Organizing". The Workbook. Archived from the original on November 15, 2010. Retrieved December 3, 2010.
  4. ↑ Michael B. Farrell (September 16, 2009). "What is the ACORN controversy about?". The Christian Science Monitor .
  5. ↑ "Who is ACORN? (organization homepage)". Archived from the original on December 31, 2012. Retrieved September 15, 2009.
  6. 1 2 Atlas, John (2010). Seeds of Change: The Story of ACORN, America's Most Controversial Antipoverty Community Organizing Group. Nashville, Ten.: Vanderbilt University Press. ISBN   978-0-8265-1705-0.
  7. 1 2 3 A. Gilchrist and M. Taylor, The Short Guide to Community Development 2nd edn (Bristol: Policy Press, 2016)
  8. 1 2 J. Talpin, 'The Americanization of French social movements? Community organizing and its discontents in the banlieues' (29/06/17) on metropolitics.org
  9. 1 2 P. Smythe, 'Housing will be the basis for all change in our country': an interview with Living Rent' (29/04/20) in The Student
  10. ↑ "ACORN International". ACORN International. May 16, 2023.
  11. ↑ California AG Determines ACORN Broke No Criminal Laws Archived November 12, 2010, at the Wayback Machine FOX News; April 1, 2010
  12. ↑ "ACORN Workers Cleared Of Illegality By Outside Probe"
  13. ↑ "ACORN and the Ethics of Leadership", Atlantic Monthly , December 8, 2009
  14. ↑ ACORN Investigation Results Archived December 13, 2009, at the Wayback Machine , The Nonprofit Quarterly
  15. ↑ "Damaging Brooklyn ACORN Sting Video Ruled 'Heavily Edited' – No Charges to Be Filed", New York Magazine ; March 2, 2010
  16. ↑ Newman, Andrew (March 1, 2010). "Advice to Fake Pimp Was No Crime, Prosecutor Says". The New York Times . Archived from the original on March 25, 2010. Retrieved March 7, 2010.
  17. ↑ Madde, Mike (March 1, 2010). "Brooklyn prosecutors clear local ACORN office". Salon.com . Retrieved March 7, 2010.
  18. 1 2 Urbina, Ian (March 19, 2010). "Acorn on Brink of Bankruptcy, Officials Say". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 23, 2010. Retrieved March 20, 2010.
  19. ↑ "Second Video Shows ACORN Officials Helping 'Pimp,' 'Prostitute' in Washington Office". Fox News. September 11, 2009. Archived from the original on September 13, 2009. Retrieved September 11, 2009.
  20. ↑ Ryan Grim (September 27, 2008). "ACORN Issue Fueling Bailout Opposition". CBS News.
  21. ↑ "ACORN Closing in Wake of Scandal". FOX News. March 22, 2010. Archived from the original on March 25, 2010. Retrieved March 22, 2010.
  22. ↑ ACORN filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy; Los Angeles Times; November 2, 2010
  23. ↑ "January 13th Statement" (Press release). Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment. January 13, 2010. Archived from the original on April 14, 2013. Retrieved May 12, 2011. The leadership and staff that were working with ACORN in California made the decision to break off from ACORN and launch a new organization here in California called Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE).
  24. ↑ "Milwaukee chosen to pilot program aimed at foreclosures". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. June 28, 2010. Archived from the original on July 20, 2010. Retrieved December 22, 2023.
  25. ↑ Akers, Joshua; Seymour, Eric; Butler, Diné; Rathke, Wade (April 4, 2019). "Liquid Tenancy: 'Post-crisis' economies of displacement, community organizing, and new forms of resistance". Radical Housing Journal. 1 (1): 9–28. doi: 10.54825/JGJT2051 .
  26. 1 2 "ACORN Annual Report 2003". ACORN. 2003. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved November 12, 2007.
  27. ↑ "Household Finance Settlement". Washington State Office of the Attorney General. December 5, 2003. Archived from the original on September 27, 2006. Retrieved November 12, 2007.
