Shocking illegal Eviction in Dekalb County, Georgia

The scene early this morning at 3662 Wellhaun Road in Decatur
resembled that of a major drug bust with officers sneaking around in
the middle of the night. Instead of a bust however, officers knocked
on the door of 62 year old Christine Frazer’s house at 3 AM to serve
her with an eviction notice. Chris’ house was foreclosed on
fraudulently by Investors One Corporation in October 2011, and she has
been fighting it in federal court ever since. In January, activists
with Occupy Atlanta set up camp on her lawn and committed to stay to
defend Chris’ home from eviction.


Using what the sheriff himself referred to as “intelligence” Dekalb
County law enforcement waited until activists were not present at the
home, and the neighbors would be asleep to serve an illegal eviction
after hours, putting 4 generations including her 83 year old mother,
and 3 year old grandson out on the curb. They even rounded up her dogs
and took them to the pound. To add insult to injury, the police
blocked off the street and wouldn’t allow anyone to help secure the
family’s valuable personal belongings from the side of the road.
Once again, it is clear that the government and our law enforcement
officials are being used to serve and protect the interest of the 1%
and not of ordinary people or even the laws that they have put in
place. Occupy Atlanta is more committed than ever to the fight for
Chris Frazer’s home, and the thousands of other homeowners just like
her who are being disrespected every day.

Sherriff Thomas Brown and the Dekalb County political system showed
their true colors today, and made it known where their loyalties lie.
Today at 1 pm, Occupy Atlanta, John Evans, President of Dekalb County
NAACP, and other community members will be holding a press conference
in front of Chris Frazer’s home to put these officials on blast and
let them know that we will not stand for this type of shady behavior.

Watch this powerful video to see Christine's story.

There are a lot of unexpected charges adding up now dealing with the
eviction. Chris is scrambling to find a place for her family to stay,
a storage unit for all of their belongings, and even has to pay to get
the dogs out of the pound. Please donate to help in anyway you can.

https://www.wepay.com/x2tg0qn/donations/193827

HOUSEWARMING PARTY!

Bank of America has made a habit of kicking folks out of their homes illegally. Since most people have no place else to go, today Atlanta community members decided to move in to the Bank. There was one simple demand. MAKE A DEAL TO KEEP PAMELA FLORES IN HER HOME!!

WHO IS PAMELA

Bank of America is at it again! The “Too-Crooked-To-Fail” megabank-- notorious for ripping off everyone from investors and      insurers, to homeowners and the unemployed-- is after Vine City resident, Pamela Flores’ home.

BoA is attempting to foreclose on Pamela’s home, claiming that she missed payments during the trial period of a loan modification she    received through the “Making Homes Affordable” program. The thing is, Pamela never missed a payment and has the records to prove it.   Instead of investigating her case and admitting their error, the bank is moving forward with plans to foreclose.

BUT WAIT.... THERE’S MORE!

Trying to steal Pamela’s home is hardly Bank of America’s first offense. Their crimes are vast, and their greed is immeasurable. They’ve drained seniors of their retirement and savings by selling crap mortgages disguised as highly rated investments to unions and pension funds. They’ve diverted millions of dollars that would have been spent on building schools and education by scamming local municipalities out of fees and mismanaging their money. They popularized the term “robo-signing”-a practice that involves forging court documents in order to illegally foreclose on properties they had no claim to. Bank of America is also racist. They knowingly pushed African Americans and other minorities into risky sub-prime loans, while giving white non-minorities of the exact same financial status stable prime loans. An overwhelming 40% of their loans have been shown to have income overstated by the lender, trapping people in loans they knew couldn’t be repaid. They implemented systems to charge bogus overdraft fees to their checking account customers, and even take advantage of the unemployed by charging massive fees to people trying to access their benefits. This is all after receiving billions of dollars in tax-payer funded bailouts and debt guarantees from the federal government. Bank of America paid $0 in taxes last year, and even received a $1billion refund-- money they turned around and used to pay out over $35billion in bonuses to their executives.

WHAT CAN YOU DO??

First of all, close your account with Bank of America!! Once you’ve done that, give CEO Brian Moynihan a call. Let him know how you feel about their practices, and that you want him to “make a deal to keep Pamela Flores in her home at 245 Griffin Street in Atlanta!”

Brian Moynihan, Chairman and CEO of Bank of America

(980)     386-5687

brian.t.moynihan@bankofamerica.com

Occupy and Vine City Residents Take On Bank Of America

The foreclosure crisis hit Vine City hard. Now, only 15% of residents own their homes and many of them are facing hardship, like resident Pamela Flores whose property backs up to Martin Luther King III and City Councilman Michael Julian Bond’s home.

