Original Article: http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=693366&catid=2&provider=email
By Jana Shortal, KARE 11 News
Updated: 5/11/2009 7:44:16 AM

If a home is the family castle, in many cases, the castle is crumbling.

On Sunday, three mothers stood with the group 'Minnesota Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign' to state their cases about being foreclosed upon and beg for mercy from the lending institutions.

"There have been three generations of Parks' to live in my mom's house," Leslie Parks said breakind down. "My mother, me, and my 88-year-old grandmother and to throw us out on the street makes no sense.

Leslie says her mother's home will be taken from them in a matter of weeks. Victims of a predatory lender, Leslie says, who sold them a mortgage her mother couldn't refuse and now a mortgage she couldn't possibly pay.

"We've been in that house 21 years, it just shouldn't happen."

Ann Patterson has a job, a husband and children.

She claims her bank will "not" work with her on a new mortgage and the result will be homelessness.

"The myth is not true; people that lose their houses deserve a break, a second chance, my children do not deserve to lose their house," Patterson said.

On Sunday the group came to call elected officials, the city and the county to action. They ask for help they say. They will pay their way but they want some help to find a mortgage rate that is livable.

Sheila Nelson came to the rally today to advocate for renters rights. Nelson has 4 children and says she was evicted after her landlord, unbeknownst to her, stopped paying his mortgage.

"I've got four kids, living on the streets. The shelters are full and we have been on the streets 3 months now," Nelson told the group.

Labels: Ann Patterson, Cheri Honkala, Foreclosure, MN PPEHRC, Rosemary Williams

For Immediate Release
April 26, 2009
Rosemary Williams eviction trial pushed back to May 26.

Momentum builds in fight against foreclosures

Press conference and picket

April 28, 9 am

Front of Hennepin County Government Center (5th St side)

Rosemary Williams, her attorneys and leaders of the Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign and the Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout will be available to speak on important developments in her case.

The eviction trial of Rosemary Williams will be pushed back to May 26. Rosemary Williams, a 55-year resident of the Central Neighborhood in south Minneapolis was scheduled for trial April 28. But now she will remain in her home while the legal proceedings continue.

“I intend to stay and fight,” said Williams. “We are building a movement to get a measure of justice for everyone who is facing foreclosures and evictions. We need a mortitorum on foreclosures.”

Rosemary’s decision to fight the foreclosure and related eviction has drawn broad community support. In addition to the Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout and the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, the effort to defend Rosemary’s home and stop foreclosures has the backing of ACORN, the MN Tenants Union and the Central Area Neighborhood Development Organization.

Cheri Honkala, of the Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign, states, “With the trial delayed, we will use the added time to build the fight to keep Rosemary in her home.”

In a unique legal strategy, hundreds of neighbors, friends and community members have signed legal requests to intervene in her case. They argue that her eviction, which will lead to another vacant home, would create a public nuisance for the entire neighborhood. Low-income neighborhoods with high concentrations of people of color have been the hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis.

Linden Gawboy, of the Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout, said, “We are sick of politicians - both republican and democrats - doing nothing about this crisis. In the weeks ahead we are going to turn up the pressure on the bankers and legislators so we can save homes, protect renters and save our neighborhoods.”

For more information contact:

Linden Gawboy / Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout @ 612-296-5649

Cheri Honkala / Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign @ 267-439-8419

Labels: Cheri Honkala, Foreclosure, Linden Gawboy, MN Coalition for a Peoples Bailout states, MN PPEHRC, Rosemary Williams

For Immediate Release
April 20, 2009

Neighbors, friends and community organizations
Rally & Intervene in Court on Rosemary Williams Eviction Case.

Wednesday, April 22, 9:30 am.
Outside Hennepin County Government Center

Rosemary Williams, a 55-year resident of the Central Neighborhood, in south Minneapolis will be going to court the morning of April 22, where she will face evictions proceedings from her foreclosed home. Rosemary's decision to fight the eviction and stand up to foreclosures has drawn broad community support.

Prior to the court hearing, Rosemary Williams will be speaking at a 9:30 press conference and protest organized by the Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign and the MN Coalition for a Peoples Bailout. Other organizations backing the effort include;
ACORN, MN Tenants Union, ECAG and CANDO.

