Another Foreclosure Fightback in Dorchester

"We're gonna beat back that bank attack!" "We're gonna beat beat back that bank attack!" -chant heard from marchers going from a foreclosed property to Dorchester District Court BOSTON/Dorchester - On the morning of Wednesday April 16 a group of 50 people gathered in front of a home at 200 Norfolk St. in Dorchester. Why? It was part of the growing anti-eviction after foreclosure movement organized in part by the housing rights organization City Life/Vida Urbana which is committed to doing "street defense" of homeowners facing eviction after foreclosure due to predatory loans and tenants surprised by foreclosure proceedings in their buildings. This time it was a defense of tenants and not former homeowners. But the Meyers family tenanting three apartments in the building had made an offer to buy the home at its appraised value. US Bank turned them down choosing instead to evict - a common bank response in many similar cases. The banks thinking that they are going to be able to preserve the paper value of the foreclosed mortgage don't want to sell at a lower but very realistic price. Even if it means kicking people out of neighborhoods that they helped to build. Says Cheryl Lawrence tenant organizer at City Life: "The banks are just continuing to be deceptive to their investors. Because there is no value there even if they don't want to acknowledge it." According to projected figures from Banker and Tradesman magazine 2000 families in Boston will be affected by foreclosure in 2008 most of them tenants. "It's like Katrina without the water " says Cheryl Lawrence of City Life. Activists associated with City Life and others have vowed to carry their street defense to the level of eviction blockades - physically blocking constables when they come to evict people even if they get arrested in the process. So far the threat of eviction blockades has forestalled several evictions and in some cases forced the banks to negotiate. The hope is that such tactics will continue to be effective until the state and federal governments are forced to take action on behalf of homeowners and tenants. A report detailing how predatory sub-prime lenders have targeted communities of color is available online at the United for a Fair Economy website. Dave Burt is a volunteer at City Life/Vida Urbana Bookmark/Search this post with: Delicious Digg StumbleUpon Reddit Newsvine Facebook Google Yahoo Technorati