Occupy Our Homes ATL Lift Off!

Thanks to all who made it out on Saturday for the Occupy Our Homes ATL official launch, a project that's very close to the heart of AFSC's Georgia Peace and Conflict Resolution Program! Special thanks to Chris Frazer, Bridgette Walker, Carmen Pittman, Pastor Dexter Johnson of Higher Ground Empowerment Center, and Pamela Flores for sharing their victories and struggles; to Senator Vincent Fort and Tony Romano of Right to the City Alliance for their inspiring messages of support; to folks who donated to and participated in our silent auction; to Altobeli's for the wonderful food; and to all who pledged to defend homes in the metro-Area!

Here's what OOHA has put out on their listserv:

"Over $7,000 was pledged at the event to help us with start-up expenses and initial program costs. Our goal was to have $10,000 pledged, so we are hoping to make up the difference by extending our initial push pledges one more week. By June 1st--the same day that we will move into our new communal home and headquarters--we hope to have $10,000 pledged.

If you were unable to pledge your solidarity and financial support at our launch, please consider donating here.

You will notice that over the course of our first year we are aiming to raise $28,000 through local, grassroots support. While this initially might strike ya'll as an overly ambitious fundraising goal, we want to assure folks that we've been very thoughtful and intentional about this goal and its use. As a budding community organization with large, transformative demands to change the way our city approaches housing, we recognize that there are many resources that we need in order to not only defend homeowners and tenants from foreclosure and eviction on a mass scale, but also to strive toward a total sea change in our city's approach to housing. While there are many resources that would certainly make our work more effective, we recognize that the resources we cannot do without are committed, accountable, full-time activists.

As we moves forward with our plans, we now--perhaps more than ever--hope to make it clear that we are working under the banner of the Occupy Movement. While we will not be accountable to the GA's, but rather accountable to each other and our communities, we do recognize the contradiction of Occupy activists receiving stipends from large foundations and from the 1%. Because of this, we are aiming to support our four full-time activists solely through grassroots fundraising. Please consider donating to support our activists today."

We look forward to updating everyone on OOHA's developments soon. Stay tuned for more information about our summer Home Defense Mobilizing Conferences.

AFSC's Georgia Peace and Conflict Resolution Program aims to continue to support this important movement with trainings, resources, and space for meetings and conferences. Our cities housing crisis is unprecedented and requires unprecedented, bold, nonviolent, creative action.

Tim Franzen

American Friends Service Committee

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

Building Community In Vine City Through Group Walks

At one of our recent Vine City community meetings a few of the residents came up with a great action idea. The idea was to get together every Friday at 6pm and walk around the neighborhood as a group. The hope was to build relationships with each other, and to build awareness in the Vine City as to who we are, and why we're here, and how folks can plug in.

This past Friday  was the kick of Vine City walk, and though it was only around ten of use, it was really an awesome experience. Every one we walked by wanted to know what we were doing, residents actually came outside to engage with the group. As residents engaged, many ended up putting out their own ideas about the Vine City they want to live in, and perhaps what would be some collective steps to get there.

We've been canvassing Vine City for the past few weeks in pairs, Friday's walk really confirmed that there's power in numbers.

The walk not only was a great outreach tool, it also gave those of use who walked new perspectives on the neighborhood. A few Vine city residents who came on the walk commented, "we never walk the streets like this". We stopped several times to have long conversations with community members, survey an abandoned building, or to stop and eat mulberries. It should be noted that the overwhelming majority of Vine City residents really love the Occupy movement and are glad we are here.

Everyone was really excited to keep building this weekly tradition, and we invite you to join us every Friday at 6pm. We meet at the home of Pamela Flores, 245 Griffin St, Atlanta.





Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

Moving Forward in Vine City

Over the past week we've been hitting the streets, knocking on doors, attending NPU and civic association meetings, and organizing events and actions designed to bring Vine City residents together.

Today we hosted our second Vine City community meeting and created space for residents to identify the challenges facing their neighborhood, from unemployment, boarded up houses, a growing homeless population, corrupt police, apathetic youth, school closings, trash everywhere, and evictions/ foreclosures the list of challenges is pretty epic.

Vine City has been, and is under attack. Although many outside of the community have said that the fight to save what's left of Vine City is futile, every resident we've spoken with over the last three months has said the fight is worth it.

It's clear that folks need to get more organized. The banks, developers, and government officials that want the poor folks out are super organized and have access to money.

