[act-ma] TOMORROW: Two anti-eviction rallies at Metro-Boston court houses

Wed Aug 8 13:33:17 PDT 2012

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dominic Desiata <ddesiata at clvu.org>
Date: Wed, Aug 8, 2012 at 4:02 PM
Subject: Tomorrow: Two anti-eviction rallies at Metro-Boston court houses
To:

Anti-eviction rallies to support Metro-Boston residents fighting Fannie Mae

Thursday, August 9th, 8:30 AM

Malden District Court, 89 Summer Street, Malden, MA

Info: Dominic DeSiata, Community Organizer, City Life/Vida Urbana -
(857)203-2393, ddesiata at clvu.org, Twitter: @NorthSide_BTA

and

Dorchester District Court, 510 Washington Street, Dorchester, MA

Info: Maria Christina Blanco, Organizer, City Life/Vida Urbana –
617-524-3541x313, mcblanco at clvu.org, Twitter: @CityLife_CLVU

*Communities say NO to bank evictions funded with tax dollars – Two
simultaneous courthouse rallies for occupants of Fannie Mae-owned
properties, responding to FHFA principal reduction refusal announcement*

*Malden* -  Residents will come out to show support for Malden resident Gary
Rogers, before his Summary Judgement hearing in court. Gary has been
fighting Fannie Mae in order to repurchase his home after foreclosure. He
was  approved for a new mortgage by non-profit lender Boston Community
Capital, but instead of accepting BCC's cash offer to buy at current value,
Fannie Mae is evicting. Gary is determined to keep his family in their
home. If the bank will not sell at a fair price, he is willing to pay rent
while they entertain other offers.  The North Side Bank Tenant Association,
which offers support and solidarity for area residents in foreclosure, will
lead a rally in support of Gary and other residents whose cries for
fairness seem to fall on deaf ears with the nation’s largest mortgage
companies.

Gary is a well known community member in Malden and has broad backing.  He
grew up in his home on Warren Avenue, and today coaches football at Malden
High School in addition to his job at the MWRA. Last year he joined the
Bank Tenants Association after other attempts at gaining assistance
failed.  At a rally at his previous court date last month, Malden Mayor
Gary Christenson spoke out in his support.

*Boston* - Neighbors, homeowners, childcare workers, and tenant activists
will rally on the steps of Dorchester District Court where Yolanda Nova has
a hearing on her eviction case, asking “Why is government-run bank Fannie
Mae using our tax dollars to evict a small business owner's family and daycare
program from their home?”  Yolanda is a tenant whose elderly father and
7-year-old granddaughter live with and depend on her financially. She paid
her rent every month, but in March 2012 her landlord lost the house to the
bank.  The property passed into the hands of the Federal National Mortgage
Association (“Fannie Mae”).  When Yolanda asked for a rental contract, she
was refused, because she runs a home daycare that serves her neighborhood.
Now she is applying for a loan to make an offer to buy the house where she
has invested her time and money building her small business. But instead of
working with her, Fannie Mae is taking her to court and wants to throw her
family out of their home and shut down her childcare program.

Yolanda is a double victim of the housing crisis.  She came to live in her
current home of 5 years as a result of her own foreclosure. In 2008 she
fell prey to a predatory lender and lost her house to a bank. She was given
a $600,000 loan with a high interest rate for an old house in a poor
neighborhood of Boston, and when she fell behind on the payments that rose
to $8,000/month, the house was sold at auction for its real value: only
$250,000.  A modification of her underwater mortgage that included principal
reduction to real
value<http://www.housingwire.com/news/fannie-allegedly-killed-cost-saving-shared-appreciation-program-2009>–
something the
head of Fannie and Freddie
opposes<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/business/us-agency-bars-fannie-and-freddie-from-reducing-principal.html>,
along with the Wall St. banks, over the objections of the Obama
administration<http://www.treasury.gov/connect/blog/Pages/tfg-letter-demarco.aspx>-
would have saved her.  Losing her home and savings was very hard, but
Yolanda pulled up and went forward, and moved to her current house to start
over.  She has been a good tenant, and invested her own  resources in
maintaining and improving the property, in order to to comply with state
daycare licensing regulations.  She has set up her home, inside and
outside, for the benefit of the children she cares for, one of whom is
disabled.  She has worked hard, as a single mother, for her family to get
ahead, and at the same time to serve her community by helping kids prepare
for school.  Now Fannie Mae wants her to move out and take a big loss all
over again.  But this time she's fighting back.  Yolanda has joined the Bank
Tenants Association at City Life/Vida Urbana <http://clvu.org/> and is fighting
her post-foreclosure eviction.

Yolanda Nova and Gary Rogers' stories are part of a massive pattern of
discrimination
and displacement linked to predatory lending and the housing bubble. Hundreds
of thousands<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904480904576498713414380604.html>
 of families are in the same
situation<http://wearethefanniefreddie99.tumblr.com/>.  Subprime
mortgages originally given out by Wall St. banks are ending up with Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac, which now back half of all home loans. But while
these banks
were bailed out with taxpayer money, small homeowners and tenants are left
holding the bag. Foreclosure is robbing them of their homes, their savings,
and their small businesses. Communities of color and immigrant communities
were unfairly targeted and are hardest
hit<http://www.acslaw.org/acsblog/race-discrimination-after-foreclosure-are-communities-of-color-treated-differently>.
 Fannie
and Freddie came under government control and are 80%
taxpayer-owned<http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/18/business/la-fi-fannie-freddie-box-20100818>
since
their 2008 bailout.   The suffering caused by foreclosure doesn't end with
the family that is put out, but spreads to drag down entire communities, so
angry local residents want to know, why won't they use the public's funds
in the public interest <http://www.npa-us.org/fire-demarco>?

The City Life/Vida Urbana and North Side Bank Tenants Associations are part
of a regional movement called New England Workers and Residents Organizing
Against Displacement (NEW ROAD <http://www.newroad.us/>). It includes local
groups in nine cities across Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

-- 
Dominic DeSiata, Organizer / Organizador
City Life/Vida Urbana
Office / Oficina:
(857)203-2393

North Side Bank Tenants Association
 http://www.facebook.com/northside.bta
Twitter: @NorthSide_BTA

-- 
"Our goal is a society that prioritizes the needs of all before the profits
of the few." passed by Occupy Boston General Assembly 11/29/11
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