  28. ↑ Christopher Hayes, The Nation , September 1, 2008, Obama's Voter-registration Drive
  29. ↑ Hastings, Deborah (October 18, 2008). "ACORN controversy: Voter fraud or mudslinging?". USA Today. Associated Press.
  30. ↑ "Furor over ACORN allegations gaining momentum" Miami Herald, 2008-10-24. [ dead link ]
  31. ↑ Mark Walsh (March 14, 2001). "N.Y.C. Parents To Vote on Edison Charter Plan". Education Week.
  32. 1 2 Toutant, Charles (December 20, 2006). "N.J. Judge Voids City's Gun Control Law". New Jersey Law Journal. Archived from the original on October 13, 2007. Retrieved November 12, 2007.
  33. ↑ "Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, No. A-4443-06T2 and A-4708-06T2" (PDF). September 29, 2008.[ dead link ]
  34. ↑ "ACORN Home Defender Program". Archived from the original on February 13, 2009. Retrieved February 18, 2009.
  35. ↑ Bill Dolan (February 19, 2009). "ACORN plans local action to stem NWI mortgage foreclosures". The Times Media Company.
  36. 1 2 Ervin, Keith (July 28, 2007). "Felony charges filed against 7 in state's biggest case of voter-registration fraud". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on November 17, 2007. Retrieved November 12, 2007.
  37. ↑ Rachel La Corte (February 23, 2007). "Reform group turned in 2000 suspicious voter registrations: County may make criminal inquiry". Seattle Post Intelligencer. Retrieved November 12, 2007.
  38. ↑ Vote Sign-up Fraud Probed; Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, August 7, 2008
  39. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on September 30, 2011. Retrieved August 20, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  40. ↑ "Prosecutors: ACORN 2008 Milwaukee Voter Drive "Marred by Fraud" - 620 WTMJ - Milwaukee's Source for Local News and Weather". Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved August 20, 2011.
  41. ↑ Roddy, Dennis B. (May 8, 2009). "7 ACORN workers charged with forgery". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
  42. 1 2 Falcone, Michael; Moss, Michael (October 23, 2008). "Groups Tally of New Voters Was Vastly Overstated". The New York Times . Retrieved March 27, 2010.
  43. ↑ "ACORN Workers Indicted For Alleged Voter Fraud". KMBC=TV. November 1, 2006. Archived from the original on June 25, 2007.
  44. ↑ Strom, Stephanie (October 22, 2008). "Acorn Report Raises Issues of Legality". The New York Times . Retrieved November 19, 2007.
  45. ↑ Sheffield, Reggie. "Former temp worker accused of bogus registrations" Archived 2008-12-12 at the Wayback Machine , The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, Penn.), July 24, 2008
  46. ↑ Bill Dolan (October 2, 2008). "County rejects large number of invalid voter registrations". The Times Media Company.
  47. ↑ Bill Dolan (October 23, 2008). "ACORN defends fraudulent Lake voter drive". The Times Media Company.
  48. ↑ Hiram Soto and Helen Gao (October 16, 2008). "ACORN active in voter registration in county". San Diego Union-Tribune.
  49. ↑ Friess, Steve (May 5, 2009). "Acorn Charged in Voter Registration Fraud Case in Nevada". The New York Times. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  50. ↑ McCoy, Cara (November 23, 2009). "Ex-ACORN official gets probation for voter registration plan". Las Vegas Sun . Archived from the original on June 11, 2011. Retrieved May 12, 2011.
  51. 1 2 ACORN pleads guilty to felony compensation for registration of voters; Las Vegas Journal-Review; April 6, 2011
  52. ↑ McCabe, Francis (August 10, 2011). "Judge fines ACORN $5,000 for voter registration scheme". Las Vegas Review-Journal . Retrieved August 12, 2011.
  53. ↑ What does ACORN do?, ACORN, archived from the original on September 27, 2011, retrieved December 3, 2010

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.