City Council members Mary Pat Clarke and Bill Henry urged support for a law, Council Bill 09-0289, to help Baltimore homeowners avoid foreclosures. Activists Sharon Black and Denise Lowery also spoke at the press conference, in front of City Hall.
The Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions has launched a struggle to keep Anthony King in his home.
 News conference and rally in front of Anthony King’s home, Feb. 18. WW photos: Alan Pollock |
King, age 42, has lived in his Detroit home for 41 years. Now he faces imminent eviction after his home was foreclosed by Wells Fargo Bank and sold at a sheriff’s sale to U.S. Bancorp. Both banks have received billions of dollars in the taxpayer-funded federal bailout of financial institutions.
On Feb. 16, after receiving a ride home from a coalition meeting, King discovered a dumpster in front of his house. “I knew they were coming the next day, that I was on the edge of being thrown out,” King told Workers World.
On Feb. 17, coalition members along with activists from the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, Call ’Em Out and the Detroit Green Party gathered at King’s home to prevent the bailiff from carrying out the eviction. When the bailiff’s team arrived in the early afternoon, the dumpster was in front of an empty lot several hundred feet from King’s home. Apparently it had not been secured properly and rolled down the street.
 |
While activists challenged the right of the bailiff to evict King, word came in by cell phone that the writ of restitution (court order to evict) was improperly obtained. The bailiff was forced to back off and King’s eviction was temporarily stopped.
A coalition leaflet stated: “In Wayne County, Sheriff Warren Evans recently ordered a halt to the sheriff’s sales of foreclosed homes. Evans cited a federal law, known as TARP, which states that foreclosures must be minimized and families maintained in their homes. He stated, however, that his office does not have the resources to determine if the banks have followed this federal law. Another law, known as HERA, states that loan modifications should consider the value of the home in foreclosure when determining the modified loan principal. We know that the banks are not following this law.”
A rally on Feb. 18 in front of King’s home brought out dozens of people who want to stop this illegal eviction. Among them were people from King’s neighborhood. “I really appreciate the strong support from my neighbors,” said King.
Like so many Detroiters, King has recently gone through periods of unemployment and underemployment. He works part time for minimum wage at a secondhand retail store but needs a full time job.
“I’m doing the best I can to keep this struggle alive and to pay my utility bills,” said King. “I see all the stripped and vacant homes and it brings tears to my eyes that so many people are being foreclosed and losing their homes.”
The bailiff is expected to return soon to King’s home to enforce the eviction. Activists are on high alert and plan to be there in order to stop the eviction by direct resistance.
To get involved in the struggle to save King’s home and to stop all foreclosures, evictions and utility shutoffs, call the Moratorium NOW! Coalition at 313-887-4344 or e-mail moratorium@moratorium-mi.org.
Kris Hamel is an organizer in the Moratorium NOW! Coalition. This article also appeared in Workers World Newspaper.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011By Gus G. Sentementes and Liz F. Kay | gus.sentementes@baltsun.com and liz.kay@baltsun.com
9:52 PM EST, February 23, 2009
Assemble at 1 pm both Friday, April 3 & Saturday, April 4 at the Intersection of Wall & Broad Streets (The Stock Exchange)
Friday APRIL 3 AND Saturday APRIL 4
Bail Out the People
Not the Banks!
Yes, 2 days starting Friday. More people from around the country will join us Saturday – Watch for assembly locations and times.
March on Wall Street on the Anniversary on the day Martin Luther King gave his life fighting for social and economic justice.Why? Because we must demand that the needs of the people come before the greed of the super rich. Millions are jobless and homeless, and millions more will be living on the streets if the government continues to waste trillions of dollars on saving wealthy bankers instead of saving people.
Dr. King would have been appalled and opposed to the terrible siege of Gaza as well as the continuing occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
And just as King knew that the struggle for civil rights at home had to also be part of the struggle against war abroad, he understood that no one, regardless of their race would be free until everyone had the right to a decent paying job or an income for those unable to work. Most importantly, King also understood that “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” The time for suffering in silence has come to an end.
