“There are 300,000 petitions [signatures] that we are going to deliver across the street to the federal courthouse. There are 12 cities around the country that are doing actions, demanding these bankers be held accountable, demanding that arrests be made,” shouted Anthony Newby, a community organizer at a demonstration in Minneapolis on Tuesday.
“We want a perp walk frankly. We’re now switching the tables and turning the tides. We are going on offense, demanding that these bankers be held accountable to the same standards as Rose [McGee],” Newby said.
Newby was joined by roughly 50 members of Occupy Homes, an activist group that helped organize Tuesday’s rally to support Rose McGee, a homeowner from Golden Valley, Minn., facing imminent eviction because of unscrupulous lending practices.
Chants of “Whose house? Rose’s house!” echoed through the government building as onlookers and government workers observed the proceedings ahead of McGee’s trial.
From the beginning of the effort to stave off foreclosure, McGee has been aided by community members, building a coalition to battle Citibank, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — the financial institutions attempting to evict her and her children.
The results of Tuesday’s trial were inconclusive and disappointing for McGee and her supporters. After Fannie Mae refused to offer a deal that would keep McGee in her home, the judge ordered both parties to return for further court mediation May 14.
“The outcome of the court process today was very disappointing,” McGee said. “The offer that Fannie has made is unreasonable. If they made a reasonable offer, I would gladly accept it.”
The events leading up to Tuesday’s trial took show the work of faith-based organizations and activist groups, like Occupy Homes, that have come to the aid of McGee and her family after she was threatened with foreclosure and eviction nearly one year ago.
“We have some terrific community organizers from around the country and here if it hadn’t been for Jewish Community Action, NCRC [National Community Reinvestment Coalition], and Occupy, if those organizations hadn’t been there for me in the very beginning, I would have given up months ago,” McGee said.
Like most Americans, buying a house represented a modest but attainable part of the American dream for the professional storyteller and longtime community leader. “I have worked hard all of my life. I have contributed to my community. I pay my taxes. I tried to live out the American dream by buying a house. I have lived in my home and paid my mortgage for almost 20 years,” wrote McGee to Citi Mortgage and Fannie Mae last month.
“Unfortunately like many other Americans I was laid off from a job I loved. When I regained employment, CitiMortgage promised to work with me to modify my loan — but at the same time as they were reassuring me that they were going to work with me, they sold my home from under me,” McGee said.
Since the initial foreclosure notice May 2012, McGee has been fighting foreclosure, only to be misled by big banks along the way. Like many Americans, McGee fell victim to a process known as “dual tracking,” whereby a bank says it will negotiate a loan modification while simultaneously selling the property unbeknownst to the homeowner.
Despite assurances from loan representatives at Citimortgage, McGee found that the bank was in the process of selling her property at a sheriff sale.
In January, Rose met with Fannie Mae executives in Washington, D.C., who promised they would work on a loan modification. Mcgee was again “dual tracked” when they continued to push forward with the eviction proceedings.
This legislative session, Rose became the primary spokesperson for a Minnesota Homeowner Bill of Rights that would ban foreclosure abuses across the state, such as dual tracking. Although the bill died in committee, a federal ban on dual tracking is set to go into effect January 2014.
Earlier this year, the California state legislature passed a homeowner bill of rights that has helped reduce home foreclosures by offering new legal protections for residents. Since its passage in January, home foreclosures have fallen by 62 percent across California.
Congressman Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) was among those who rallied in support of McGee on Tuesday, pledging his support for the embattled homeowner.
“We’re all brothers and sisters here today because we believe that the people should have a good home to live in. We have millions across America and thousands here in Minnesota homeless. Why are we throwing people out of their homes? We ought to be trying to keep people in their homes,” Ellison said.
Rose’s case: indicative of a national problem
McGee’s case has been just one of the projects that Occupy Homes has worked on in an attempt to end evictions and home foreclosures across Minneapolis. For activists and supporters, Tuesday’s action is about saving one member of the community while continuing to push for comprehensive reforms that will keep families in their homes.
“Look, we’ve had at least 4 million foreclosures across this country, we’ve had literally thousands across this community. Every time someone is foreclosed upon it means someone will be displaced, it lowers the tax base and it adds another person to the ranks of the homeless. It’s just an overall bad policy. We need to step up and do something about it,” said Ellison to Mint Press News.
Since beginning home defense campaigns in 2011, Occupy Homes activists and community members have held marches, public forums and occupations to prevent bank foreclosure.
At times, protests have swelled as faith-based groups and labor unions lend support to the final goal — a foreclosure and eviction free zone in Minneapolis. Earlier last month, more than 200 marched on the Wells Fargo Mortgage Center to defend Gayle Lindsey and Jessica English, two Minneapolis resident fighting to end foreclosure proceedings.
Although a majority within Congress oppose national moratoriums on foreclosures, Ellison relayed to Mint Press News that there are likely “100 members of Congress,” all Democrats, that support comprehensive financial regulation and mortgage reform.
“It’s the banks who packaged these loans with no standards of underwriting. I stand with Rose and all these folks in foreclosure. All we want is some reasonable negotiation and that’s not what we’ve been getting,” Ellison said. “I’m on the side of Rose Mcgee, not the side of Fannie, Freddie or Citi [bank].”
Regardless of the outcome in McGee’s case, Occupy Homes has vowed to take their fight to Washington this summer, demanding change and the prosecution of bankers responsible for the lending practices leading to the 2008 financial collapse and millions of home foreclosures.
“In May we are going to go to D.C., we are going to go to the Department of Justice in D.C. and start making some serious demands with homeowners from all around the country and we’re not going to stop until the banks and bankers are held accountable,” Newby said.
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and the U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations both made criminal referrals to the Department of Justice (DOJ) after the 2008 financial collapse, the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, but no arrests have been made in response to the recommendations.
A September 2012 Al-Jazeera report comparing the 2008 meltdown to the savings and loans crisis of the late 1980s shows that the Department of Justice (DOJ) investigated and prosecuted bank executives who stole funds from their institutions through fraud. Of the roughly 1,000 indicted during the savings and loans crisis, approximately 800 served prison terms.
“This crisis is roughly 70 times larger than the savings and loan crisis, so you should be seeing an effort absolutely unparalleled in U.S. history. Instead you are seeing an effort that is considerably smaller than the effort made in the savings and loan crisis,” said William Black, a former senior financial regulator.
Listen to the Mint Press Interview with Keith Ellison
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