Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) was 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]

Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now

Abbreviation	ACORN
Formation	1970
Type	Non-governmental organization
Legal status	Active; defunct (US)
Region served	United States Peru Argentina Mexico India Canada United Kingdom

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

Further information: History of ACORN in the United States

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]

Legal issues

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

• ACORN 2009 undercover videos controversy
• History of ACORN in the United States

References

1. D. Beck and R. Purcell (2013). International Community Organising. Bristol: Policy Press.
2. . 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. 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. . Archived from the original on December 31, 2012. Retrieved September 15, 2009.
6. 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. A. Gilchrist and M. Taylor, The Short Guide to Community Development 2nd edn (Bristol: Policy Press, 2016)
8. J. Talpin, 'The Americanization of French social movements? Community organizing and its discontents in the banlieues' (29/06/17) on metropolitics.org
9. 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 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 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. 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. Urbina, Ian (March 19, 2010). "Acorn on Brink of Bankruptcy, Officials Say". The New York Times. from the original on March 23, 2010. Retrieved March 20, 2010.
19. . 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. . 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. Retrieved May 12, 2011.
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. "ACORN Annual Report 2003". ACORN. 2003. from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved November 12, 2007.
27. . 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. Toutant, Charles (December 20, 2006). "N.J. Judge Voids City's Gun Control Law". New Jersey Law Journal. 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".
35. Bill Dolan (February 19, 2009). "ACORN plans local action to stem NWI mortgage foreclosures". The Times Media Company.
36. Ervin, Keith (July 28, 2007). "Felony charges filed against 7 in state's biggest case of voter-registration fraud". The Seattle Times. 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 from the original on September 30, 2011. Retrieved August 20, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
40. . 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. Falcone, Michael; Moss, Michael (October 23, 2008). "Groups Tally of New Voters Was Vastly Overstated". The New York Times. Retrieved March 27, 2010.
43. . 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" 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. from the original on June 11, 2011. Retrieved May 12, 2011.
51. 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. , ACORN, archived from the original on September 27, 2011, retrieved December 3, 2010

Bibliography

• Delgado, Gary (1986). Organizing the Movement: The Roots and Growth of ACORN. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 0-87722-393-9. OCLC 12134922.
• Swarts, Heidi J. (2008). Organizing Urban America: Secular and Faith-based Progressive Movements. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0-8166-4839-9.
• Atlas, John (2010). Seeds of Change: The Story of ACORN, America's Most Controversial Antipoverty Community Organizing Group. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press. ISBN 978-0-8265-1705-0.
• Acorn and the Firestorm (2018). New York: First Run Features. A documentary film written and directed by Sam Pollard and Reuben Atlas.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to ACORN.

• ACORN International - with information about ACORN branches in various countries