Housing

Occupy Madison Builds ‘Tiny Houses’ For The Homeless

August 15, 2013 Lisa De Bode, www.america.aljazeera.com Create! Housing, Occupy

The activists behind Occupy Madison have come up with a tiny solution to a big problem: building mini-homes for the homeless community as part of an ongoing political campaign against homelessness in Wisconsin's capital city[...]The homes are around 98 square feet and will be equipped with a microwave, a small refrigerator, and heating, according to the organizers. The units are built on wheels and will have to be moved every 48 hours to circumvent the city’s parking requirements, which prohibit trailers from staying outdoors on the same location for more than two days."

A Brief History of Squatting

August 13, 2013 Arun Gupta, www.inthesetimes.com Educate! Finance and the Economy, Housing

Try though it may to present a picture of protest springing eternal, the museum reveals the shifting dynamics of the Lower East Side. As the photos tick off the years, the people become whiter, the reclaimed spaces narrow from houses to gardens, from street occupations to sidewalk protests, and the protesters grow older and middle class. In the end, the visionaries who proclaimed, “We will build a new society in the vacant lots of the old,” defend fragile stands of bohemia by adapting to the invasive monoculture of condos, clubs and cafes.

Feds Threaten to Stop Lending to Cities That Use Eminent Domain to Help Homeowners

August 9, 2013 Alejandro Lazo, www.latimes.com Educate! Housing

The nation's top housing finance regulator threatened to choke off mortgage lending in cities that use eminent domain to seize underwater loans from lenders. The salvo from the Federal Housing Finance Agency came Thursday, on the heels of a lawsuit directed by major Wall Street firms and U.S.-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac against the Bay Area city of Richmond. Richmond is the first to push forward with the plan, also being debated in cities across the state and nation. Richmond wants to require lenders and investors to sell underwater mortgages at a deep discount. The city would then refinance borrowers into more-affordable mortgages.

Economic Crisis Worsens, More Reasons To Create New Economy

July 28, 2013 Hope Yen, www.ap.org Educate! Finance and the Economy, Housing, Human Rights, Poverty

Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream. Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press points to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor, and the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend. Hardship is particularly growing among whites, based on several measures. Pessimism among that racial group about their families' economic futures has climbed to the highest point since at least 1987. In the most recent AP-GfK poll, 63 percent of whites called the economy "poor." "I think it's going to get worse," said Irene Salyers, 52, of Buchanan County, Va., a declining coal region in Appalachia. Married and divorced three times, Salyers now helps run a fruit and vegetable stand with her boyfriend but it doesn't generate much income. They live mostly off government disability checks.

Popular Resistance Newsletter – Creating The New World

July 25, 2013 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter Energy, Finance and the Economy, Food and Agriculture, Housing, Transportation

An important component of resistance is building systems based upon our desired values and principles to replace the current dysfunctional systems. This is a powerful and positive way for communities to work together to solve local problems and meet their basic needs. People around the world are engaged in this constructive resistance. We will share some of the most recent efforts to build the world we want. Landfill Harmonic OrchraestraWe are inspired by the human potential to create, even in dire economic circumstances, illustrated by this story of children from a slum dwelling in Paraguay. Out of the trash in the landfill their community is built upon, they created the “Landfill Harmonic Orchestra.”

Portland Mayor Moves To Evict City Hall Protest Encampment

July 25, 2013 Nigel Duara, www.registerguard.com Organize! Housing, Poverty

Mayor Charlie Hales announced a plan on Monday to evict protesters from an encampment in front of City Hall that began in 2011 during the Occupy Portland movement. Hales said crime and litter at the encampment forced his hand. “People who work in this building have been harassed in and out of the building,” Hales said during a news conference on Monday. Protesters reacted with dismay to the news. About 30 protesters, ranging in age from teenagers to people in their 60s, were still gathered in front of City Hall on Monday afternoon. Seth Ozturgut said he has been staying at the encampment for more than four months. He said he hopes the protest brings the homeless plight to the city’s attention. “Sleep is a human right,” Ozturgut said

Solutions to the Housing Crisis with Michael Carlson and Nancie Koerber

July 24, 2013 Podcast Cooperative, Economic Democracy, Finance and the Economy, Housing

The artificial inflation of the housing market, predatory lending practices and fraudulent behavior by Big Finance which created the collapse

City Leaders Target Miami’s Homeless Population For Arrest

July 23, 2013 Mint Press News Desk, www.mintpressnews.com Educate! Housing, Poverty

Commissioners are attempting to roll back provisions instituted in the 1960s that protected the city’s homeless from habitual arrest, opening the door to arrests for blocking sidewalks and cooking food in public areas. At the heart of the petition is the 1998 Pottinger v. City of Miami case, in which the American Civil Liberties Union, on behalf of 6,000 homeless people, sued the city for treating homelessness as a crime. The plaintiffs argued that the arrest of homeless people for “basic activities of daily living” violated the Eighth Amendment. The plaintiffs’ case rested on the argument that homeless people were not in that position by choice, which made punishment “cruel and unusual.”

