SAN DIEGANS PARTICIPATE IN OCCUPY FORECLOSURES NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION

By Nadin Abbott

 

December 7, 2011 (San Diego)--The Occupy Foreclosures National Day of Action took place at the Civic Center Plaza yesterday afternoon. The event was led by David Blankstein from Alliance of California for Community Empowerment (ACCE) http://www.calorganize.org/, as well as Occupy San Diego and “Women Occupy of San Diego.” According to Mr. Blankstein “millions have lost their homes, and two million homes are underwater in the state of California.” He also said that ACCE was inspired by the Occupy movement to take action. 

 

The goals of ACCE were in agreement with the Occupy movement in the following way. They are against “corporate personhood” and are part of the Move to Amend http://movetoamend.org/ that emerged from the Citizens United United States Supreme Court Case which opened the floodgates to corporate funding of political elections. 

 

 

During the event, Blankstein introduced three people who havebeen directly affected by the foreclosure crisis. They were Santos Thornton, Rafael Bautista and Patty Jones. Mr. Bautista’s uncle experienced a wrongful foreclosure. He was enrolled in the affordable home program, and the bank still foreclosed on December 30, 2010. After a fight, including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), he was able to reclaim his home. As Bautista put it, the lesson of this story was never to give up. 

 

Thornton’s story involves his mother, María Ines Ochoa. She had “some economic trouble and tried to get a loan modification.” The bank refused to negotiate in good faith, they said. The family has said that they will not leave even if the foreclosure completely goes through. Mr. Thornton alsobelieves that banks are taking advantage of Latino families, who are not familiar with the system or how to navigate it. 

 

Jones refinanced her home after a divorce at the peak of the market through Countrywide, which was bought by Bank of America. At one point she could not pay her property taxes or make payments, and tried to refinance her home through the affordable housing program. After nine moths she found that she was not eligible because her actual loan was owned by Wells Fargo, which does not do any refinance. 

 

All of the speakers emphasized that if the bank comes, “they are not leaving.” They also said, “We are part of the 99%.”

 

Blankstein then revealed what the protesters want from the banks. They’d like banks to reduce principal in underwater homes to eighty percent of market value. This would bring twenty billion into the economy and jobs, since people would be able to afford their underwater homes. They’d also like a moratorium of six months in the eviction process, which would allow for a review of the system.

The Occupiers pledged to help stop foreclosures by physically occupying the homes of people facing foreclosure. They also pledged to help drive the point on how these changes have affected them. 

 

 

One of the people at the event was John Kenney, on day twenty nine of his hunger strike. He started this trying to pressure the San Diego City Council to recognize the Occupiers. So far he’s lost thirty pounds and is now wheelchair bound. He was there also to present Council with several proposals, asking the city to pass a resolution condemning the National Defense Authorization Act as well as the United States Patriot Act. The second goal is to ask to remove money from politics and join Move to Amend. as the City of Los Angeles voted on today. Mr. Kenney said that he will continue to be both active with the Occupy movement and on his hunger strike.