Stand with Blackstone tenants around the world in demanding justice from CEO Schwarzman!

Our Homes Are Not a Commodity!  No Business As Usual Today -- Shut Em Down!

Today members of Occupy Our Homes Atlanta delivered a demand letter to Blackstone Groups Atlanta Head Quarters. We encourage you to take the time to make a call/email as people around the world take a stand against Blackstone's unfair, exploitative housing practices. Can we count on you to make the call?
Blackstone, one of the world's largest private equity firms, is buying up housing all over the world and quickly becoming one of the largest landlord's in our cities.  But at the expense of families and communities.  Blackstone buys up our foreclosed homes for cheap, kicks out the residents, charges exorbitant rents, fails to do proper maintenance and excludes people of color and immigrants!

Fore More background info on #StopBlackstone campaign see below

CALL CEO Stephen Schwarzman NOW at 212-583-5000

If number is busy, call 212 503 2100, 212 583 5799, see all Blackstone #'s globally below

Document # of calls made, city and country here:  http://bit.ly/1MqsQi9

EMAIL him at stephen.schwarzman@blackstone.com

SCRIPT -- Tell the Blackstone CEO:

"Mr. Schwarzman, I stand with Blackstone tenants and community organizations around the world.  Stop buying up our foreclosed homes and public housing, stop all your unjust evictions and make your rents affordable.  I support this important struggle and will not let up until you meet the tenants' demands.  Homes are NOT a commodity!"

TWEET -- #StopBlackstone

By calling in you are part of an international day of action spanning 4 countries and 3 continents!  TODAY, Right To The City and PAH in Spain are organizing protests at Blackstone offices in the US, Spain, Japan and England!  In the US we are doing actions and delivering demand letters in cities across the country including New York, Atlanta, Chicago, and Seattle. Our call in's will be happening in over 40 cities worldwide!!!!!!!!!!!

We are just getting started and in the future, we plan to expand our organizing and protests to everywhere Blackstone is,  including China, Australia, and India.  Our international demands are below and will be paired with local demands in each city.

For more background info on #StopBlackstone -- Our Homes Are Not a Commodity see bottom of this email

MORE PHONE NUMBERS:

Atlanta
The Blackstone Group
Phone: +1 404 460 2321
Fax: +1 404 460 2337

Boston
The Blackstone Group
Phone: +1 617 646 2900
Fax: +1 617 646 2905
Chicago
The Park Hill Group
Phone: +1 312 705 3070
Fax: +1 312 705 3079

Houston
GSO Capital Partners LP
Phone: +1 713 358 1400
Fax: +1 713 358 1401

Los Angeles
The Blackstone Group
Phone: +1 310 310 6949
Fax: +1 310 310 6998

Menlo Park
The Blackstone Group
Phone: +1 650 798 3800
Fax: +1 650 798 3801

San Francisco
The Park Hill Group
Phone: +1 415 276 5900
Fax: +1 415 276 5919

 _________________________________________________________________________

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Blackstone is one of the world's largest private equity firms.  Blackstone made big money in the last housing bubble and now is cashing in again to make lots more.  It is buying up housing and real estate all over the world and quickly becoming one of the largest landlord's in our cities.  They are raking in the profits.  But at the expense of our families and communities.  They buy up our foreclosed homes for cheap, kick out the residents, charge exorbitant rents, fail to do proper maintenance and exclude people of color and immigrants!

Our International Demands on Blackstone

        1. Stop Buying Our Occupied, Foreclosed and Subsidized Housing

• Do NOT destabilize our communities by buying homes that should be owned by individuals, the government or local entities.
• End the purchase of homes owned by banks rescued with public money or homes that were purchased with sub-prime loans.

          2.  No Unjust Evictions

• Stop unjust evictions of homeowners or tenants in purchased properties
• Stop forcing tenants out of homes due to harassment, your failure to make repairs and charging unjust fees.

