Wall Street Journal Notices Wisconsin Field Hands Anti-Foreclosure Campaign

It appears that there are no elected people from the local, state, or federal government to make the bridge from protest to policy.

There was no local media present.

A long time ago, I heard of something called a Land Trust where the community buys up the land (and presumably the houses on it). The land (houses) are held in trust for the people who live on it. Something like this may be good for communities suffering foreclosure-the houses probably could be purchased for pennies on the dollar and those who already live in them could stay in them either outright or for some modest monthly amount. While trusts have restrictions on resale to insure that land and houses don't fall prey to speculators, such an arrangement would be more secure than the play money securities the house values were bundled into.

This is just a brief description of City Life's eviction blockades.  There have been 13 called in 2008.  In 10 cases, the bank backed down.  In 3 cases, folks were evicted and our people arrested.  These rather dramatic blockades are the tip of an iceberg of a growing and successful eviction resistance that includes large weekly canvassing and meetings of folks in foreclosed buildings.  Resistance to the banks after foreclosure allows us to include the tenants and it seems to give us more leverage than attempts at loan modification before foreclosure.  The blockades are called when families run out of other legal options and are designed tactically to maximize participation by residents of foreclosed buildings.  In the 3 cases we "lost", there was so much publicity that the movement actually gained.  One eviciton Sept. 5, for instance, by Bank of America has resulted in a growing series of protests at their branch offices.  Anyone participating in such blockades understands that these immediate actions are part of a larger strategy.

Mass publicity helps too;.

http://www.iceclt.org/clt/index.html-Community Land Trusts.

Part of the scourge of evictions is because distant speculators have turned houses into investments and sold bad paper. Since it isn't clear just who owns the properties, banks are reluctant to make arrangements.

Foreclosures are a catch for banks. They are the last stop in recouping their investment. Once this option is taken off the table, it will be exceedingly difficult to get a home loan. Put another way, if you’re an unprofitable risk, you’re not going to get a home loan. If the actuarial scientists figure out that you have a risk cost that’s greater than the money gained from the loan, you will no longer get the loan. This will DESTROY the housing market from the bottom up. Given the frozen credit market, the prices of housing will either put owning a house completely out of reach of those who do not currently own a house or it will sink the prices of houses, starting with those at the entry level and working up to the best housing working folks can afford.

Massive deflationary pressure on the entire U.S. economy would result from successful efforts to simply prevent foreclosures. I know people don’t want people homeless, but it’s this kind of short-sighted thinking that dooms us, time and time again. I won't contemplate worst or best scenarios; however, the most likely scenario is one in which the housing market is frozen until the twenty percent the banks want equals the five percent in today's dollars the average owner can swing. Depending on the rate of inflation, this is measured in decades. Even if we experience 5% inflation (around twice the historical amount) we're looking at almost thirty years until housing prices stagnate to the point of being affordable.

We simply can’t stop at stopping the foreclosures. The prices of the potentially foreclosed homes need to be re-evaluated. After this, if the current owners can afford the new price, the bank takes the loss on the value and rewrites the mortgage. If the current owners cannot afford the new price, the house is indeed foreclosed upon. If we don’t do this, we are in for the worst economic times in modern history. In this case, the price of housing takes an immediate hit - I'd like to see anyone defend the idea that houses would tumble less than 30% in price in less than a few months. This would hurt. It would take five to fifteen years for owners to re-coup their losses - like they did in 1987. But it would hurt a whole lot less than an forty year stagnation in pricing.

excellent work

said:

In this case, the price of housing takes an immediate hit - I'd like to see anyone defend the idea that houses would tumble less than 30% in price in less than a few months. This would hurt. It would take five to fifteen years for owners to re-coup their losses - like they did in 1987. But it would hurt a whole lot less than a forty year stagnation in pricing.

I think this is an interesting point.  The housing market has been in a bubble for a while - often 15-20% yearly increases in value for several years running.  I don't see how that bubble, now burst, can't affect values downward to a more reasonable level.  The houses were never really worth that much, any more than the many stocks that have tumbled were worth their previous value.

emailed this to Al & haven't seen on last 2 threads but sorry if this is old news to everyone but me.  AP [yes AP!] covers Mexico and journos' deaths:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/06/journalists-targeted-in-m_n_149...

Wouldn't mind your critique of their report, Al, if you don't mind.

"Our job is to be here on these stairs right now," said one of the guys with the megaphone.

Strategic blunder. Occupy the house itself. The cops had them outflanked above, and then below, when they arrived.

Strategically, nonviolently, occupy the house itself. That forces them to come into the house to remove the people, and it makes a stronger symbolic statement and poses more logistical challenges for the responders and PR problems for the repossessor.

There is the issue of trespassing, depending on the legal status of the house. So you need a good activist lawyer on this helping out, if at all possible, to make the system think twice about pressing charges, since the courtroom then becomes another stage for the movement. But you have to be prepared, nonetheless, for more than a civil disobedience charge.

But in the right numbers, a movement builds, and the system is forced to address the pressure.

Come prepared to stay, for days if necessary, in shifts as needed. It has to be more than people playing to the megaphone and cameras. It has to be about taking a chance and winning.

Interesting background on land occupation and housing squats at this link.

I'm a lawyer who was there with City Life over twenty-five years when the Jamaica Plain group established the first eviction free zone; I'm still with them now fighting the good fight in this current wave of foreclosures, caused by the collapse of the house of cards that was a 30 trillion dollar "derivatives"  and "credit default swap" market that nobody understands to this day, that threatens to drown entire communities. I commend City Life/Vida Urbana for once again capturing the initiative through creative and direct action.

