Sunday, August 24, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
September 17: Surround the State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan!
Sept 17: Stop Foreclosures and Evictions in Michigan!
Moratorium NOW! Coalition to
Stop Foreclosures and Evictions
September 17: Surround the State Capitol in
http://www.moratorium-mi.org/petition.shtml
Foreclosures and evictions are devastating working families around the country. One in nine homeowners nationwide is either behind in their mortgage payments or their family homes are in foreclosure. Over 72,000 homeowners have lost their homes in the
Since the federal government has now taken over and bailed out the big mortgage firms of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at taxpayer expense, it is the government's responsibility to bail out and protect those who need it most -- working people and their families, the elderly and the disabled who are facing foreclosure and eviction!
The Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions has been in the forefront of a mass struggle to win a moratorium or freeze on foreclosures. It is organizing throughout
The Coalition is organizing a mass demonstration in
See www.moratorium-mi.org for more information.
The Moratorium NOW! Coalition has already scored important victories in the fight against foreclosures and evictions in
· Through a community rally and picket of Bank of America, we successfully stopped the foreclosure of Ruby Curl-Pinkins, a 72-year-old disabled woman, scheduled to be evicted from her home of 35 years by Countrywide.
· We have intervened with direct action to insure that other families facing foreclosure remained in their homes even after bailiffs came to evict them.
· We successfully fought HUD’s policy of violating its own regulations by not allowing continued occupancies of FHA-backed homes by tenants after foreclosure.
· We won an important First Amendment victory that guaranteed the right of anti-foreclosure activists to leaflet and petition at sham “prevent foreclosure forums” organized by Michigan’s pro-business attorney general for the banks and financial interests.
· We have helped sponsor legal challenges that have called into question the right of MERS, the Mortgage Electronic Registration System, to carry out foreclosures. MERS currently is the foreclosing party in tens of thousands of foreclosures in
ACT NOW TO HELP US CONTINUE THIS STRUGGLE!.
What you can do:
Join us at the State Capitol in
(see www.moratorium-mi.org)
Send email messages to the members of the Michigan Legislature and the Governor demanding enactment NOW of the 2 year Moratorium at
http://www.moratorium-mi.org/petition.shtml
Donate to help finance buses and vans to bring people facing foreclosure to
http://www.moratorium-mi.org/donate.shtml
The Moratorium NOW! Coalition needs funds to continue the struggle to win a moratorium on foreclosures in this hard-hit state. Funds are needed to help with printing costs, phone calls, travel costs to get the word out around the state about this vital demonstration. Every donation raised comes from grass-roots donors.
Donate Now at http://www.moratorium-mi.org/donate.shtml.
Moratorium NOW! Coalition
To Stop Foreclosures and Evictions
23 E.
313-887-4344
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Labor Day Outreach!
A lot of outdoor gatherings are scheduled around Michigan on the Labor Day
weekend (Aug. 30, 31 and Sept. 1)
weekend (Aug. 30, 31 and Sept. 1)
The UP organizers will be at and in the Mackinac Bridge walk with Freeze
the Foreclosures - Moratorium NOW! literature.
Detroit is silkscreening signs. More t-shirts are being ordered. If you
need signs for your area or help with a banner, let the Detroit office
know (but please don't wait until the last minute ... )
Are you planning any outreach that weekend? Let us know so we can share it.
08Aug12: Outreach to Churches
The day after the first staff meeting significant outreach started to
churches. Direct contact with several pastors was made by phone -
messages were left for others. One leaflet drop off was coordinated with
the Moratorium NOW! office and another church agreed to put the
information in the bulletin.
churches. Direct contact with several pastors was made by phone -
messages were left for others. One leaflet drop off was coordinated with
the Moratorium NOW! office and another church agreed to put the
information in the bulletin.
Pointers to keep in mind - one Detroit pastors told the Moratorium
organizer that he was not aware of anyone affected! When she rightly
pointed out that people are often too ashamed to admit they are losing
their homes, he told her she was probably correct. The pastor of a
downtown church stated most of his parishioners are renters who suffer
high rent increases. (Although not covered in SB 1306, it is related to
the increasing cost of credit and mortgages - even commercial mortgages
- but in Detroit is related to the gentrification of downtown and the
conversion of buildings to high price condos - no seniors trying to
survive on social security welcome!)
Lists of organizations and individuals are coming in! The mailing is
almost ready to go!
Detroit News: Foreclosure fallout: Houses go for a $1
Foreclosure fallout: Houses go for a $1
Ron French / The Detroit News
Ron French / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- One dollar can get you a large soda at McDonald's, a used VHS
movie at 7-Eleven or a house in Detroit.
The fact that a home on the city's east side was listed for $1 recently
shows how depressed the real estate market has become in one of
America's poorest big cities.
And it still took 19 days to find a buyer.
The sale price of the home may be an anomaly, but illustrates both the
depths of the foreclosure crisis in Detroit and the rapid scuttling of
vacant homes in some of the city's impoverished neighborhoods.
The home, at 8111 Traverse Street, a few blocks from Detroit City
Airport, was the nicest house on the block when it sold for $65,000 in
November 2006, said neighbor Carl Upshaw. But the home was foreclosed
last summer, and it wasn't long until "the vultures closed in," Upshaw
said. "The siding was the first to go. Then they took the fence. Then
they broke in and took everything else."
The company hired to manage the home and sell it, the Bearing Group,
boarded up the home only to find the boards stolen and used to board up
another abandoned home nearby.
Scrappers tore out the copper plumbing, the furnace and the light
fixtures, taking everything of value, including the kitchen sink.
"It about doesn't make sense to put the family out," Upshaw said. "Once
people are gone, you're gonna lose the house in this neighborhood."
Tuesday, the home was wide open. Doors leading into the kitchen and the
basement were missing, and the front windows had been smashed. Weeds
grew chest-high, and charred remains marked a spot where the garage
recently burned.
Put on the market in January for $1,100, the house had no lookers other
than the squatters who sometimes stayed there at night. Facing $4,000 in
back taxes and a large unpaid water bill, the bank that owned the
property lowered the price to $1.
$1 sale to cost bank $10,000
While it's not unusual for $1 to be exchanged when property is
transferred for legal reasons, listing a home in the Multiple Listing
Service for $1 was surprising and unsettling to Kent Colpaert, the
listing real estate agent for the property.
"I've never seen a home listed for $1," Colpaert said.
"But it's been hit hard: It's just a shell."
On Tuesday, Realtor.com listed one other single-family home, one duplex
and one empty lot at $1 in Detroit.
Dollar property sales are the financial hangover from the foreclosure
crisis, said Anthony Viola of Realty Corp. of America in Cleveland.
Lenders that made loans to unqualified buyers during the height of the
subprime market now find themselves the owners of whole neighborhoods of
vacant, deteriorating homes.
"No one has much sympathy for these banks that made subprime loans,"
Viola said. "And in some cities like Cleveland, judges aren't letting
them sit on the properties -- they're ordering them to tear them down or
sell them."
So desperate was the bank owner of 8111 Traverse Street to unload the
property that it agreed to pay $2,500 in sales commission and another
$1,000 bonus for closing the $1 sale; the bank also will pay $500 of the
buyer's closing costs. Throw in back taxes and a water bill, and
unloading the house will cost the bank about $10,000.
"It doesn't make sense in some neighborhoods to keep paying costs and
costs," Colpaert said. "It can make more financial sense to give it away."
Buyer calls it an investment
Colpaert declined to provide the name of the prospective purchaser,
because the deal had not been through closing. The agent did say that
the buyer agreed to pay the full list price of $1, and planned to pay cash.
The buyer, a local woman, considers the home to be an investment
property and will not live there, Colpaert said, though exactly how soon
the buyer can expect to recoup her four-quarter investment is
questionable. Replacing the guts of the house will costs tens of
thousands of dollars, and the owner will have trouble keeping scrappers
from stealing the improvements as quickly as they're installed. Home
demolition costs about $5,000, Colpaert said.
Meanwhile, the new owner will owe $3,900 in property taxes in 2009 on
her dollar purchase unless she challenges the tax assessment.
While selling a home for the amount of change most people could find
between their couch cushions is unusual, some abandoned homes in Detroit
sell for $100; vacant lots can be purchased for $300.
"My 14-year-old son could buy a block of Detroit property," said Ann
Laciura, senior servicing specialist for the Bearing Group.
You can reach Ron French at (313) 222-2175 or rfrench@detnews.com.
Find this article at:
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080813/METRO/808130360
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Upcoming Week of August 11 - August 18 - How you can help in the Detroit area
Monday "Stop the Foreclosures" Staff meetings are held at the Moratorium
NOW! Coalition office 23 E. Adams at Grand Circus Park in downtown Detroit.
NOW! Coalition office 23 E. Adams at Grand Circus Park in downtown Detroit.
Special tabling and distribution scheduled at the African World Festival
- August 15, 16 and 17.
Table hours: Friday and Saturday from 5 pm to 8 pm and Sunday from 3 pm
to 6 pm
Table location: Jefferson and Woodward by the Coleman A. Young Municipal
Building (formerly City County Building)
Stop by the table, sign the petition, pick up literature, get a t-shirt,
help out for awhile!
Read more!
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