Rosemary Williams states, "Housing is a human right and we need a moratorium on home foreclosures. I am taking a stand for all people facing homelessness from foreclosures and evictions from foreclosed properties. We can not be sacrificed to the greed of bankers and mortgage companies."

Cheri Honkala, of the Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign, states "Rosemary Williams is on the front lines of the fight against foreclosures. We are organizing in our neighborhood and our neighbors are behind her. We will do everything in our power to prevent her eviction."

In the April 22 Court appearance, attorneys for Rosemary Williams will ask the judge to allow her to stay in her home, while the legal issues relating to her case are sorted out.

Specifically, the attorneys will argue that her eviction, which will lead to another vacant home, would create a public nuisance for the entire neighborhood. Low income neighborhoods with high concentrations of people of color have been the hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis. Hundreds of residents of the Central Neighborhood and other concerned people have signed legal requests to intervene in her legal case on these grounds.

Linden Gawboy, of the MN Coalition for a Peoples Bailout states, "Rosemary Williams is helping to build the movement against home foreclosures and we will fight with her every step of the way."

For more information contact:

Linden Gawboy / Minnesota Coalition for a People's Bailout @ 612-296-5649

Cheri Honkala / Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign @ 267-439-8419

Labels: Cheri Honkala, Foreclosure, Linden Gawboy, MN Coalition for a Peoples Bailout states, MN PPEHRC, Rosemary Williams

April 10, 2009
With Advocates’ Help, Squatters Call Foreclosures Home
By JOHN LELAND

MIAMI — When the woman who calls herself Queen Omega moved into a three-bedroom house here last December, she introduced herself to the neighbors, signed contracts for electricity and water and ordered an Internet connection.

What she did not tell anyone was that she had no legal right to be in the home.

Ms. Omega, 48, is one of the beneficiaries of the foreclosure crisis. Through a small advocacy group of local volunteers called Take Back the Land, she moved from a friend’s couch into a newly empty house that sold just a few years ago for more than $400,000.

Michael Stoops, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said about a dozen advocacy groups around the country were actively moving homeless people into vacant homes — some working in secret, others, like Take Back the Land, operating openly.

In addition to squatting, some advocacy groups have organized civil disobedience actions in which borrowers or renters refuse to leave homes after foreclosure.

The groups say that they have sometimes received support from neighbors and that beleaguered police departments have not aggressively gone after squatters.

“We’re seeing sheriffs’ departments who are reluctant to move fast on foreclosures or evictions,” said Bill Faith, director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, which is not engaged in squatting. “They’re up to their eyeballs in this stuff. Everyone’s overwhelmed.”

On a recent afternoon, Ms. Omega sat on the tiled floor of her unfurnished living room and described plans to use the space to tie-dye clothing and sell it on the Internet, hoping to save some money before she is inevitably forced to leave.

“It’s a beautiful castle, and it’s temporary for me,” she said, “and if I can be here 24 hours, I’m thankful.” In the meantime, she said, she has instructed her adult son not to make noise, to be a good neighbor.

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 it 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.

Ben Burton, executive director of the Miami Coalition for the Homeless, said squatting was still relatively rare in the city.

But Take Back the Land has had to compete with less organized squatters, said Max Rameau, the group’s director.

“We had a move-in that we were going to do one day at noon,” he said. “At 10 o’clock in the morning, I went over to the house just to make sure everything was O.K., and squatters took over our squat. Then we went to another place nearby, and squatters were in that place also.”

Mr. Rameau said his group differed from ad hoc squatters by operating openly, screening potential residents for mental illness and drug addiction, and requiring that they earn “sweat equity” by cleaning or doing repairs around the house and that they keep up with the utility bills.

“We change the locks,” he said. “We pull up with a truck and move in through the front door. The families get a key to the front door.” Most of the houses are in poor neighborhoods, where the neighbors are less likely to object.

Kelly Penton, director of communications for the City of Miami, said police officers needed a signed affidavit from a property’s owner — usually a bank — to evict squatters. Representatives from the city’s homeless assistance program then help the squatters find shelter.

To find properties, Mr. Rameau and his colleagues check foreclosure listings, then scout out the houses for damage. On a recent afternoon, Mr. Rameau walked around to the unlocked metal gate of an abandoned bungalow in the Liberty City neighborhood.

“Let the record reflect that there was no lock on the door,” Mr. Rameau said. “I’m not breaking in.”

Inside, the wiring and sinks had been stripped out, and there was a pile of ashes on the linoleum floor where someone had burned a telephone book — probably during a cold spell the previous week, Mr. Rameau said.

“Two or three weeks ago, this house was in good condition,” Mr. Rameau said. “Now we wouldn’t move a family in here.”

So far the group has moved 10 families into empty houses, and Mr. Rameau said the group could not afford to help any more people. “It costs us $200 per move-in,” he said.

Mary Trody hopes not to leave again. On Feb. 20, Ms. Trody and her family of 12 — including her mother, siblings and children — were evicted from their modest blue house northwest of the city, which the family had lived in for 22 years, because her mother had not paid the mortgage.

After a weekend of sleeping in a paneled truck, however, the family, with the help of Take Back the Land, moved back in.

“This home is what you call a real home,” Ms. Trody said. “We had all family events — Christmas parties, deaths, funerals, weddings — all in this house.”

On a splendid Florida afternoon, Ms. Trody’s dog played in the water from a hose on the front lawn. The house had mattresses on the floors, but most belongings were in storage, in case they had to leave again.

“I don’t think it’s fair living in a house and not paying,” Ms. Trody said.

She said the mortgage lender had offered the family $1,500 to leave but was unwilling to negotiate minimal payments that would allow them to stay. She said she and her husband had been looking for work since he lost his delivery job with The Miami Herald.

In the meantime, she said, “I still got knots in my stomach, because I don’t know when they’re going to come yank it back from me, when they’re going to put me back on the streets.”

The block was dotted with foreclosed homes.

Three of her neighbors said they knew she was squatting and supported her. One is Joanna Jean Pierre, 32, who affectionately refers to Ms. Trody as Momma.

Ms. Pierre said Ms. Trody was a good neighbor and should be let alone. “That’s her house,” Ms. Pierre said. “She should be here.”

Ms. Trody said that living here before, “I felt secure; I felt this is my home.”

“This is where I know I’m safe,” she added. “Now it’s like, this is a stranger. What’s going to happen?”

Even without furniture or homey touches, she talked about the house as if it were a member of her family.

“I know it’s not permanently, but we still have these couple days left,” she said. “It’s like a person that you’re losing, and you know you still have a few more days with them.”

Labels: Cheri Honkala, Foreclosure, Take Over

Action to Stop Foreclosures at Hennepin County Sheriff's Office

Labels: Cheri Honkala, Foreclosure, Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, MN PPEHRC

Original Article: http://www.mndaily.com/2009/03/11/sheriff%E2%80%99s-office-pressured-stop-selling-foreclosed-homes
03/11/2009
By Taryn Wobbema, Minnesota Daily

A coalition of local grassroots organizations sought a meeting with Hennepin County Sheriff Richard Stanek Wednesday to encourage the end of foreclosed home sales.

The Association of Community Organizaton for Reform Now, the Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign and the Economic Crisis Action Group were among the participants. According to PPEHRC national organizer Cheri Honkala, about 150 people joined the demonstration.

A press advisory released by ACORN stated, “This new coalition is calling for Sheriff Stanek to affect a moratorium on local home evictions and foreclosures.”
Stanek wasn’t in his office today, but demonstrators were given time with Chief Deputy Mike Carlson and County Commissioner Gail Dorfman.

Honkala called the meeting with Carlson a “good first step victory.” The organizers and the sheriff’s office reached two agreements during the meeting. The first said that Stanek has agreed to meet with the organizations. The second indicated that the meeting would be set up within a couple days.

Officials at the sheriff’s office said sheriff sales are mandated by state law and ending them would be breaking that law. However, sales are conducted “in a professional and compassionate way.”

Demonstrators also hoped to disrupt the sheriff sale that took place Wednesday morning.

According to Lisa Kiava, spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, usually about 20 properties are sold each day, but only five properties were bought while the protesters were present.

Labels: Cheri Honkala, Foreclosure, Hennepin County Sheriff's Office