I have become hooked on reading Al over the last year, from rural votes back to narconews, and look forward to his thoughts and comments on these actions. I am sure he appreciates that a ten- minute YouTube video is merely a small glimpse into the group's noble and overwhelmingly successful work. The change and improvement that City Life has brought to the Jamaica Plain community is omnipresent. My office is in a building that abuts the location where more than twenty years ago a "tent city" vigil stopped the conversion of an old school to luxury condominiums and led instead to the development of affordable Single Room Occupancy units, serving scores of persons in transition from homelessness. In the foreclosure morass of the late 1980's, City Life organizing resulted in numerous multi-family houses throughout Jamaica Plain --from Wise Street to Forest Hills-- being "land-banked" or made into to permanent affordable housing units. City Life's good works have spread through many other Boston neighborhoods both by example and by direct action in other communities.

I've worked with a number of talented and dedicated community organizers over twenty-five years of poverty rights practice; many of them have had a role in City Life/Vida Urbana. When one tries to picture the organizer that meets the Saul Alinsky ideal, it is hard not to think of City Life/Vida Urbana's Steve Meachum. Al if you ever have cause to be in New England, I think both you and City Life folks would benefit from sharing each other's wisdom and experiences.  I hope both you and they keep up the great work.

I would like to hear more about your weekly canvasses and foreclosure meetings.

Also, to what would you attribute the 10 successes?  Were there differences in strategy or tactics as compared with the 3 cases in which the banks would not deal.

Great work Steve and thanks Al for this story.

I agree with @anonymous, occupy the house first.

Someone from the family being evicted should have spoken, and to various media, which should have been alerted to the story. I applaud the effort and dedication of the volunteers here, though!

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-pacoima8-2008dec08,0,6158025.story

Los Angeles has pockets of foreclosure resistance that can be translated to other areas of the country very easily.

Renee

A teaspoon of sugar helps the medicine go down (and provides another media hook).

BondiBeachViews

THE UNION'S TIM CURTIN, LEAH FRIED AND JORGE MUJICA: Mujica was an organizer of the huge 2006 immigration march and has worked for Univision. A native of Mexico City, he said it's not unusual for workers in Mexico to barricade themselves in factories over unfair labor practices. Asked if he thought the action was successful, he gestured at network-TV trucks, politicians and picketers and said, "Are you kidding me?"

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1321165,CST-NWS-rside09.article

and those that have blocked Forclosure successfully, should have been on hand to tell their story.

The Families, they should have had the families that are and have been directly involved speaking. You have to put a face on it. You have to make the guy sitting watching the 6 O'clock news want to get out of the easy chair and join you. Tug at the heartstrings, let us here the personal story. That's what gets people to join you, when they see and think,

"Oh my God, that could be me."

And the neighbors, you need to have the neighbors their showing their support. Have Nancy the Neighbor speak, let her tell everyone what it means to keep this family in the hood.

It seems to me that standing on the sidewalk or sitting on the stairs, while the police are standing on the stair landing above you isn't a blockade, Get in the house, stand on the porch.

I am not a fan of yelling, sometimes just locking arms with others and a few well placed signs, does the job.

The homeowner's comments were oddly self-defeating. She thanked the protesters, then philosophized about how it wasn't so bad to be losing her home. After all, she said, other people have lost their homes, their belongings, and their loved ones, and she still had her family and her life. It wasn't the end of the world. But by the end of the video, it sure looked like the end of her world to me. This is heart-rending stuff.

Could they have done the citizens' arrest they mentioned? Could they have sat down at the bank and been arrested from there?

Any inside viewpoints on the story of the day?

Any ideas on who Candidate No. 5 is?

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=12&year=2008&bas...

KD

Al, I was amazed to learn in my reasearch of you how many times you have been arrested in protests! My god! Alberto, you are the master.

I'd love to know, don't you think walking to the wagon is better than being carried? It was powerful to see the guy getting carried, but for anyone planning one of these forclosure protests, I worry a person might get hurt while being carried. Also, since the police weren't being brutal or hostile, seemed like a lot of work to make them carry hime like that. I liked how the others just got in. So, like when the handcuffs go on, that's when I'd tell the peeps I was organizing (or as an attorney, if I was to get involved with one of these I might say, to go ahead and stand and get in at this point.) As an ex-prosecutor I pretty much tell all friends and fam to physically cooperate with police during an arrest...have the fight in court.  What do you think?

Also, I really liked how informative the first guy, with the red cap, was. As you mentioned, that was very cool. For people watching very good to know exactly what you need to be demanding. And I liked how he explained what another bank had done and why couldn't this one too. Might have been cool to for some quick info on the tenants..."they've lived here for so many years, worked at wherever, paid there mortgage time after time then this...that kind of info for the listener/viwer.

Also, I liked the chant: "banks get the bail out people get thrown out". I didn't like "shame on you" either. Cops, and I grew up with a daddy cop, like soldiers, like everyone, are all individs, some are no doubt worried about foreclosure themselves. There are hot heads in every industry/agency. There are sensible ones too. I agree that they acted right here.

Having a camera is the most important ingredient. I think having the protest outside was good for the camera/coverage.

Good critique! I like what you had to say about "angry talk". I find it hard to make that critique myself, because I find it hard to begrudge righteous anger like that. But you are right! It becomes a self indulgence that really undermines the effectiveness of the message and working for a solution.

I was so glad to hear a few kind words for the police in this situation, too.  They have a thankless effing job in these situations. I have a weakness for sympathizing with the notion that cops are too often bully types that managed to find employment that enabled and legitimized their bad social skills, but I think this is a gross oversimplification. I'm not sure if anyone has watched the HBO series The Wire, but it is the most humanizing cop show around.  If anyone is caught between a rock and a hard place between serving the public and working for the politicians who run cities and the state, they are in the worst position.  Thanks for clarifying that in this context a bit, Al.