Steps Are Being Taken to Give Assistance to Foreclosure Victims

Against the background of growing resistance against foreclosures, steps are being taken to provide assistance to the foreclosure victims and their families. In the forefront are enforcement personnel, community leaders and the house owners. A broad based civil disobedience is taking shape in New York and also in different cities to give support to those families who refuse to obey the eviction orders.

ACORN boldly launched this programme with a heated rally last Friday starting from Brooklyn Church. It will also roll out from a minimum of 22 cities during the forthcoming weeks. The families refusing to accept eviction orders will remain connected through telephone, websites and text messages. Volunteers will come and stand beside them even at the risk of courting arrests.

The chief organizer of ACORN, Bertha Lewis said, “You want to haul us out to jail? Fine. Let the world see how government has been ineffective. Politicians have helped banks, but they haven’t helped families in the way that it’s needed, and these families are now saying, enough is enough.”

During the initial stages of the foreclosure crisis many were under the impression that the borrowers were largely responsible for it. It was the result of irresponsible planning of people who did not think of the consequences of living beyond their means. But with foreclosures spreading like an epidemic across the country mauling the middle-class in particular, the blame has moved from the borrowers to the lenders – the giants in the financial world who issued these predatory loans. But they have gained by receiving billions in federal bailout funds.

This has led to a growing feeling of resentment, which is gathering momentum, that the ordinary Americans have been deserted and left to manage their own predicament. ACORN is the organized face of this frustration. The victims are no longer packing up and leaving but they are taking a stand with their backs to the wall.

On 9th February one such victims scribbled his anger on the roof of his foreclosed house – “I Want 2 Be Heard.” He locked himself up in the house when the officials came to evict him and surrendered after few hours but not without making his point.

Last October a lady in San Diego tied herself up with chains in her front porch after her lender refused to negotiate the loans She continued to remain in her house even after receiving a second eviction notice.