There's another kind of power brewing amongst Vine City residents, people power. This week there are a number of activities initiated by Vine City residents at our Community meeting. Here they are:

Friday April 20th 4pm: Meet at West End Marta station, march to Bank of America and threaten to move in if they don't give Pamela Flore's home back.

Monday 5-7pm: Community Canvassing. Meet at 245 Griffin st.

Monday April 23rd 7:30pm: Screen and the Green! Film screening of "Food Inc" at 245 Griffin street. Snacks provided!

Tuesday 5-7pm: Community Canvassing. Meet at 245 Griffin st.

Wednesday 6pm: Community walk! Meet your friends and neighbors for a walk around the community. Let's experience Vine City block by block and talk with folks we meet, tell them what we are trying to do to stop the institutional forces that would see Vine city turn into Atlantic Station II.

Thursday 7pm: Community Meeting. This is where residents organize the change they want to see in Vine City. Food, childcare, and transportation provided.


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

MOVE-IN DAY: Demand that BoA Makes Pamela's Mortgage WORK

WHO: Occupy Atlanta, Occupy Our Homes, Atlanta JwJ, Rainbow PUSH, and others
WHAT: Protest to Demand that BoA Makes Pamela Flores's Mortgage WORK
WHEN: Friday, April 20th, from 4-6pm
WHERE: Meet at West End Marta Station @ 4pm; March to BoA branch across the street (711 Lee St) at 4:30pm

https://www.facebook.com/events/360473337332897/

Bank of America is at it again! This "too crooked to fail" megabank--notorious for racial profiling, sub-prime lending, robo-signing, and ripping off everyone from investors and insurers to homeowners and the unemployed--is after Vine City resident Pamela Flores's home.

BoA is attempting to foreclose on Pamela, claiming that she missed payments during the trial period of a loan modification she received through the "Making Home Affordable" program. The thing is, Pamela Flores never missed a payment, in fact she was never even late, and has all the records to prove it. Instead of investigating her case and admitting their error, the bank is moving forward with plans to auction off her home on the steps of the Fulton County Courthouse next month. But Pamela has no plans to just pack up and leave. She is fighting back, and Occupy Atlanta along with Occupy Our Homes plan to stand with her every step of the way.

On Friday, April 20th, we'll pay the bank a visit in another neighborhood that has been dramatically affected by the housing Crisis --Atlanta's West End. We will demand that Bank of America keep Pamela Flores. and the thousands of others just like her, in their homes. If BoA can't make Pamela's mortgage work, they should expect that we'll be moving in!


Please meet at the West End Marta Station @ 4PM, Friday, with a few home goods in tow (house plant, vase, moving box, etc). We'll march over to the West End BoA branch (just across the street) to rally and demonstrate that if BoA goes through with the foreclosure, Occupy Atlanta won't hesitate to "keep house" in any and every branch in the city.




{more on the crimes committed by BoA nationally}

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

OCCUPY ATLANTA FORECLOSURE & EVICTION PREVENTION HUB IN THE VINE CITY HISTORIC DISTRICT

Tomorrow, April 9th, at 11AM Occupy Atlanta will host a Press Conference on the lawn of Vine City resident Pamela Flores’ home at 245 Griffin Street. Councilman Michael Julian Bond, Ralph David Abernathy III, Pastor Dexter Johnson, and representatives from Communication Workers of America will join. This is part of the Occupy movement's 99% spring offensive that American Friends Service Committee is helping to organize locally by provided venue space and trainers.

In 2008, we discovered that bankers and speculators had gambled with our most valuable assets, our homes--betting against us and destroying trillions of dollars of our wealth. Now, because of the foreclosure crisis that Wall Street banks created with their lies and greed, millions of Americans have lost their homes and one in four homeowners are severely underwater on their mortgage. Not only do we have thousands of people without homes, we have thousands of homes without people. Boarded-up houses are sitting empty--increasing crime, lowering the value of other homes in the neighborhood, erasing the wealth that lifts families into the middle class.

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. The spokesperson for the Vine City resident is Georgia State Certified Mediator Al Bartell who will be communicating on her behalf.

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.

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.

American Friends Service Committee is excited to play a role in the campaign to save the Pamela Flore's home and the ongoing struggle to housing and economic justice in the Vine City area


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Occupy Our Homes - Atlanta is a brand new organization developed to further Occupy Atlanta's work around foreclosure and eviction. The group's goal is to mobilize
the metro Atlanta area around the housing crisis