Jaye Crawford Takes Her Fight to Court, Needs Support!

Occupy Our Homes Atlanta member Jaye Crawford has been fighting for housing justice for six months, and she’s not giving up yet.  She’s hired civil rights attorney Robert Patillo to take her fight to court.

Jaye Crawford has lived in her zoned-commercial unit for 14 years, which serves as both a living and work space for her personal training studio. When Jaye took a neighbor to court over incessant noise violations (and WON) property owner Henry Finkbeiner and manager Hugh Trotti refused to renew her lease. Mr. Trotti’s stated his reason: “No one reason in particular.” Mr. Finkbeiner nor Mr. Trotti have yet to address the law-breaking tenants.

Occupy Our Homes Atlanta, Rainbow PUSH,  and the AFSC have been fighting alongside Jaye since May of this year. Working with Jaye, we have launched an online petition, organized housing justice cookouts, held rallies, and had multiple candlelight vigils in front of Hugh Trotti's home.

Attorney Patillo, who will file the law suit against The Warehouse Lofts on Jaye’s behalf, will also represent her in dispossessory court next Thursday (September 5th). Attorney Patillo is hopeful that an agreement can be reached between both parties. However, if an agreement is not reached, Jaye and Attorney Patillo are prepared to proceed with the law suit.

Jaye's fight for housing justice is bigger than her. "No one has ever stood up to The Warehouse Lofts before.  Someone has to, or they will keep giving tenants raw deals without thinking twice. Most people who receive a letter that their lease will not be renewed just pack up and move because they don’t have the money to fight.  I want to send a message to Atlanta landlords that we are not disposable.", stated Jaye.

Right now Jaye is asking folks in the community to support her by doing two things:

1. Can you help cover Jaye's legal expenses? Jaye is a hard working single mom that never thought she would have to take this fight so far. While her lawyer has given her a discount, she still has to pay $2,500. If you can give anything it would be appreciated. Link to donate here.

2. Will you stand with Jaye at her court hearing September 5th at 9am? We are asking folks to were blue in solidarity. Link to event.

Military Strikes Not the Answer in Syria

On Aug. 28, 2013, AFSC and 24 other diverse groups sent a letter to President Obama, urging him to reject military action in Syria and instead intensify diplomacy to stop the bloodshed.

Dear President Obama,

We, the undersigned organizations, are writing to express our grave concerns with your reported plans to intervene militarily in Syria. While we unequivocally condemn any use of chemical weapons along with continued indiscriminate killing of civilians and other violations of international humanitarian law, military strikes are not the answer. Rather than bringing an end to the violence that has already cost more than 100,000 lives, they threaten to widen the vicious civil war in Syria and undermine prospects to de-escalate the conflict and eventually reach a negotiated settlement.

In the course of more than 2 years of war, much of Syria has been destroyed and nearly 2 million people—half of them children—have been forced to flee to neighboring countries. We thank you for the generous humanitarian assistance the U.S. has provided to support the nearly 1 in 3 Syrians—8 million people—in need of aid. But such assistance is not enough.

As the U.S. government itself has recognized, there is no solution to the crisis other than a political one. Instead of pursuing military strikes and arming parties to the conflict, we urge your administration to intensify diplomatic efforts to stop the bloodshed, before Syria is destroyed and the region further destabilized.

Sincerely,

American Friends Service Committee
Church of the Brethren
Code Pink
CREDO Action
Democrats.com
Fellowship of Reconciliation
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Global Ministries of the United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Historians Against the War
Just Foreign Policy
New Internationalism Project, Institute for Policy Studies
Oxfam America
Peace Action
Peace Education Fund
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Presbyterian Church, USA
Progressive Democrats of America
RootsAction.org
Shomer Shalom Network for Jewish Nonviolence
United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society
USAction
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
Veterans for Peace
Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Women’s Action for New Directions

Latonia Wilson Fights Her Eviction....and Wins!

After stopping her home from selling on the courthouse steps Occupy Our Homes Atlanta launched on online petition for Latonis Wilson. Only a few days later Latonia recieved a disposseory from the owner of the home Dan West. Latonia and her allies quickly organized to housing justice cookouts to prove that she could fill her yard with supporters.


AFSC was delighted to participate in organizing around Latonia's home. It was a pleasure to spend time at her home with her beautiful children, it was clear that Latonia and her family is deeply loved in her community.


Negotiation for Latonia's home started earlier this week.Today Latonia came to court with multiple supporters to face Dan West's lawyer in disposesory court to see if they could finalize a deal that would keep Latonia in her home. After much back and fourth a deal was struck that keeps Latonia in her home.

The difference we see when we fight along side each other, rather than fighting alone, is often the difference between victory and defeat.

The Figaro's Housing Nightmare

In 2006 Mike and Patrice Figaro spent most of their savings on a house in South Fulton County. When they arrived to Georgia from California to live in their new home, they were immediately confronted with a nightmare of a home. Their wiring was hazardous, causing hot water heaters, televisions, ovens, and a jacuzzi bathtub to blow out. They had designed the home to be handicap accessible for Patrice, so they had an elevator installed. The elevator promptly failed.

When they investigated these wiring issues they found that the permit for 220V power to their home had never been approved. When looking deeper into the paperwork they found that the building permit for their home had never been notarized, and that the signature on their certificate to occupy was forged (according to the county employee whose signature allegedly graced the certificate).

These issues all stemmed from the builder, John Wieland Homes. Mike and Patrice went to their County Commissioner, Bill Edwards, for support to right the wrongs that had been committed against them. The Commissioner held a meeting with the Figaros, Occupy Our Homes Atlanta members, county employees, and representatives from John Wieland Homes.

At the meeting Commissioner Edwards was very straightforward. He admitted on camera that there were serious issues with evident fraud on the certificate to occupy among other issues Figaros. Commissioner Edwards committed to look for into the case and meet again with more information, he also said that he would be willing to testify in court that there was wrong doing if it come down to it. Since then Edwards has back tracked, refused to meet, and has basically had his staff tell the Figaro’s that if they want more out of the County they can just file a lawsuit.

Why the change of tone? Well we know that John Wieland is the biggest home developer in the state of Georgia, and that come with a lot of power. Power to commit fraud and influence elected official with impunity.

Today we took the fight right to John Wieland’s door step, making it clear that this will not go away until John Wieland Homes does the right thing and return the money they took from the Figaro's.

About a dozen people converged on John Wieland’s corporate offices today around 1pm with signs and leaflets to pass out to folks. We made it clear that we will continue to put pressure on John Wieland Homes until this issue is resolved. The sad truth is that John Wieland is one of the richest people in Atlanta and the Figaro’s lost all of their lifetime wealth purchasing what they thought would be their dream home from John Wieland.   

Please consider signing the Figaro’sonline petition.

Chattanooga Launches Home Defense Campaign

This weekend AFSC has the pleasure of joining Occupy Our Homes and Occupy Chattanooga in a strategy session aimed at launching Occupy Chattanooga's first public home defense campaign.

Folks from Occupy Chattanooga reached out to us just one day before Filson Manley's home was set to be auctioned off on the courthouse steps, they wanted advice about how to stop investors from purchasing a home that someone lives in and is fighting to save. With in 24 hours Occupy Chattanooga mobilized their friends to show up to the courthouse steps and make sure Filson's home didn't sell to anyone.

This weekend we spent several hours going through potential steps Occupy Chattanooga could take to build a strong campaign, and made action plans around each step. After our planning session we enjoyed a bonfire party at Filson's home.

The Occupy Chattanooga crew has now launched an online petition to stop One West Bank from putting Filson Manley out of his home of 19 years.

AFSC is excited to see more and more groups and individuals take on banks, investors, and slumlords in the South. We hope to continue work with Occupy Our Homes and other groups to build a housing justice movement in the South.

Please take the time to sigh and share Filson's online petition.