3.  Affordable Rents

• Do not charge unfair rents
• Do not make people pay more than one third of their income to housing
• Ensure that at least 25% of all Blackstone housing in a city is affordable to poor people who make 0 to 30% neighborhood median income

       4.  Quality Conditions and Sustainability

• Renovate all purchased homes to a high quality
• Maintain all properties in good condition
• Make prompt and quality repairs
• Ensure all utility systems and materials used in building and repairs are sustainable

5. No discrimination

• Do not discriminate against people of color or immigrants including by using unfair prohibitions regarding former incarceration or arrests, and/or immigration status.
• Allow equal access to Blackstone homes for all people regardless of race, nationality, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, family status, immigration status, former incarceration, eviction history or credit history.

6. Accountability

• Provide responsive and quality customer service
• Provide full name and contact information for one consistent person from Blackstone’s property management company who has full authority to address tenant’s issues promptly and effectively

7.  Transparency of information

• Provide to the public business and industry information including:

• Names of all the companies Blackstone has any ownership in/control over and what properties and real estate they relate to and how
• Terms of purchase of all housing/land/buildings purchased
• Regular updated list of which properties are securitized, and who are the investors including banks that put up any money
• Regular updated list of properties that are directly or indirectly managed by Blackstone worldwide
• Regular updated list of all those evicted from each property and why (names can be withheld if it is required by law)
• List of who's application was denied and why (names can be withheld if it is required by law)

Displacement of Residents in Historically Black Neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia

                 

By Resident Fighter Tanya Washington


The City of Atlanta, under the direction of Mayor Kasim Reed, is displacing residents to create a new park and a pond. The plan is being billed as a solution to flooding that the targeted residents don’t experience. However, the proposed park and pond will displace Peoplestown residents to make room for the development anticipated after the Atlanta Braves move out of Turner Field. The City’s plan tracks the demolition of the nearly 100-year old African-American church in 2014 to make room for the construction of the new Falcon’s stadium.

The human impact of the City’s plan, which independent engineers and environmental organizations have described as fundamentally flawed, is to displace families and to destroy a community. In fact, the City rejected a proposal submitted by an engineering firm it hired to turn parking lots in Turner Field into permeable space to absorb the water that floods the area, during intense storms. The City rejected the proposal in favor of one that would destroy a historically black community. The City’s priorities are clear: development is more important than neighborhoods and parking lots take precedence over people.


Despite the City’s promises that residents “would be made whole” and people would be “happy” with the offers they received; the City has reached out with offers to people that don’t even allow them to pay off their mortgages, let alone move into comparable homes in comparable neighborhoods. Furthermore, the settlements are communicated against the backdrop of a disturbing threat: if you don’t accept these insultingly low offers we will take your homes. Displacing people for a plan that will not work is irresponsible government. Destroying black neighborhoods is unconscionable. The City says it is taking homes to save residents from phantom flooding they don’t experience. But, who will save the people of Peoplestown from the City?


Please consider signing our petition and join more than 4,000 others opposed to the City's plans to displace Ms. Jackson, a civil rights legend who carried the Olympic torch in the 1996 games, and her neighbors!!

How You Can Help Residents Take on Displacement and Lack of Food in South Atlanta

Pittsburgh Residents Hold Their Signs

American Friends Service Committee, working through Occupy Our Homes Atlanta, has been engaging in some amazing work around the Turner Field Area communities. As some of you may know last year we worked with dozens of Peoplestown residents to facilitate a listening project. Our findings were that affordable housing was at a crisis level, low income housing units were approacing unliveable conditions, and there was a major lack of access to fresh food that stretch well beyond Peoplestown.

With the Beltline project moving in and the Atlanta Braves moving out the communities around Turner Field have caught the eye of developers in a big way. We've already seen a huge spike in rental prices. Development isn't a bad thing, in fact folks want to see their communities developed; folks want development that benefits those that have lived in the community for decades. This get to a core belief of AFSC's Atlanta Economic Justice Program; that communities should be controled by those that live in them.  We are working with residents in Poeplestown, Mechanicsville, Summerhill, and Pittsburgh to launch housing justice/anti displacement campaigns, support community gardens, and insure that real affordable hosuign and community contro, of land is part of any benefits package that comes out of the Turner Field Agreements.

 We have some quick needs for resources to cover specific costs. I hope you will consider taking a look and investing what you can into the efforts of these amazing residents standing up against tremendous odds.

