Vine City Residents Face Immediate Displacement

 Last week we received a call from the Vine City Civic Association. Members VCCA had been working with families that had been living a permanent housing program for people with disabilities. The program is facilitated by Fulton County Office of Emergency and Transitional Housing(OETH) and designed for low income families that are living with serious disabilities in the household.

Several members of the VCCA had called us extremely concerned with Fulton County's treatment of families in the program. VCCA got involved after hearing multiple complaints from women in the program that had become strongly integrated into the Vine City community.

Last week things moved into crisis when residents were informed that they would all have to move out of their homes by June 23rd, something that came of a shock to many of the households.

Today several of the single mothers who live in the program organized a small rally outside their community. They were joined by several members of the Vine City Civic Association in calling on Fulton County to do the right thing and treat them with dignity.

During the rally several Fulton County representatives came to Vine City residents and promised to work on the matter, though after they left a car pulled up and became taking photographs of all the women demonstrating. When residents said they preferred not to be photographed the men in the car said that folks should leave if they didn't want to be photographed. Sadly it turns out the two men in the car work for Fulton County and were driving a truck marked with the Fulton County emblem.


Please SIGN and SHARE the online petition initiated by the community.

Remain, Reclaim, and Rebuild!

The collaboration between Metro Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America and Occupy Our Homes Atlanta (OOHA), and American Friends Service Committee which led to last year's popular bus tour of OOHA's activities in the Pittsburgh neighborhood and the proposed Falcon's stadium, continued this year with an April 5 tour of OOHA and local residents' recent work in four core Atlanta neighborhoods: Pittsburgh, Vine City, English Ave, and Peoplestown.

The tour began at the Rick McDevitt Center in the Peoplestown community where OOHA and AFSC plan to launch a community wide housing justice campaign later this year. Residents and OOHA members introduce the tour. Then, the bus carried participants through the neighborhoods to stops that focused on individual housing fights that brought major victories or inspired other landmark housing fights across the country. At each stop resident fighter who led each campaign talked about why they fought, struggles of the campaign, and what work they’ve been inspired to continue since.

The tour showcased the diversity of various housing justice campaigns that OOHA has been able to win with their organizing models. From renter fights, to foreclosure resistance, even reclaiming vacant homes for homeless people it's clear that OOHA is nimble enough to look at the issue of housing from dramatically different angles.

The tour will ended with an informal dinner at Emmaus House, a community center in Peoplestown that has provided social services and has been a catalyst for community activism since the urban renewal days of the 1960s.

Taking Back Our Neighborhoods Tour Rolls Through Atlanta

For a very long time, organized hostile forces in business and government have abused the predominantly black neighborhoods near Atlanta's business and convention core. These neighborhoods have endured the construction of four stadiums requiring 12,000 or more parking spaces each; expressway construction; meager support for community development; punitive or nonexistent social welfare programs; a public housing subsidy system that strongly favors wealthy homeowners over everyone else; and other damaging assaults. But neighborhoods are now marshaling their own resources and fighting back. Joined by neighborhood residents we explored some of these battles Today as part of the "Taking Back Our Neighborhoods Bus Tour."


The tour, organized by Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America and Occupy Our Homes Atlanta started in Peeples Town with brief talks about current and past struggles by residents in Pittsburgh, Peeples Town, English Avenue, and Vine city.


The tour then became mobile, taking time in each community to create space for residents to tell their story's of struggle, victories, and shortcomings.



One highlight was the stop at 1043 Windsor street, where home liberator's Reneka Wheeler and Michelene Meusa pretty mush reenacted their home liberation press conference on the actual porch of the home liberated in an act of civil disobedience December 6th of last year. Joining them on the porch was long time Pittsburgh organizer and former State Rep Douglas Dean, who spoke of the importance of bold community action that push the boundary's of unjust policy, perhaps even crossing those lines when it makes sense to do so. 



After the tour we reconvened at the American Friends Service Committee's downtown office for a delicious dinner and more discussion, which seemed very focused on the new stadium, which seems to be just about a done deal....or is it?

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

Building Resistance and Community in Vine City!

It's been such and eventful week in Vine City! With so much going on I've had a hard time making time to update this blog, so I'm going to try to include some of the highlights from the last week and end with a call to action.

Community meetings!
They've been great! It's really been awesome to see more and more Vine City residents engaging and relating with the Occupy Movement. At our last community meeting, after spending time exploring the institutions that have been attacking Vine City for decades, we asked residents if they saw connections between they systems of violence and oppression that have become common place in Vine City and beyond. Folks from the neighborhood had no problem drawing the connections between the school closings, financial institutions, police corruption, drug dealers, and homelessness.Folks in Vine City know what time it is.

Earth Day and Block Party

Several Occupiers had been working with Vine City residents for weeks to build an Earth day event and a Block party. One of the problems residents bring up often is the overwhelming presence of trash in the community and the effect it has on the psychology of neighborhood. It's a fact that abandoned buildings in lower income communities are way less likely to be tended to by the financial institutions that own them then abandoned buildings in wealthier neighborhoods. This fact is painfully obvious in Vine City. This past Friday 36 bags of trash were picked up along Joesph Lowery BLVD, and work was done on several Community Gardens. Saturday folks came out for food, games, friendship, and education. Higher Ground Empowerment Center played host to the event, and lots of kids from the community came out and had a great time. It was a reminder that in a time when we are all relegated to our separate lives, that simply creating space to enjoy our neighbors and learn from each other can be an act of resistance.

Bank Actions!
  Not losing the fact that one of our main fronts of resistance in Vine City is the fight to save Pamela Flore's home from illegal foreclosure at the hands of Bank of America, we've decided to launch multiple small actions against the bank leading up to a larger action next Monday(4/30). Since bank of America has pushed millions out of their homes we've decided to make their front doors our homes. Our hope is to dramatize the crisis they have forced upon us all, and reach make it impossible for BoA and their customers to ignore injustice of historic mass evictions. At each action hundreds of info sheets were passed out and multiple customers marched into the bank with our flyers. Two costumers actually walked in and closed their accounts in protest. At today's bank action one homeowner decided to let the bank know that he was putting off paying his mortgage until BoA fixed Pamela Flore's mortgage

. On Monday April 30, the day before her house is set to be auctioned off, we'll be at the Bank of America Plaza in Midtown from 1:30-4pm with one simple message. Make a deal to keep Pamela Flores in her home!

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

Community Building In Historic Vine City!

Driving down any street in Vine City makes it impossible to ignore that this historic park of Atlanta has sustained a tornado of economic violence for decades. There are more empty homes then occupied homes due to extreme predatory lending . The lack of capital has forced residents out of their homes and into the streets, many have been virtually forced to engage in illegal activity that's further hurt residents. The tactic of divide and conquer has been administered here to disastrous results.

Vine City and English avenue really are ground zero for the housing crisis that Atlanta is under the lash of. The work here is vital, and in the three months we've been engaged here there have been sparks of hope. We've saved a church and we're now fighting save a home that's being illegally foreclosed on by Bank of America, we're facilitating weekly clean ups, we're teaching elementary school aged kids to plant urban gardens, we've just started a weekly political education program, we're hosting a weekly community meeting where residents can brainstorm ways to organize their community for change, and we're beginning to engage with folks trying to halt the closing of Kennedy Middle School.

It's a start, and there's no doubt that what Vine City needs is a Vine City movement led by Vine City residents. It's an uphill battle against unprecedented wealth disparity, but these days the impossible feels more possible than any time in recent history.

There's power being built in Vine City, and you're invited to participate!

Come by our new headquarters at 245 Griffin Street. It's a 24/7 operation.

Tim Franzen

American Friends Service Committee

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

Moving Forward in Vine City

When Occupy Atlanta decided to fight along side Higher Ground Empowerment Center, other motives were made clear upfront. Vine City is one of Atlanta's most under served communities, parts of it resemble post Katrina New Orleans. The hope was that saving the Church would build momentum for general Vine City improvement.

This past weekend a third community meeting was hosted at Higher Ground Empowerment Center. The focus of the meeting was to create action items around issues that members of the community identified as priorities for not only Vine City, but English Avenue as well.


After greetings and introductions we broke off into four different brainstorming sessions. Issues addressed included, homelessness, foreclosures, youth services, jobs, and urban farming. Each break out session had a note taker and a spokesperson who's task it was to report back to the group.

Action items were developed after the report back, and each action item was assigned to someone in the room. The energy in the room was great, and it's exciting to see folks from Vine City and English Avenue identifying the changes they want to see and articulating the steps that need to take place in order to implement those changes.

American Friends Service Committee hope to facilitate youth services in Vine City that would be open to English Avenue youth as well. Our goal is to start an SAT tutoring program once a week, start a weekly Be The Change Curriculum, and build towards monthly youth organized events in Vine City.