Nothing will change unless our desperation and anger is channeled into a mighty movement that unites and fights. It’s time to march on Wall St. Come to the march, and tell everyone you know to come with you.
The Treasury Secretary will soon announce plans for the federal government to essentially take over the failed mortgage industry. The announcement is expected to include a dramatic expansion of the Troubled Asset Recovery Program, under which the U.S. Treasury will either directly control or have a significant interest in most mortgages, either through the creation of a special federal bank for failing loans or with enhanced federal guarantees to back up failing loans.
This is an extension of a policy already in effect. On July 30 of last year, the U.S. government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which own or guarantee at least one-half of all mortgage loans, through the Housing and Economic Recovery Act. That laid the groundwork for TARP. In January the government announced that in addition to bailout gifts of $45 billion each to Citigroup and Bank of America, the government will guarantee $300 billion in bad loans for Citigroup and $100 billion in bad loans for Bank of America.
What this means for workers and poor
Both TARP and HERA contain buried language ignored by Congress, the media and the mortgage industry that potentially offers significant protections for homeowners.
For example, 12 USC 5219 in TARP states: “To the extent that the Secretary acquires mortgages, mortgage backed securities, and other assets secured by residential real estate, including multi-family housing, the Secretary shall implement a plan that seeks to maximize assistance for homeowners and use the authority of the Secretary to encourage the servicers of the underlying mortgages, considering net present value to the taxpayer, to take advantage of ... available programs to minimize foreclosures. In addition, the Secretary may use loan guarantees and credit enhancements to facilitate loan modifications to prevent avoidable foreclosures.”
Section 1403 of HERA amends the federal Truth in Lending Act and places a duty on servicers of residential pooled mortgages to carry out loan modifications or workout plans when the value of the plans would exceed the value to be derived from foreclosing the homes.
These loan modifications mandated by the bailout acts are significant because they force loan servicers to take into account the present value of homes and, especially in the case of HERA, the value of the homes in foreclosure. In almost every part of the country, home values have dropped precipitously, so these laws mandate significant reductions in the principal of the loans. In cities like Detroit, where $150,000 homes are selling for $7,500 after the owners are foreclosed and evicted, these laws virtually mandate turning over the homes to their current owners.
There is no effective mechanism in place, however, for carrying out the provisions embodied in TARP and HERA on behalf of homeowners. It will take a mass struggle to enforce these laws and stop foreclosures.
Sheriff Evans got it right
On Feb. 2 Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans of Detroit, after examining the bailout bills, stopped all sheriff sales in the county. Sheriff sales are the first step in the foreclosure process in Michigan. There were approximately 500 sheriff sales per week in Wayne County.
Sheriff Evans stated, “The sheriff would violate the TARP by conducting mortgage foreclosure sales. ... The sheriff opens himself up to liability by foreclosing mortgages, or assets as they are defined in the TARP Act, that have been bought by the Secretary. The potential liability would arise if the sheriff ... forecloses a mortgage containing ‘troubled assets,’ thereby violating a homeowner’s right to loan modification, especially where the anticipated recovery on the principal outstanding obligation of the mortgage under the modification is likely to be greater than, on a net present value basis, the anticipated recovery on the principal outstanding obligation of the mortgage through foreclosures.” (www.waynecounty.com/sheriff)
Evans said he would not break federal law by continuing to carry out foreclosure sales.
Sheriff Evans got it right. It’s important for activists throughout the country to express their solidarity with his actions, which are under severe attack from the finance industry and the media. Email your support to Evans’ press secretary at jroach@co.wayne.mi.us. Sheriff Evans’ actions set a precedent for the entire country and provide activists with ammunition to demand that local government bodies that carry out foreclosures in their areas immediately cease and desist.
Goldberg is a Detroit attorney and organizer with the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions.