One of the Many Signs Already in the Community

We have these new yard signs that read, “Stand Together, Stop Displacement, We Matter”. They look great and they provide a visible housing justice presence in the community. We have a lot of ground to cover and we’re about out of our initial order. These signs aren't cheap! In fact they cost $8 a piece! So we hope, with your help, to raise at least enough to order 100 more ASAP! Can you help us raise $880? Your dollars will help us build the door to door housing justice visibility we need in the community!

http://www.gofundme.com/qmx4qg 

Tommy Moore Prepares to Plant

Tommy Moore has been growing food all over the struggling Pittsburgh community, located just south of downtown Atlanta. Pittsburgh lost 86% of its wealth during the financial crash. Half of the homes are still vacant and gunshots can be heard every night. It's a virtual food desert. Tommy needs $200. To buy new seeds and replace tools. Will you help me have his back?

http://www.gofundme.com/qnk2cc4   

Lastly, WE NEED CANVASSERS! We are doing three canvasses a week and need more volunteers to knock on doors.

Tuesday and Thursday: 5-7

Saturday 12-2pp

We always meet AT 1101 Hank Aaron Drive, SW (Brick Building)30 minutes early to do a brief canvassing training and go over talking points. Please come if you can!

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.

Peoplestown Tenants Pave Road to Victory!

Last week Occupy Our Homes Atlanta launched an online campaign alongside the Peoplestown Listening Project and residents of Boynton Village after a series of meetings with residents of the longtime Peoplestown apartment complex.  As residents did the hard work of building support in the community, launching an online petition, doing media trainings, agreeing as a group on demands and points of unity, there was an effort to reach out to the property owners(the Woda group) for a meeting.

Last night that meeting happened. A copy of the petition was hand delivered to the Woda group and the property management company. Residents had space to share their concerns and articulate their demands. Besides having serious concerns about maintenance issues, residents are concerned about their right to return after renovations are made to the property. Boynton Village was acquired by the Woda group as obvious shifts were occurring in the Peoplestown community. As the Beltline project in rolling through and Turner Field is being sold many fear that gentrification could destroy the historic community. Many of the Boynton Village residents have lived in Peoplestown their whole life and while they’ve all agreed to move out for three months while the complex is renovated, many fear they will not be allowed to return.

We are very pleased with the tone of the meeting and the willingness the Woda group displayed at the meeting, we know this is a direct result of a strong turnout by residents, community members, and allies. We know it’s also a result of good organizing and points of unity agreed upon by residents.

The Woda group pretty much agreed to all the residents’ demands, which is amazing! It’s important to be clear that we are not celebrating yet. The Woda group has agreed to put everything in writing by December 15^th, so we await that date to confirm. A win for Boynton Village isn't the finish line for housing justice work in Peoplestown, in fact it's only the beginning. Atlanta's gentrifying forces have shifted an eye toward Peoplestown, affordable housing is already becoming hard to find.

We are grateful to the 800 people who signed the online petition! Keep the signatures coming, they do have an impact when met with on the ground organizing! We are excited to continue to work with the brave residents of Boynton Village as we see the beginnings of a strong Boynton Village Tenants Associating in the works to monitor repairs, relocation, renovation, and the return to the property for all.

American Friends Service Committee is proud to be a supporter of the campaign and we will continue to lend on the ground support and give resources to build infrastructure for the housing justice movement in Peoplestown and the greater Atlanta area. Right now there is a need to provide funding for on the group organizers who are longtime Peoplestown residents. Please contact AFSC if you are able to help at tfranzen@afsc.org

Families With Disabilities Bring Special Delivery to Fulton County Chairperson John Eaves

Today American Friends Service Committee joined Occupy Our Homes Atlanta, residents with the Fulton County OETH Permanent Supportive Housing Program, and representatives from Atlanta Jobs With Justice and American Postal Workers Union to deliver a demand letter to Fulton County Chairperson John Eaves office after hearing the concerns of women in the program and doing and onsite visit earlier in the week.

This isn't the first time we have had serious issues with the program and their treatment of the women in it. Click here to read about the last time we organized alongside women in the program.

Months ago Chairman Eaves office had promised to find housing for a number of the women who refused to be displace from the community the had come to embrace, he had also promised to assist with temporary housing, both promises never happened. More recently Eaves had made a commitment to bring improvements to the program during a face to face meeting with the women and hasn't followed through with those commitments either.