Pamela bought her home at an inflated amount in 2006, the height of the crime spree at the hands of American banking institutions. In 2009 she attempted to get a loan modification with Bank of America through the “Making Homes Affordable” program. The bank told her that in order to qualify she needed to miss 3-4 mortgage payments; this is a scam that has already put countless Americans out of their homes. During the time she missed payments, at the banks request and in order to meet the loan modification criteria, she fell into foreclosure. By qualifying for the “Making Homes Affordable” program foreclosure was temporarily avoided. Pamela began to pay trial period monthly payments for the “Making Homes Affordable” program. When it was time for Bank of America to grant her the promised modification, they instead mailed her a notification alleging that she failed to make four out of five payments. Her home, unknowing to her, was slated for auction at the Fulton County courthouse during the time the bank claimed to be researching their records for the “missing” payments. The thing is, Pamela Flores never missed a payment, in fact she was never even late, and has all the records to prove it.

Pamela was forced to file Chapter 13 and 7 in order to stop Bank of America from stealing her home. The act of filing has stopped Pamela from being able to recieve a student loan she had formally been approved for in her effort to pursue a masters degree at Emory University. Her ordeal with Bank of America has forever impacted the course of her life. The home she paid over $180k for is now appraised at $38k.

Since she reached out to Occupy Atlanta a few weeks ago, we were able to work with the Rainbow Push Coalition to put off her home auction for one month--but that’s not good enough. Occupy Atlanta and the newly formed Occupy Our Homes - Atlanta will begin a full scale occupation of Pamela’s home until Bank of America makes a deal to keep her in it. Occupy Atlanta and Occupy Our Homes will work with her community to establish a base for defending other homes at risk of foreclosure and eviction. We plan to target private and public institutions that continue to disrespect Vine City residents.

Occupy Our Homes Atlanta is committed to maintaining a 24/7 presence at the home of Pamela Flores until Bank of America makes a deal that keeps her in home. During our time here we also plan to work with the Vine City community to create a hub, at Pamela's home, for eviction/foreclosure defense. We invite folks from surrounding communities who are struggling with housing issues to come down to 245 Griffin Street, Atlanta and work with us to build the communties we can survive and thrive in.

Local CBS coverage of the press conference today.


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

Helicopters and Home Defense In Dekalb County Ga

At the home of A 62 year old women threatened with being evicted, Occupiers are fighting to save her home to keep a roof over her family's head.



Today, March 22nd, while working to save this home from illegal eviction everyone was greeted by multiple police cars and helicopters looming over head. Rather than investigating the clearly evident fraud perpetrated Investors One Corporation, the company that's attempting to claim Chris Frazers home, DeKalb police have turned a blind eye on the one's that needed it most.


Shapiro & Swertfeger, the counsel representing Investor One Corporation, have had all of the proper paperwork and knew of the fraud taking place through the chain of title but refuse to expose the injustices. A very predictable move on their part being that lawfirms receive 10% profit from all foreclosures. In addition, the magistrate court judge that handled the dispossessory glossed over the fact that a foreclosure deed wasn't presented at the hearing which is cause for immediate dismissal the paperwork remained unfiled until a week before the appeal was heard.



There is currently a lawsuit being filed against all parties that had a hand in these clandestine business practices. The Dekalb County Sheriff's office still didn't hesitate to send out multiple squad cars to stay stationed outside of the Frazer residence. Despite severe budget cuts the county is facing there were cops told to, "bring a book or a movie" to stay entertained throughout the day there were also about five instances where a helicopter was circling the house, hovering for about 10-15 minutes at a time costing the county thousands of dollars. Tomorrow we are expecting an even more blatant show of force on the side of the Dekalb County Police Department.



One of the officers camped outside Chris Frazer's home claimed that the police force was present to make sure activist campaigning to save the home weren't being violent. Since Occupy Atlanta have been working with the local community we have been nothing but helpful, organizing community meetings where neighbors can share ideas on how to create the change they want to see, facilitating clean up days, and addressing the issue of abandoned homes on Wellhaun road.


American Friends Service Committee is calling on folks to join Chris Frazer and stand against this eviction. We need folks there between 8am and 5pm, which is the time frame that an eviction can occur. Will you join us?



Video Clip of Helicopter circling Chris Frazer's home:


Facebook Event page Link


Leila Abadir
Guest Writer, Occupy Atlanta


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee