Occupy Our Homes Atlanta Presents HUD Grinch of the Year Award!

 

Raising rent, fueling gentrification, lining the pockets of Wall St., and all with HUD's help? This is what is happening in Georgia an across the country, through HUD's Distressed asset stabilization program or DASP. Yesterday Occupy Our Homes Atlanta and AFSC participated in a national day of action to take demand HUD reform their program and protect our neighborhoods.

 

 HUD, a government agency tasked with investing and developing our neighborhoods, are doing neither every day they fail to reform their DASP program. Tasked with selling off the "distressed assets" code for the foreclosed homes of our friends, families, and neighbors, HUD is selling these properties for pennies on the dollars, by the thousands, to Wall St and big investors who don't care about our neighborhoods.

 After accepting a meeting with housing groups from across the country, and presenting HUD with our plan for reform they have failed to respond in a comprehensive and meaningful way by our deadline of Dec. 15th. The stage is set for change and now we must demand that is happen.

Yesterday a delegation went to Atlanta’s HUD office and delivered a petition with almost 5k signers all asking for reforms to HUD’s DASP program that would see an end to Wall Streets unbridled access to our communities. After accepting the petition HUD was presented with the prestigious “Grinch OF The Year” award for selling our homes to the some vulture capitalists that created the crisis.

 It's time for HUD to invest in our neighborhoods, not in Wall St. and big investment corporations who only want to invest in their own profit margin.