With a number of women's housing on the line we decided to take action with a number of women that were brave enough to be front and center with their grievances, there we many who met with us privately who did not come out of fear.

We delivered the following letter to Chairman Eaves office and we were able to meet with program staff.

Dear Chairman John Eaves,

We are here today because you have the power to fix the Fulton County OETH Permanent Supportive Housing Program and clear barriers from our path to self-sufficiency. In July, you moved our families from Vine City to the airport and we pulled our children through yet another new start. They are still struggling to find their footing in a new school and we are experiencing yet another round of staffing, program terminations, and threats. The staff says we must hold a job without access to childcare. They tell us we may not finish our degree. Every step invites termination from the program and return to homelessness. The shelters are full, Mr. Chairman.

We ask that you use your power to lift our destiny out of the hands of a vindictive program staff and the employees of the Regency Park Apartments. How can you put a flesh and blood woman and her six-year old child out in the street for making noise? Every woman facing program termination must be allowed to appeal and an impartial jury must hear her case. Stop Tracey DelGado’s termination immediately. We have signatures from Tracey Delgado’s neighbors who deny she has been noisy.

Program termination must not be used as a threat to coerce any woman to give up her right to freely decide or to protect the rights or the privacy of her children. If you do not allow a transparent process, the right to appeal, or a fair hearing then this is just a cruel weapon that beats us down and keeps us submissive under your control.

We ask you remove all barriers to our pursuit of education to lift our families out of poverty. The promises of the program are so often unmet, are communicated so poorly, and have changed so many times, that we cannot risk relying on it solely. Please don’t cut off our opportunity to prepare in advance of the day that you decide to put us out.

We ask that you allow us to watch each other’s children so that we may go to work and move our families up and out.

We ask that you allow our children to play in the front of the complex like other children who live at Regency Park. You have told us to send them to the dog park. Our children are not dogs.

We are asking for the right to be treated with respect and compassion by the case manager and supervisors in the Fulton County OETH housing program. We understand that there are rules to be followed and we are not asking for a handout, just stability for our families and the chance to go on.

 

After delivering the letter we were granted a rather long meeting to hash out many of the concerns the women had. While it's clear that the program still has a laundry list of problems we are glad that the County was willing to meet with us to discuss concerns and we are happy the women of the program led the discussion. We did come to some agreements and set a time for a follow-up meeting to discuss problematic policies of the program, explore how groups like Occupy Our Homes Atlanta might work with these families, and develop a stronger understanding of how the program works.

We certainly don't believe this issue is resolved, but we are hopeful that a path of resolution may have begun today. Many of the women in the program launched an online petition yesterday, and we encourage folks to check it out by clicking here.

Housing Justice Saturday!

This past Saturday was jam packed with a lot of exciting housing justice work! Saturday morning I had the opportunity to meet with residents of the Peeples town community to talk about the housing crisis. There had been talk about the possibility of working on a community wide initiative to address the issue of foreclosures, evictions, lack of affordable housing, and vacant homes.

We purposed moving forward with a community wide listening project in late January early February. A listening project is a different way to engage with a community. Instead of telling folks what they need or what you can offer, a listening project assumes that folks that live in the community have the best ideas about what they need. Listening projects are a way of finding out what a community would like to see change.

The idea was very well received with multiple residents volunteering yo help do interviews door to door for the listening project. Super excited to move forward on that project next year!


All day the Atlanta Friends Meeting House hosted Occupy Our Homes Atlanta's year end member retreat, at which AFSC had a seat at the table. The retreat is an opportunity to reflect on the last year of work, look at the goals that were set last year, evaluate what was accomplished and what areas still need work. There was also space to set new goals for 2014, one of which is the listening project in Peeples town!

Rob Call put together this pretty amazing 2013 recap video, check it out:






To top off the night we had a holiday party at the Atlanta Friends Meeting House with delicious food, lots of folks, and music. It's important to create space to reflect and celebrate our work and each other. It's hard work, which is why so many call it struggle, which makes it even more important to lift up our victories.

BIG thanks to the Atlanta Friends Meeting House!

Poor Peoples Day and Dr King's Legacy

Today is a day to reflect on the legacy of Dr. King, and for many in Atlanta it's a day to retrace the great man's foot steps from Peachtree street, down Auburn avenues, all the way to Ebeneezer Baptist Church.

