The Inevitable Has Happened: Occupy Foreclosures

tpsbmam

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Tue Nov-01-11 08:54 PM
Original message

The Inevitable Has Happened: Occupy Foreclosures

Last night Occupy Oakland's General Assembly did something that is likely to catch on with occupations across the country.

They voted to encourage the occupation of foreclosed properties across their city. After all, the bursting of the property bubble is part of why they're on the streets right now.

There is a movement similar to this under the overall Occupy umbrella, It's called Occupy Vacant Properties, and it has been most visible in San Francisco, where families are even reclaiming their old homes post-foreclosures.

Via FDL: The Looming Occupy Foreclosures Movement & Mike Konczal: Occupying Foreclosures Catching On:

The rush to foreclose has left blighted properties all over the bubble states, serving no productive purpose. The banks have neglected these properties and allowed them to drift into disrepair, sometimes drawing fines from communities like Los Angeles, which passed a blight resolution last year. In fact, some banks are dealing with the problem by demolishing the properties, despite the clear human need for shelter. So if the Occupy movement extends to vacant homes, it creates a living space for people and saves the properties from demolition. What’s more, the dirty secret is that the banks cannot prove ownership on these properties, making it difficult for them to evict the squatters without some chicanery.

The Occupy Vacant Properties movement has been slow going, but has expanded. In California, groups like the Home Defenders League are becoming more aggressive on this front, as in San Francisco, where a family will re-enter and re-claim their home, asserting that they were wrongfully evicted. One story describes a home on Quesada Avenue in the Bayview section of the city that the family built and owned since 1962. Here’s a statement from the homeowner:

My family has been in this neighborhood for 50 years, and since I’ve been evicted, the place has been vacant, like so many homes in the Bayview. Families have been ripped off by banks, scammed by brokers and nothing’s done to them. It’s time for the families and the community to stand up and take back what’s theirs.

Malcolm at Springfield (MA) No One Leaves as quoted by FDL:

I think that (the Occupy Foreclosures movement) exemplifies the importance of two things: community mobilization around eviction defense is a powerful grounds on which we can fight the banks, where our demands with concrete solutions to keep homes occupied comes directly in contrast to banks insistence on vacating homes and destabilizing neighborhoods. Funneling the incredible energy of resistance into existing or new efforts to mobilize eviction defense, demanding to pay rent or principal reduction, not only brings concrete demands to the forefront of that energy, but also mobilizes new leaders for our movements. It’s encouraging to see these two growing and powerful movements supporting and building together.

The movement evolves.