Evict the Poor-Rescue the Banks?

Under US law, the rich can “steal” cheap foreclosed houses. “People’s” historian Howard Zinn writes, “It is not easy to prove that protest changes policy.” This Monday, March 30th, Rosemary Williams is launching a protest that just might change things! She is refusing to leave her home at 3138 Clinton Ave. South in Minneapolis. It fell into foreclosure after having been refinanced once, and again two years ago to help make ends meet with an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM). Monthly payments shot up to $2,000! The community is rallying around her cry: STOP foreclosures and evictions!

Related: Picket of Foreclosed Home Auction at MPLS Convention Center Saturday | TCIMC Video of Hennepin County Sheriff's Sale Action

The myth of rugged individualism
Zinn continues from his book Declarations of Independence, “…dependency on government has never been bad for the rich. The pretense of laissez-faire people is that only the poor are dependent on government, while the rich take care of themselves. This argument manages to ignore all of modern history, which shows a consistent record of laissez-faire for the poor, but enormous government intervention for the rich.” For example, during the Great Depression of the 1930s “government enforced thousands of evictions.”

This February, house democrats introduced a measure that would provide a 90-day reprieve from foreclosure for homeowners who commit to working with their lender and a housing counselor to reach a solution. Her question is: “How LONG will it take to pass that bill?!! Can’t Obama just sign it into law? We need relief NOW!”

Resistance
Monday, March 30th at 8am, supporters will begin a sit-in at 3138 Clinton with a rally scheduled for 11:30am. March 30th marks the end of her six-month waiting period since the foreclosure process began. Teach-ins will go on that afternoon about the housing crisis, followed by music and bed-time stories of people’s resistance as supporters curl up in their sleeping bags. It is expected that the court will inform Rosemary of a date that she is to appear in court in a week or more.

Over fifty years of Rosemary’s memories fill her block. Across the street from her home sits-the very house that she grew up in during the 1950s. Rosemary married and moved to California where she was a community organizer. Returning with her children 26 years ago, she bought her new home together with her mother who passed away six years ago. Rosemary has since served this community in battered women’s advocacy and drug counseling, and is employed as a Doula birthing coach.

Lately she’s begun sorting possessions for sale and gifts in preparation for the dreaded- inevitable? “At first I grieved alone,” Rosemary recalls, “but my spirits are UP! So many people are with me on this.“ Indeed, following the successful demonstration at the sheriff’s office March 11th led by Cheri Honkala, Rosemary staged a protest at her home March 14th, and she is on the mayor’s calendar for a conversation at noon this Friday, March 27th--supporters welcome. Starting Friday April 3rd at 4pm she’ll lead a weekly protest gathering at Clinton Avenue and Lake Street.

Inspiration
Rosemary’s situation of course is far from unique as the crisis intensifies. Her unflinching resolve is what sets her apart. Almost daily she uncovers deeper layers of deceit as “cheap new” housing gets snapped up by wealthy bargain hunters. Her determination reminds us of crowds who thwarted eviction attempts in Chicago in the 1970s. As recently documented in Family Properties by Beryl Satter, “contract sellers became millionaires, their harsh terms and inflated prices destroying whole communities” Let us join in her resistance and save our neighborhoods.