Occupy Homes Rallies Around Homeowners Facing Foreclosure

July 21, 2013 Claire Glass, www.truth-out.or Resist! Housing, Solidarity

Occupy Homes activists spearheaded an initiative called the Eviction Free Zone (EFZ), encompassing the Powderhorn and Central neighborhoods in Minneapolis, where there have been 835 evictions since 2007, not including renters. EFZ activists - a mix of OccupyHomes veterans and neighbors - hunker down in foreclosed properties, warding off attempts by police and banks to change the locks. When banks do oust homeowners, activists peel the boards off of windows and install an OHM representative to stay with the homeowner 24 hours a day until the case is settled. EFV activists also refurbish vacant properties for those rendered homeless through eviction. And between acts of civil disobedience, they host barbecues and potlucks to foster the sense of community the group says is essential to win bank concessions and empower citizens.

Cities Seize Underwater Mortgages Through Eminent Domain

July 17, 2013 Staff, www.thenation.com Create! Housing

Many economists, including Joseph Stiglitz and Mark Zandi, agree that the best solution is “principal reduction,” where banks lower the borrower’s mortgage principal. This is not an act of charity but a way to reverse the economy’s freefall. If underwater mortgages were reset to fair-market values of homes, it would help homeowners and communities alike, and pump about $102 billion into the economy annually, according to a Home Defenders League report. But homeowners who have asked banks to modify their mortgages typically get a cold shoulder or a bureaucratic runaround. So far, the Obama administration and Congress have been unwilling to require intransigent banks to reset loans. Faced with this quagmire, a growing number of cities—with the support of community groups and unions—are taking things into their own hands.

Activists Sue Federal Agency for Illegally Withholding Housing Funds

July 10, 2013 Alysa Figueroa, www.alternet.org Resist! Housing

The 2008 Housing and Economic Recovery Act required that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac contribute a portion of their revenue — 0.04 percent of every dollar in new mortgage purchases — to the National Housing Trust Fund. As a result of the 2008 financial crisis, however, the FHFA suspended its contributions. Now, the mortgage finance giants have reported $28 billion in record-setting profits in 2012, but have yet to contribute to the fund. After two years of pressuring the Obama administration to fund affordable housing, the Right to the City alliance said it could not wait another day. The alliance has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to enforce the FHFA and DeMarco contribute what they owe to the fund.

Demand for Walkable Communities Growing

July 2, 2013 Angie Schmitt, www.dcstreetblog.org Create! Housing

The study also included a survey portion. Among those surveyed, 90 percent said it was important to live in a place where they could walk to other destinations in the community, like schools, parks, and shops. Moreover, 62 percent said they would be willing to trade some lot size at home for access to parks, trails, and recreation. Experts from the Sonoran Institute say they think their findings are applicable to the West as a whole. “More and more people want convenience, they want to walk, and they want neighborhoods with character,” said Clark Anderson, Sonoran’s Colorado program director. “In a lot of towns these qualities are hard to find outside of a few small, historic neighborhoods. So it’s sort of an untapped opportunity.”

The Fall Of The House Of Detroit

June 23, 2013 Jeffrey Cavanaugh, www.mintpressnews.com Educate! Finance and the Economy, Housing, Poverty, Racism

The broken, bankrupt, and bereft city of 2013 was thus a long time in coming – the end product of countless decisions by millions of people, made from corporate boardrooms to middle-class living rooms, to leave the city and its urban poor to fend for themselves. In many respects, it resembles the effect that Hurricane Katrina had on New Orleans in 2005, only in this case it was the cruel logic of globalized market capitalism, racial animosity and subsequent political paralysis played out over many years, instead of one act of God, which caused the cascade of human misery. The lesson here is that when the going gets tough, whether by a storm or changing socioeconomic circumstances, those with the means to get out, do so.

Bank of America Lied to Homeowners and Rewarded Foreclosures, Former Employees Say

June 15, 2013 Paul Kiel, www.propublica.org Educate! Corporatism, Finance and the Economy, Housing

Bank of America employees regularly lied to homeowners seeking loan modifications, denied their applications for made-up reasons, and were rewarded for sending homeowners to foreclosure, according to sworn statements by former bank employees. The employee statements were filed late last week in federal court in Boston as part of a multi-state class action suit brought on behalf of homeowners who sought to avoid foreclosure through the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program but say they had their cases botched by Bank of America.

New Report on Public Housing: “Communities, Evictions, and Criminal Convictions”

June 14, 2013 Bruce Reilly, www.ficpmovement.wordpress.com Create! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Drug Policy, Housing

New Orleans tangles with the most intense incarceration in America, and thus the world. Seemingly innocent programs related to criminal convictions, can take on a primary role in a city such as New Orleans, where one in seven Black men is either in prison, on parole or probation. To fully grasp the community impact of affordable housing barriers in this sphere, one must account for arrest, incarceration, and poverty rates. Particular to civil rights law, one should factor in the proportionality between recognized ethnic and language groups. It is no mystery that in New Orleans, policies that affect people impacted by the criminal justice system (both individuals and families) are disproportionately affecting people of Color- especially African-Americans. The contrasting affect is most glaring when comparing the drug enforcement policies of densely populated, overwhelmingly White, college students. The excuse of “experimentation” has been reserved for a certain segment of young drug users.

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