GMAC

Rosemary Williams and four other Minnesota women have decided to resist the foreclosure and eviction monster that's destroying our communities.

People from the Twin Cities are helping these women defy eviction, the Hennepin County Sheriff, and the big banks that want to steal their homes. Produced by Twin Cities Indymedia and the Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign. Here's the 110-second trailer; the full 12 minute video is posted below the fold...
 

110-second trailer URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGZCXaXSbbA
12-minute video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQeNyVjHuvQ

Rosemary Williams, Linda Norenberg and thirty of their supporters crowded into Mayor Rybak's office on a rainy Wednesday morning. The mayor was out, it transpired.  So was his chief of staff.  Could the office call the mayor?  No.  "He doesn't have meetings with people who just stop in his office," said mayoral aide Erica Prosser.

"I'm losing my house, me and my kids are," said Norenberg, a Robbinsdale woman who is struggling to avoid foreclosure.  "We don't have time to wait for his schedule."

"We believe that if GMAC or US Bank or some other bank walked in here, the mayor would have a face to face, "Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign organizer Cheri Honkala told Prosser.

"Today was supposed to be a very sad day," said a member of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) to begin the press conference at Rosemary Williams's house this afternoon.  The sheriff had arrived at nine in the morning with an eviction notice.  Ms. Wiliams was packing.  Her son, his wife and their two small children had gone to their other grandmother's house.  Plans had been made for emergency foreclosure resistance.  "We were ready to go to jail," said Cheri Honkala of PPEHRC.  But twenty minutes before the press conference was to begin, one phone call changed everything.

After winning a writ of eviction from the courts to force Rosemary Williams from her home - but faced with planned civil disobedience and protest that would put GMAC’s inhuman actions into the news - GMAC has temporarily backed off from the eviction and offered to significantly lower the price at which they will sell to Rosemary her home (GMAC bought her home at a sheriff’s sale). However, they will not finance the mortgage. Instead, they are giving Rosemary until July 10^th to find a bank that will.

Update from comments: First, there is good news. The judge has ordered a representative of GMAC to meet with Rosemary tomorrow, June 17th, the goal being for them to arrange a deal in which Rosemary can stay in her home at an affordable rate. This does not mean that they will reach a deal, but it does mean that if a deal is not reached the eviction will not happen until - at the soonest - next Wedensday, June 24th. 

If a resolution is reached on Wednesday, June 17th there will be a block party on Rosemary's block.

Neighbors, Friends and Community Organizations Rally & Intervene in Court on Rosemary Williams’ Eviction Case

Wednesday, April 22nd