Town Hall Meeting Launches Campaign Against Freddie and Fannie

Occupy Our Homes Atlanta has been successfully defending families and churches from eviction and foreclosure, but we realize that we need a movement on a scale that brings relief to not just a few people, but to everyone.

Today at a Town Hall meeting organized by Occupy Our Homes ATL residents in distress and community leaders launched a campaign against what has emerged as the two greatest obstacles to mass principle reduction and community control of land in our communities--Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac.


Residents came from all over the metro area to share their stories, get inspired by others who have stood up to the banks, and learn the role Frannie Mae and Freddie Mac play in the housing crisis.

The fact is the Fannie and Freddy own upwards of 60% of every mortgage in the Country. Many are unaware that, for the most part, the big banks are simply servicers of these loans. So Frannie and Freddy can keep up the appearance of being helpful towards home owners in distress while foreclosing and eviction whole neighborhoods at the same time.

Frannie and Freddie(F&F) director Edward DeMarco was recently given the opportunity to give an across the board principle reduction to F&F homeowners. Despite receiving very strong pressure from President Obama and the less than progressive Timothy Giethner, DeMarco has refused to reduce principle for anyone struggling, which ensures that the hardest hit communities will remain under hostage by the financial institutions that crashed the economy.


It get's worse ya'll. Freddie and Frannie  have been reluctant to sell any of the tens and thousands of vacant homes they've been sitting on to regular people. They will however sell to Hedge Funds and Wealthy investors at twenty cents on the dollar. That means that regular folks, who are struggling more then ever, are getting pushed out of their homes because they can't afford the inflated prices their under the lash of. Once they're evicted the home is boarded up, creating another depressing crime magnet in the neighborhood, and the super rich are invited to purchase the home for a price that the struggling homeowner could have potentially easily paid. 

So today's town hall got us all pumped up to take on F&F. September 10th we take the fight to their doorstep in Buckhead. Underwater homeowners, renters, and the homeless busing in from Orlando, Miami, Chattanooga on September 10th with at least four demands:

-Principal Reduction for all underwater homeowners to real market value

-An end to Fannie and Freddie Evictions, and the right to rent after foreclosure

-The sale of foreclosed properties to occupants and non-profits at the same discounted rate
they are offering to shady investors

-That they turn over vacant and abandoned properties to community controlled entities to provide long term affordable housing


Here's a facebook link to the September 10th Action


Feel free to forward the event, we need to break the culture of shame and silence in the South and begin to direct the shame in the correct direction, the very institutions that not only caused the economic crisis, they continue to profit of the broken dreams of others.

American Friends Service Committee is proud to be a part of this effort, providing key infrastructure, access to training, and other resources.



Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

Supporting Victories, Celebrating Struggle!

Since November of last year a growing number of metro Atlantans have been resisting the banks foreclosure and evictions and in many cases winning!

Tonight we created the space to not only celebrate those that have found victory in their personal struggle, we also honored those that are currently in the struggle for their housing.

It's important to make time to enjoy each others company, share a meal, share our stories, and reflect on the work. That's what tonight's dinner was about.

I was personally moved by all of the stories shared tonight, and I think we were all inspired to be more fearless, more vulnerable, more real with each other and the world around us.

Big Thanks to Higher Ground Empowerment Center for hosting this evening.





Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee 

Building A Housing Justice Movement In Atlanta

This evening around twenty volunteers staffed the phones as over 14,000 calls were made to underwater home owners in the metro Atlanta area in an effort to bring folks together for a town hall meeting to address Atlanta's historic housing crisis.

The robo calls were set up courtesy of the Home Defenders League, which is supporting grass roots efforts around housing justice all over the country.

After two hours of hard work staffing the phones volunteers took a break to enjoy dinner together and debrief on the experience talking to so many who are silently struggling with loosing their home.

American Friends Service Committee is excited to sponsor the town hall along with Senator Vincent Fort and Occupy Our Homes ATL.

More on the Town Hall:

What: Atlanta Townhall meeting to address mortgage assistance and general housing issues

When: Saturday August 25th at 10:30am

Where: Wheat Street Baptist Church, 359 Auburn Ave, Atlanta Ga 30312

Facebook Event Link



Georgia continues to be battered by the foreclosure crisis, consistently rated as one of the most affected states. Despite this fact, there seems to be little to no relief for the people who are struggling the most. From Governor Nathan Deal's remarks that responsible homeowners don't need assistance, to Edward DeMarco's recent statement against principle reduction to prevent intentional default, it is clear that our politicians are out of touch and unwilling to do what it takes to help solve the problem.

 In 2010, the federal government designated billions of dollars to be used to help homeowners in states like Georgia, called the "Hardest Hit Funds." To date, that money is not being used to help those who need it most. It's time we stop waiting for this help to come around, and start coming together to demand it. At the Townhall event on Saturday, we'll figure out ways to do just that.

AFSC Seeking Two Paid Canvassing Interns For Housing Justice Work

Job Description:

Engage in door to door and phone community outreach with the goal of building the housing justice movement and informing residents in housing struggle of what their options are.  Canvassers must establish regular goals in an effort to enhance the number of Atlanta residents engaged in the housing justice movement towards transformative demands.

Other Responsibilities:

Be able to understand AFSC’s role in the housing justice movement and be current and up to date on the national housing crisis and its local implications. We would like 1-2 stories written about your experience as an intern for our Atlanta blog.

Skills

Canvassers must have strong written and verbal communication skills as well as interpersonal communication skills. They also must remain organized and accurate when recording their canvassing activities or maintaining their canvassing materials. Canvassers always must maintain a positive, personable, outgoing and enthusiastic attitude. These individuals must be professional and neat as well as self-directed and able to work well in a team. They might have to do a lot of traveling, locally, and should have basic map-reading skills when working door to door.

Environment

Canvassers must be prepared to work in all types of weather, which might include hot days, rain or wind. They also must be able to complete light physical activities such as standing or walking for long periods of time, along with kneeling, pushing, pulling or regularly bending and twisting the body. Canvassers additionally should be prepared to carry materials that might weigh up to 25 pounds.

 Compensation

The position is a very short term position that would start Wednesday August 29th and wrap up September and wrap up Wednesday October 3rd, unless alternative funding was identified to extend the internship.

There would be an expectation to work a minimum of 10 hours per week and no more then 20 hours. The stipend would pay $100 per week.


If interested please send resume to: tfranzen@afsc.org or call 404-414-5521

Pool, School Supplies, And Paths of Nonviolence

This past Saturday one of AFSC's projects, Student Career Alternatives Program, hosted a back to schools pool party for youth k-12. While there was plenty of food, a pool beat the heat, and steady flow of live hip hop, this party was more then just a good time.

As the school year begins we wanted to create space where young people could not only receive all the school supplies they needed but also explore some of the deeper challenges they are likely to face this school year.




For the young ones the focus was how to treat ourselves and each other, how to love ourselves, and how to stand up for ourselves.

For the older students we explored how to identify systems of violence and oppression in the school system, from military recruiters, drug and gang violence, to underfunded schools in struggling neighborhoods. Every middle and high schools student got a copy of AFSC's, "It's My Life" guide to cool alternative post high school career resources and a DVD of "Before You Enlist", which focuses on feedback from youth recruits returning from Iraq and Afghanistan giving the real deal on military recruitment.

Some of us forget how hard it is to be young sometimes. We forget how much pressure we can feel to get on some sort of post high school path. In lower income communities, this pressure can be pretty intense. The options that are overwhelmingly pushed on students are college, the military, a very low wage job(which isn't easy to get these days), or selling drugs and robbing folks. It shouldn't surprise folks that the more resources someone has, the better their outcome tend to be.

The sad truth is that our society continues to pour resources into pockets, playgrounds, and schools of folks that are already have too much at the expense of everyone else. Military recruitment is a prime example pf America's crisis in economic priority.

Low and middle income youth are targeted for recruitment into a military that continues, year after year, to fight unpopular wars the make the super rich richer at the cost of human lives and tax payer dollars.

All in all the pool party was a success, everyone smile and laughed, most importantly everyone left with something important that they didn't have before.