Activists Help Foreclosed Families Retake Homes

In November 2008, the MWRO blog discussed the federal and local governments approach to the Detroit foreclosure crisis: bailing out banks, evicting families from their homes, and then demolishing good homes to make way for gentrified neighborhoods and more strip malls! In this story, we learn more about how comrades and other housing activists are helping families keep a roof over their head in foreclosed homes, instead of overcrowded shelters or on the street!

Excerpt reposted from the New York Times. Read the full story, "More Squatters Are Calling Foreclosures Home."

...In Minnesota, a group called the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign recently moved families into 13 empty homes; in Philadelphia, the Kensington Welfare Rights Union maintains seven “human rights houses” shared by 13 families. Cheri Honkala, who is the national organizer for the Minnesota group and was homeless herself once, likened the group’s work to “a modern-day underground railroad,” and said squatters could last up to a year in a house before eviction.

Other groups, including Women in Transition in Louisville, Ky., are looking for properties to occupy, especially as they become frustrated with the lack of affordable housing and the oversupply of empty homes.

Anita Beaty, executive director of the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, said her group had been looking into asking banks to give them abandoned buildings to renovate and occupy legally. Ms. Honkala, who was a squatter in the 1980s, said the biggest difference now was that the neighbors were often more supportive. “People who used to say, ‘That’s breaking the law,’ now that they’re living on a block with three or four empty houses, they’re very interested in helping out, bringing over mattresses or food for the families,” she said....

(Image courtesy of the New York Times)

Poor People's Activists Protest Foreclosure Sales

A coalition of activists in Minneapolis, MN, demanded an end to home foreclosure sales last week by attempting to stop the sale of homes owned by low-income people or occupied by similar renters. Hennepin County Sheriff Deputies allowed only three protesters into the courtroom for the procedure. When one of the activists bid 'a penny' for one of the foreclosed homes, she was forcibly thrown out of the courtroom.

Other activists chanted protest slogans and songs, and later instituted a sit-in at the Hennepin County Sheriff's office. After insisting on a meeting with the Sheriff, a group of them was escorted to a private room meeting to meet with a deputy and county commissioner. (The Sheriff was out of town.)

The group announced that following this meeting, all parties would sit down within two weeks in an official meeting to review the foreclosure and eviction process, and determine how to make it better, within the law.

The action was organized by the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, ACORN, Economic Crisis Action group, Homes Not Jails and the IWW. See the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign for more info.

Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign Discusses Poverty Following RNC on Democracy Now!

Early in the US Presidential elections, a few contenders were discussing the plight of the poor and what we must do as a country to change this. Now, a month before national elections, the talk has changed to what we must do to help the wealthy.

At the Republican National Convention in September, the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign was working to bring back attention and bring forth policies on addressing poverty in this country. They discussed these ideas and tensions in Minneapolis-St Paul on Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman.

See below the Democracy Now! interview with Amy Goodman and Cheri Honkala, National Coordinator, PPEHRC:



Watch the PPEHRC Poor People's March video at the RNC to learn more about the thousands who participated in delivering to the RNC a "citizens arrest for crimes against humanity."