"Sandra and the former owner have been together 25 years as tenant and landlord," he told HuffPost. "The former owner was not able to get qualified for a loan, so Sandra applied. It's a great example of tenants and homeowners working together to keep control of their homes."
In addition hosting to community meetings on Tuesdays, Meacham said City Life works closely with a student organization called "No One Leaves" at Harvard and Suffolk Law schools to knock on doors in different zones in Boston every Saturday and inform foreclosure victims of their rights.
"A lot of times the brokers will go door to door and tell people they need to leave their houses," said Marielle Macher, a third-year student at Harvard Law and president of No One Leaves. "We tell people there's a legal process, and they can't be forced to leave until that process is through. Unfortunately, a lot of the tenants are not even aware that a foreclosure has occurred, and we aim to be the first people to tell them so we can get there before the bank does and explain what their rights are."
Organizations like City Life and No One Leaves are vital, Meacham said, because banks can be deceptive in "a whole host of ways, from the time people first buy their homes right through to eviction."
"The banks are refusing to negotiate with people until the eviction takes place and refusing to sell a house back to a former owner at its real value, because they look at it as a moral hazard thing," he said. "They want to punish people for defaulting on their mortgage. So we do eviction blockades or vigils where we sit in someone's doorway and risk arrest to keep them in their home, and the bank will then change its mind and start to negotiate."
Professor William Berman, who runs the Housing Clinic at Suffolk University Law School, said he is shocked by the "misguided, knee-jerk" way that banks deal with tenants in Boston.
"We have seen banks that leave tenants in foreclosed buildings without heat, or hot water, and with broken doors, windows, roaches, rats, bed bugs, and other deplorable conditions," he told HuffPost. "We have obtained settlements in the tens of thousands of dollars on behalf of tenants left in deplorable conditions by financial institutions in foreclosed buildings."
The grassroots method of foreclosure fighting is quickly catching fire: No One Leaves currently has about 100 canvassers from different law schools around Boston, and Macher said other schools in about 15 different states met recently to discuss the possibility of starting new chapters. And City Life -- which has proved highly successful in Boston -- is slowly spreading to other cities, including Chicago and Providence, Rhode Island.
"We're challenging the conditions that created the problem in the first place," Meacham said. "All the issues being raised in our street-level organizing are in sync with these international debates about finance and speculation and bubbles, so people can look at that and study it and take action at the block level to do something about it. There's a very powerful and emotional mass movement that's emerged."
Get HuffPost Impact On
Twitter and Facebook!
Know something we don't? E-mail us at impact@huffingtonpost.com
Michigan likely will continue to be a national leader for foreclosures during the next two years, a real estate expert said today.
States with the highest numbers of foreclosures also have high unemployment rates, said Rick Sharga, senior vice president for RealtyTrac, an Irvine, Calif.-based foreclosure tracking company.
Michigan's jobless rate in November was 12.8 percent, the second highest in the country behind Nevada. Michigan had the fifth highest rate of foreclosure filings in October — with one filing for every 235 housing units — while Nevada ranked first with one filing for every 79 housing units, according to RealtyTrac.
Foreclosure rates are being driven higher with the national unemployment rate at 9.8 percent, Sharga said, "so the unemployment rate will probably have to drop back down below 7 or 8 percent before we start to see real relief."Meanwhile, the media is worried about the Granholm legacy: Cuts to education hurt Gov. Jennifer Granholm's education legacy. Cuts to education? How about cuts to private sector jobs? Like 1,000,000 of them??? Job losses every single one of her 8 years? Hello?????
Relatedly, there was this over at The Michigan View: Payne: First Whiner
bench craft company scam photoBreaking? Study Finds Fox <b>News</b> Viewers Are The Most Misinformed <b>...</b>
To perhaps nobody's surprise, a study released this week finds that Fox News viewers are the most misinformed of any news consumers.
FOX <b>News</b> Misinformed Viewers | Media Matters | MSNBC | Mediaite
Last night on MSNBC's Countdown, substitute host Christopher Hayes and guest representative from Media Matters Ari Rabin-Havt discussed the results of the University of Maryland poll that concluded Fox News viewers to be the most ...
<b>News</b> Corp's 'The Daily' pub to hit iPad in January? -- Engadget
We heard News Corp's 'iPad newspaper' The Daily was on track for release in early 2011, but AllThingsD is hearing something more specific -- week.
fast bench craft company scam enlargementBreaking? Study Finds Fox <b>News</b> Viewers Are The Most Misinformed <b>...</b>
To perhaps nobody's surprise, a study released this week finds that Fox News viewers are the most misinformed of any news consumers.
FOX <b>News</b> Misinformed Viewers | Media Matters | MSNBC | Mediaite
Last night on MSNBC's Countdown, substitute host Christopher Hayes and guest representative from Media Matters Ari Rabin-Havt discussed the results of the University of Maryland poll that concluded Fox News viewers to be the most ...
<b>News</b> Corp's 'The Daily' pub to hit iPad in January? -- Engadget
We heard News Corp's 'iPad newspaper' The Daily was on track for release in early 2011, but AllThingsD is hearing something more specific -- week.
bench craft company scam programBreaking? Study Finds Fox <b>News</b> Viewers Are The Most Misinformed <b>...</b>
To perhaps nobody's surprise, a study released this week finds that Fox News viewers are the most misinformed of any news consumers.
FOX <b>News</b> Misinformed Viewers | Media Matters | MSNBC | Mediaite
Last night on MSNBC's Countdown, substitute host Christopher Hayes and guest representative from Media Matters Ari Rabin-Havt discussed the results of the University of Maryland poll that concluded Fox News viewers to be the most ...
<b>News</b> Corp's 'The Daily' pub to hit iPad in January? -- Engadget
We heard News Corp's 'iPad newspaper' The Daily was on track for release in early 2011, but AllThingsD is hearing something more specific -- week.
homebench craft company scamBreaking? Study Finds Fox <b>News</b> Viewers Are The Most Misinformed <b>...</b>
To perhaps nobody's surprise, a study released this week finds that Fox News viewers are the most misinformed of any news consumers.
FOX <b>News</b> Misinformed Viewers | Media Matters | MSNBC | Mediaite
Last night on MSNBC's Countdown, substitute host Christopher Hayes and guest representative from Media Matters Ari Rabin-Havt discussed the results of the University of Maryland poll that concluded Fox News viewers to be the most ...
<b>News</b> Corp's 'The Daily' pub to hit iPad in January? -- Engadget
We heard News Corp's 'iPad newspaper' The Daily was on track for release in early 2011, but AllThingsD is hearing something more specific -- week.
bench craft company scam productBreaking? Study Finds Fox <b>News</b> Viewers Are The Most Misinformed <b>...</b>
To perhaps nobody's surprise, a study released this week finds that Fox News viewers are the most misinformed of any news consumers.
FOX <b>News</b> Misinformed Viewers | Media Matters | MSNBC | Mediaite
Last night on MSNBC's Countdown, substitute host Christopher Hayes and guest representative from Media Matters Ari Rabin-Havt discussed the results of the University of Maryland poll that concluded Fox News viewers to be the most ...
<b>News</b> Corp's 'The Daily' pub to hit iPad in January? -- Engadget
We heard News Corp's 'iPad newspaper' The Daily was on track for release in early 2011, but AllThingsD is hearing something more specific -- week.
bench craft company scam enlargement factsBreaking? Study Finds Fox <b>News</b> Viewers Are The Most Misinformed <b>...</b>
To perhaps nobody's surprise, a study released this week finds that Fox News viewers are the most misinformed of any news consumers.
FOX <b>News</b> Misinformed Viewers | Media Matters | MSNBC | Mediaite
Last night on MSNBC's Countdown, substitute host Christopher Hayes and guest representative from Media Matters Ari Rabin-Havt discussed the results of the University of Maryland poll that concluded Fox News viewers to be the most ...
<b>News</b> Corp's 'The Daily' pub to hit iPad in January? -- Engadget
We heard News Corp's 'iPad newspaper' The Daily was on track for release in early 2011, but AllThingsD is hearing something more specific -- week.
real bench craft company scamBreaking? Study Finds Fox <b>News</b> Viewers Are The Most Misinformed <b>...</b>
To perhaps nobody's surprise, a study released this week finds that Fox News viewers are the most misinformed of any news consumers.
FOX <b>News</b> Misinformed Viewers | Media Matters | MSNBC | Mediaite
Last night on MSNBC's Countdown, substitute host Christopher Hayes and guest representative from Media Matters Ari Rabin-Havt discussed the results of the University of Maryland poll that concluded Fox News viewers to be the most ...
<b>News</b> Corp's 'The Daily' pub to hit iPad in January? -- Engadget
We heard News Corp's 'iPad newspaper' The Daily was on track for release in early 2011, but AllThingsD is hearing something more specific -- week.
bench craft company scam systemBreaking? Study Finds Fox <b>News</b> Viewers Are The Most Misinformed <b>...</b>
To perhaps nobody's surprise, a study released this week finds that Fox News viewers are the most misinformed of any news consumers.
FOX <b>News</b> Misinformed Viewers | Media Matters | MSNBC | Mediaite
Last night on MSNBC's Countdown, substitute host Christopher Hayes and guest representative from Media Matters Ari Rabin-Havt discussed the results of the University of Maryland poll that concluded Fox News viewers to be the most ...
<b>News</b> Corp's 'The Daily' pub to hit iPad in January? -- Engadget
We heard News Corp's 'iPad newspaper' The Daily was on track for release in early 2011, but AllThingsD is hearing something more specific -- week.
guaranteed bench craft company scamBreaking? Study Finds Fox <b>News</b> Viewers Are The Most Misinformed <b>...</b>
To perhaps nobody's surprise, a study released this week finds that Fox News viewers are the most misinformed of any news consumers.
FOX <b>News</b> Misinformed Viewers | Media Matters | MSNBC | Mediaite
Last night on MSNBC's Countdown, substitute host Christopher Hayes and guest representative from Media Matters Ari Rabin-Havt discussed the results of the University of Maryland poll that concluded Fox News viewers to be the most ...
<b>News</b> Corp's 'The Daily' pub to hit iPad in January? -- Engadget
We heard News Corp's 'iPad newspaper' The Daily was on track for release in early 2011, but AllThingsD is hearing something more specific -- week.
bench craft company scam drugsBreaking? Study Finds Fox <b>News</b> Viewers Are The Most Misinformed <b>...</b>
To perhaps nobody's surprise, a study released this week finds that Fox News viewers are the most misinformed of any news consumers.
FOX <b>News</b> Misinformed Viewers | Media Matters | MSNBC | Mediaite
Last night on MSNBC's Countdown, substitute host Christopher Hayes and guest representative from Media Matters Ari Rabin-Havt discussed the results of the University of Maryland poll that concluded Fox News viewers to be the most ...
<b>News</b> Corp's 'The Daily' pub to hit iPad in January? -- Engadget
We heard News Corp's 'iPad newspaper' The Daily was on track for release in early 2011, but AllThingsD is hearing something more specific -- week.
plastic surgerybench craft company scamBreaking? Study Finds Fox <b>News</b> Viewers Are The Most Misinformed <b>...</b>
To perhaps nobody's surprise, a study released this week finds that Fox News viewers are the most misinformed of any news consumers.
FOX <b>News</b> Misinformed Viewers | Media Matters | MSNBC | Mediaite
Last night on MSNBC's Countdown, substitute host Christopher Hayes and guest representative from Media Matters Ari Rabin-Havt discussed the results of the University of Maryland poll that concluded Fox News viewers to be the most ...
<b>News</b> Corp's 'The Daily' pub to hit iPad in January? -- Engadget
We heard News Corp's 'iPad newspaper' The Daily was on track for release in early 2011, but AllThingsD is hearing something more specific -- week.
url
No comments:
Post a Comment