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Occupy Homes

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]

Marchers hold a banner reading "Foreclose On Banks Not People"

History edit

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 edit

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 edit

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 edit

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 edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b 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. ^ a b Maddow, Rachel; Leitsinger, Miranda. , 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). . 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. ^ a b c Hartmann, Thom.From Occupy Wall Street To Occupy The Living Room, The Talk Radio News Service, November 14, 2011.
  15. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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.

Further reading edit

  • Wiggin, Teke (August 20, 2012). "Occupy Our Homes launches national TV ad campaign to fight foreclosures". Fox News. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
  • Occupy Homes: New Coalition Links Homeowners, Activists in Direct Action to Halt Foreclosures, Democracy Now!, November 11, 2011. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
  • Abrams, Lindsay (November 30, 2011). "Occupy's next frontier: Foreclosed homes". Salon. Retrieved June 11, 2015.

External links edit

  • Official website

occupy, homes, occupy, homes, part, occupy, movement, which, attempts, prevent, foreclosure, people, homes, protesters, delay, foreclosures, camping, foreclosed, property, they, also, stage, protests, banks, responsible, ongoing, foreclosure, crisis, sometimes. 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 Marchers hold a banner reading Foreclose On Banks Not People Contents 1 History 2 National Day of Action 3 Continuing actions 4 Reaction 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External linksHistory editThe 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 editOn 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 editOn 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 editConservative 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 Penalver 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 editOccupy movement 2010 United States foreclosure crisis Foreclosure rescue Mortgage discrimination Penny auction foreclosure Subprime mortgage crisis Take Back the Land Portals nbsp Society nbsp Politics nbsp Business and economicsReferences edit a b Sherter Alain December 6 2011 No place like home Occupy Wall Street targets foreclosures CBS News Retrieved June 11 2015 Occupy Our Homes Atlanta to hold protest at Peachtree Center Wells Fargo CBS46 News August 3 2012 Retrieved June 11 2015 Hansen Jamie November 17 2011 Occupy Petaluma ups the ante Argus Courier Retrieved April 15 2012 Occupy protests move to foreclosed homes Yahoo Finance 7 December 2011 Retrieved 11 June 2015 a b Maddow Rachel Leitsinger Miranda Foreclosed homes empty lots are new Occupy targets MSNBC December 2 2011 phrase Occupy Our Homes presented at 7 04 Daley Suzanne 27 October 2010 Foreclosure in Spain Can Mean Lifetime Debt to Bank The New York Times Ivry Bob Keoun Bradley Kuntz Phil 27 November 2011 Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks 13 Billion Undisclosed to Congress Bloomberg Transcript Help for Homeowners NOW on PBS February 6 2009 Retrieved April 15 2012 Tady Scott November 25 2011 5 Q s with Anti Flag Beaver County Times Retrieved April 15 2012 Harkinson Josh December 6 2011 Occupy Movement Targets Foreclosed Properties Mother Jones Retrieved April 15 2012 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 Jervis Rick December 10 2008 Homeless turn foreclosures into shelters USA Today Retrieved January 4 2008 Lush Tamara December 21 2008 Homeless advocates liberate foreclosed houses SFGate San Francisco Chronicle Associated Press Retrieved January 4 2008 a b c Hartmann Thom From Occupy Wall Street To Occupy The Living Room The Talk Radio News Service November 14 2011 a b c d e Les Christie December 6 2011 Occupy protesters take over foreclosed homes CNNMoney Retrieved December 7 2011 Occupy Wall Street Goes Home OccupyWallStreet org December 1 2011 Retrieved April 15 2012 Epstein Lisa December 5 2011 Occupy Our Homes Day Tuesday Dec 6 to Launch National Campaign 4closurefraud org Retrieved April 15 2012 Prosecuting Wall Street CBS News December 4 2011 Retrieved April 15 2012 a b Hampson Rick December 6 2011 Occupy group aims to move people into foreclosed homes USA Today Retrieved April 15 2012 Susanna Kim December 7 2011 Occupy Our Homes Campaign Launches Against Foreclosures Indoors ABC News Retrieved December 7 2011 Occupy Our Homes Victory in Atlanta Thestockmarketwatch com December 20 2011 Retrieved April 15 2012 a b Solnit Rebecca December 22 2011 Occupying Wall Street Shipping Ports and Hearts Mother Jones Retrieved April 15 2012 Hamilton Walter Reckard E Scott Willon Phil December 6 2011 Occupy movement moves to neighborhoods Los Angeles Times Retrieved April 15 2012 Occupy s new tactic has a powerful past CNN com CNN 16 December 2011 Further reading editWiggin Teke August 20 2012 Occupy Our Homes launches national TV ad campaign to fight foreclosures Fox News Retrieved June 11 2015 Occupy Homes New Coalition Links Homeowners Activists in Direct Action to Halt Foreclosures Democracy Now November 11 2011 Retrieved December 4 2011 Abrams Lindsay November 30 2011 Occupy s next frontier Foreclosed homes Salon Retrieved June 11 2015 External links editOfficial website Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Occupy Homes amp oldid 1047283102, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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