This year I had the extreme honor to March as a dignitary for the second year in a row and speak at the rally at Ebeneezer. Usually AFSC organizes an anti-war contingent in the march but this years mobilizing efforts went toward supporting the efforts of Occupy Our Homes Atlanta in building a large housing justice contingent in the march.

Knowing that I was to speak in the march I spent a great deal of the last few days thinking about what brief comments I might say from the stage. It my be a cliche, but Dr King's work and writing has done more to inspire my work and life direction then anything else.

This week I've been thinking a lot about poor peoples campaign, the last campaign Dr King organized. In November 1967 Dr King and the SCLC organized the campaign to address economic injustice and housing for the poor in the United States, the aim was to rebuild America's cities. The Poor Peoples Campaign didn't just focus on poor black people but addressed all poor people. Dr King labeled the campaign as "phase two" of the civil rights movement- setting goals like gathering activist to lobby Congress for an "Economic Bill of Rights", Dr King also saw an crying need to confront a Congress that demonstrated a hostility toward the poor yet provided an over abundance to the military industrial complex.

Under the "Economic Bill of Rights" the Poor Peoples Campaign asked for the federal government to prioritize helping the poor with an antipoverty package that included housing and a guaranteed annual income.

Martin Luther King Jr wanted to shut down Washington DC. Poor Peoples Campaign was to be the longest running protest in the nations capitol. Dr. King intended to dramatize the suffering of the nations poor by bringing them to the capitol. Poor people would live together on the national mall, between the capitol and the Lincoln memorial- and engage in widespread civil disobedience. King wanted to force the federal government to deal with poverty.

After Kings assassination the King family, along with the SCLC, decided to go on with the campaign to honor King. On May 12th, 1968, the first wave of protesters showed up. One week later Resurrection city was built on the Washington Mall, a settlement of tents and shacks to house protesters. Demonstrators were sent to various federal agencies to protest and spread the message of the campaign. Sadly the campaign lacked the leadership and momentum Kings involvement might have brought.

The combined setbacks of RFK's assassination, and a series of bad press further limited the campaign success. Failing to force a response from lawmakers, the poor peoples campaign closed camp on June 19th 1968.

It should come as no surprise that many veterans of the civil rights saw the Occupy movement as an extension of Dr King's work and legacy.

A Blitz of Housing Justice Action in Atlanta!

From multiple cookouts, to press conferences, call-in campaigns, and physical eviction defense Atlanta, has seen a flurry of housing justice activity.

Both Jacqueline Barber and Sherrye Calhoun hosted eviction free cookouts in their yards which not only built support for their struggle against the banks, it also brought out others facing housing struggles. Both cookouts became touchstones for folks in struggle that had seen Jacqueline and Sherrye's stories and were inspired to fight the financial institutions that would have them on the street with nowhere to go.

One of those people was JoSelf Freeman, who was facing an eviction today. JoSelf saw Jacqueline Barber's story on the news and was inspired to reach out. After scrambling to put together a phone/email blast to put pressure on Fannie Mae and Bank of America, putting pressure on local government, and filling his yard with home defenders this morning, JoSelf's eviction was put off for two and a half more weeks; hopefully enough time to pressure Bank of America and Fannie Mae to make a deal that keeps JoSelf in his home.

Sherrye Calhoun also had a press conference this morning to declare she would not be leaving her home despite being under threat of arrest for trespassing in the place she's called home for 30 years.

It's taken a lot of organizing work, crippling housing conditions, and a lot of courage from residents to break the code of silence and refuse to leave their homes, but there finally seems to be some real momentum toward changing the way our communities approach housing.

Everyday another resident reaches out with a willingness to stand up, speak out, and refuse to leave. It now feels within the realm of possibility that we could have the beginnings of a powerful housing justice movement. The shear math of the numbers those struggling to keep a roof over their heads versus the number of those who continue to build their fortunes on the shattered dreams of others is encouraging. Those struggling far outnumber those who profit off the housing crisis.


Please sign and share JoSelf's petition: http://start2.occupyourhomes.org/petitions/don-t-evict-joself-freeman-from-his-home



Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee