Thread: Refusing to Leave: ACORN Members Step up Fight to Stay in Ho

February 13, 2009

An ACORN member protests foreclosures in Baltimore Feb. 10.

On Feb. 19, ACORN members will launch a new tactic in fighting foreclosures: civil disobedience. Participants in the ACORN Home Savers campaign nationwide will simply refuse to move out of foreclosed homes, or in some cases, will move back in. ACORN homesteaders intend to squat in their homes until a comprehensive, federal solution for people facing foreclosure is put in place.

"What else can you do?" asks Louis Beverly, co-chair of the Baltimore ACORN Foreclosure Fighters. "After you've used all your legal options, your last resort is civil disobedience. We're talking about families who have been in their homes 20 or 30 years. People who are assets in the community, who look out for the elderly, who have community associations, and these are the people being kicked out of the community."

The foreclosure crisis lies at the very heart of the broader economic collapse. The glut of foreclosed properties on the market forced housing prices into a tailspin, and banks loaded up with mortgage-backed securities and complex derivatives, unable to value or sell these assets, stopped lending to each other and the credit markets froze up, triggering the broader economic downturn. A broad and successful economic recovery is impossible without directly addressing the record foreclosure rate that lies at its heart.

"No one understands what to do with the foreclosure situation, though most people are sympathetic because they know someone facing foreclosure," Beverly continued. "We need foreclosures to stop right now. We need a moratorium to allow time to try to get loans modified so they can stay in their homes. And the economic recovery package has to have enough money for them to refinance their homes. The banks don't really want your house – it becomes a liability for them. With restructuring of the loan, everyone wins."

In preparation for the homesteading campaign, ACORN offices around the country are building teams of "Home Savers" – people ready and willing to mobilize on short notice to defend the homesteaders against attempts to evict them.

The Home Savers – concerned community members, allies from religious and labor groups, and in some cases elected officials – will employ nonviolent tactics as necessary to attempt to keep authorities out and families in their homes.

Baltimore ACORN member Donna Hanks remembers the day the sheriff put a lock on her front door – Sept. 29, 2008. "It's been vacant ever since. Today I went by and the lock was gone, the door was wide open – I don't know how that happened." Hanks' brother told her that drug dealers use vacant houses in his neighborhood for drug activity.

"How is this helping anybody?" Hanks asked. "The banks are losing money, and we're left out in the cold. We're hardworking people, not drug dealers, and they're kicking us out. We're looking into squatters' rights, and we're going to see how things go."

After 16 years in the housing industry helping those in need to find housing, Louis Beverly is worried for the families who are being kicked out of their homes. "Many of them will be added to the growing number of homeless people in Baltimore. We are seeing more homeless children in this city than ever before. There are not enough resources to help all these people."

For the 2.3 million families who entered the foreclosure process in 2008 and the millions more predicted to lose their homes over the next few years, the effect of the foreclosure crisis is clear and direct. But the fallout from the foreclosure crisis is more far-reaching than that. Community residents are seeing their property values fall as homes are vacated in their neighborhoods; incidences of crime are up (recently an 11-year-old girl in Orlando was raped in a vacant home); city, county and state governments are seeing their tax bases erode and revenues decline; and the economy remains in tatters.

Homesteading – simply staying in your home – is a tactic ACORN members expect to see increase until an effective solution to the foreclosure crisis is implemented at the national level. Toledo, Ohio-area Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur recently said, "Stay in your homes. If the American people, anybody out there is being foreclosed, don't leave."

Eight cities plan to begin their ACORN Home Savers campaign the week of Feb. 16, and an additional 16 cities will launch their campaigns the week of Feb. 23. Home Defender teams are being built and trained in all areas. To find out more or to sign up to be a Home Saver, click here.
http://acorn.org/index.php?id=12439&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=22525&tx_ttnews[backPid]=12340&cHash=65793d23d7

What do we really know about Acorn and there true motives?

So they are asking people to violate property rights. Those properties are not owned by a financial institutuion and that's that. Not the people put into the houses by ACORN that couldn't pay for them in the first place.

Just another reason to cut ACORN off from federal funds.

Dixie

"What else can you do?" asks Louis Beverly, co-chair of the Baltimore ACORN Foreclosure Fighters.

I hope you and your so-called "foreclosure Fighters" go to jail. We're not fooled. We know that many of those you're fighting for are illegal aliens that should have never received a mortgage in the first place.

Originally Posted by ELE

What do we really know about Acorn and there true motives?

A LOT!!!