Footage of Vine City/English Avenue:



Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

RALLY TO SAVE 108 YR OLD CHURCH FROM BB&T BANK

Tomorrow(1/17/12) at 9:30am we will be holding a press conference and rally to save Higher Ground Empowerment Center(HGEC). The time and date is significant because the bank is set to negotiate with HGEC, Occupy Atlanta,and Rainbow PUSH, at 11am. Last week Occupy Atlanta was able to help the Church put off immediate eviction from the building they've called home for over 108 years. Despite false claims from BB&T lawyers and executives, it seems clear that the bank does not plan and working out a deal that would give ownership back to the Vine city church. BB&T has also been openly dishonest with the public, claiming that they never intended to evict HGEC, we know this to be sadly false.

It is time that BB&T live up to their "Values based approach" to dealing with foreclosures and make a deal with HGEC with gives ownership to the church, time for BB&T to do the right thing.

Occupy Atlanta will also be delivering a petition, which was organized by Rebuild the Dream, to save the Church to BB&T tomorrow. There are over 60,000 signatures from people all over the country.

The fight to save HGEC from BB&T bank isn't just about saving a church, it's about saving a devastated community. Vine City is the most undeserved community in the downtown area.There are parts of the City that resemble post Katrina New Orleans. Tomorrow after our press conference members of the HGEC, the Vine City community, and Occupy Atlanta will begin the process of fixing up Vine City. It's clear that we can no longer wait around for the Mayor to wave a magic wand, if there is to be change, it's going to have to come from everyday people in the community, it's going to have to come from the 99%. In this spirit we will be picking up some of the overwhelming amount of trash around the neighborhood.We also plan on launching an effort to get signatures on a petition to save Bathune Elementary School, which is within eye-shot of HGEC, and is under threat of being shut down.

Joining us for the press conference tomorrow will be Dr. Joseph Lowery from the Peoples Agenda, Joe Beasly from Rainbow PUSH, Talk Radio Host Rob Redding,American Friends Service Committee and many other community leaders and stake holders, and organizations.


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

108 Year Old Church Faces Eviction From BB&T Bank

Higher Ground Empowerment Center(HGEC) is a neighborhood church in the heart of Atlanta’s Vine City. For the past 108 years, Higher Ground Empowerment Center has been a pillar in the historic Vine City community, one of Atlanta’s most under-resourced communities. HGEC has offered an array of much-needed programs and services including free healthcare screenings, a food pantry, job fairs, an annual Vine City Thanksgiving dinner, Karate classes for youth, Saturday tutorials, and summer camps for students.


In 2008, the church suffered a major blow in the form of a disastrous tornado that ripped apart the property. In order to rebuild, the church was forced to take out a loan, one that became increasingly difficult to pay back and unrepresentative of the resale opportunities as donations and property values fell during the recession. The church repeatedly attempted to refinance the loan to be more representative of the property’s value, but BB&T, a company whose CEO, Kelly King, claims that their “foreclosure process is a values based approach where [they] work with our clients,” has not responded. The cruel irony is that BB&T bank spends about $5 million dollars a year on teaching positions and research on what they refer to as “the moral foundations of capitalism.” We find these morals and values suspiciously absent when the opportunity to profit off of the very people who bailed out BB&T to the tune of $3.1 billion comes about.

The day before the HGEC was to face BB&T in court over their right to stay in the meeting, Pastor Dexter Johnson reached out to Occupy Atlanta for help. After Occupy Atlanta set up tents and held a press conference,BB&T began back peddling, falsely claiming that they never intended to evict the church, and that they were willing to work out a deal. The deal BB&T wants to work out is unacceptable. BB&T now says that HGEC must lease the property from the bank.

HGEC, Occupy Atlanta, Vine city community members, and other social justice organizations including Ranbow PUSH Coaltion, and American Friends Service Committee, are committed to fight for HGEC's right to own the church they have called home for 108 years.This coalition has also been joined by Rebuild the Dream, an organization that started a national online petition that has gathered tens of thousands of signatures.


Occupy Atlanta has organized a rally to save the church this Tuesday, January 17th, at 9:30am at the Church(561 Spencer st, Atlanta).The rally is important because HGEC and Occupy Atlanta are set to meet with BB&T at 11am and the pressure needs to be on. American Friends Service Committee will be present, and we hope you will be too!

I must also say that Vine City is the most underserved community in the downtown area. While I canvassed the neighborhood I shot some footage. It's truly the shame of Atlanta, and a clear consequence of extreme wealth consolidation. Let the fight for HGEC be the beginning of the fight to improve deplorable conditions in Vine City.



Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee