Occupy Homes or Occupy Our Homes [1] [2] is part of the Occupy movement which attempts to prevent the foreclosure of people's homes. [1] Protesters delay foreclosures by camping out on the foreclosed property. They also stage protests at the banks responsible for the ongoing foreclosure crisis, sometimes blocking their entrances. [3] [4] It has been compared to the direct action taken by people to prevent home foreclosures during the Great Depression in the United States. [5]
The 2007–2008 financial crisis resulted in the collapse of some large financial institutions, the bailout of banks by national governments, and downturns in stock markets around the world. In many areas, the housing market also suffered, [6] resulting in numerous evictions and foreclosures; in the U.S., 3.6 million homes have been foreclosed since August 2007. [7] In 2008, a federal law termed the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was passed to spend 700 billion dollars to bail out banks. The law also specifically called for the government to encourage banks to modify loans to prevent foreclosures. However, very little money has actually been used to bail out home owners and the banks have done little to change their lending practices to help people to avoid losing their homes. [8]
The Occupy Homes movement [9] has its roots in the early 1970s, when declining working-class incomes and a lack of bank financing for low-rent properties left thousands of New York City buildings abandoned and hundreds of former tenants squatted vacant buildings on Manhattan's Upper West Side, East Harlem, Chelsea, Chinatown, the Lower East Side, and the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. [10] A similar group based in Miami, Florida, Take Back the Land, has been working to block evictions, [11] and rehousing homeless people in foreclosed houses since 2007. [12] [13] Early successful actions included the delay of an eviction of a woman in Ohio when protesters camped out in her yard, [5] convincing Fannie Mae to hold off on an eviction by holding a vigil outside a home in California, [14] delaying a foreclosure in Minnesota so that an occupant could first move out of a home, [14] and convincing a New York landlord to provide adequate heating to tenants by occupying a boiler room. [14]
On December 6, 2011, Occupy Our Homes, an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street, said it was embarking on a "National Day of Action" to protest the mistreatment of homeowners by big banks, who they say made billions of dollars off of the housing bubble by offering predatory loans and indulging in practices that took advantage of consumers. In more than two dozen cities across the nation the movement took on the housing crisis by re-occupying foreclosed homes, disrupting bank auctions and blocking evictions. [15]
Saying, "The banks got bailed out, but our families are getting kicked out", Occupy Wall Street joined in solidarity with a Brooklyn community to occupy homes that were foreclosed and are now owned by banks. [16] [17] [18] A peaceful group of more than 500 staged what it termed "a National Day of Action" to fight fraudulent lending practices and "illegal evictions by banks" — the institutions Occupiers blame for the nation's economic predicament. Occupy Wall Street said there would be similar occupations in other communities and that they also will try to disrupt auctions at which foreclosed properties are sold. There were also similar occupations in Atlanta, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon. [19]
In Minneapolis, a nonprofit group, Minnesota's Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, has joined with Occupy Minneapolis protesters to live on the properties of two foreclosed homeowners. On December 6, about 50 people began occupying the home of an unemployed man who faces eviction after several heart attacks and shoulder surgery that prevented him from working at his former job as an independent contractor. A spokesperson for Neighborhoods Organizing for Change said, "Foreclosure in his case made no sense. His mortgage balance was $275,000 but the auction of his home only fetched $80,000, less than one-third of the amount he owed. Everybody, including the bank, would have been better off reducing his balance to an affordable level." [15] [20]
In Atlanta, Occupy Our Homes activists went to the courthouses in three of the area's largest counties to disrupt the foreclosure auctions happening there. The group is demanding an immediate moratorium on all foreclosures. [15] In Chicago, activists took over homes left vacant due to foreclosures. They moved a homeless mother and child, an evicted homeowner and a college student into one of the houses which had been abandoned by its owner in April and was severely vandalized. [15]
Calling the December 6 demonstrations and actions just a "warm-up" for actions of the next few months, Max Rameau, a housing activist with Take Back the Land, one of the organizations that has aligned itself with the Occupy Our Homes movement, said, "This is an important practice round for our 2012 spring offensive". [15]
On December 6, 2011, members of Occupy Atlanta began an occupation of the home of Brigitte Walker, a former Army Staff Sergeant who was medically discharged in 2007. Unable to keep up with payments on her reduced salary, her home was scheduled to be auctioned off on January 3. At a press conference on December 20, it was announced by members of Occupy Atlanta and State Senator Vincent Fort, who Walker had contacted for aid, that they had successfully renegotiated her loan to a monthly payment she could afford that would allow her to stay in her home. [21] By late December hundreds of other foreclosure victims were being defended by local branches of the Occupy movement. [22]
Conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart said the movement's new focus is "fomenting civil unrest, fomenting class warfare" and that this action shows that Occupy Wall Street is not "an authentic grass-roots movement but a political maneuver backed by organized labor and remnants of the ACORN community-organizing group aimed at boosting President Obama's re-election campaign". [19] [23]
Speaking on CNN, law professors Sonia Katyal and Eduardo Peñalver compared the occupation of foreclosed homes to earlier social protests that brought about positive legal change. In their opinion, the Occupy Homes movement demonstrates an obvious connection between the Occupy Wall Street protestor's disobedience (the occupation of parks and streets) and their complaints of economic inequality, political corruption and the excessive power of banks. They point out that the financial institutions that brought about the current recession, often using illegal procedures such as robo-signing, now own the very homes that were lost due to their illegal practices and they believe that Occupy Homes forms a tighter link between its acts of occupation and its political objections. [24]
New York writer, filmmaker, and Occupier Astra Taylor wrote:
Not only does the occupation of abandoned foreclosed homes connect the dots between Wall Street and Main Street, it can also lead to swift and tangible victories, something movements desperately need for momentum to be maintained. The banks, it seems, are softer targets than one might expect because so many cases are rife with legal irregularities and outright criminality. With one in five homes facing foreclosure and filings showing no sign of slowing down in the next few years, the number of people touched by the mortgage crisis—whether because they have lost their homes or because their homes are now underwater—truly boggles the mind. [22]
Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan.
OneWest Bank, a division of First Citizens BancShares, was a regional bank with over 60 retail branches in Southern California. OneWest Bank specialized in consumer deposit and lending including personal checking and savings accounts, money market accounts, CDs, and home loan products. OneWest offered small business checking, savings, CD, and money market accounts as well as small business loans and treasury management products.
Equity stripping, also known as equity skimming, is a type of foreclosure rescue scheme. Often considered a form of predatory lending, equity stripping became increasingly widespread in the early 2000s. In an equity stripping scheme an investor buys the property from a homeowner facing foreclosure and agrees to lease the home to the homeowner who may remain in the home as a tenant. Often, these transactions take advantage of uninformed, low-income homeowners; because of the complexity of the transaction, victims are often unaware that they are giving away their property and equity. Several states have taken steps to confront the more unscrupulous practices of equity stripping. Although "foreclosure re-conveyance" schemes can be beneficial and ethically conducted in some circumstances, many times the practice relies on fraud and egregious or unmeetable terms.
City Life/Vida Urbana commonly known as "City Life," is a social justice group in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1973, a group of local residents and activists with roots in the civil rights, feminist and anti-Vietnam War movements founded the Jamaica Plain Tenants Action Group, now City Life/Vida Urbana. Since 2008, City Life has focused on preventing evictions of both former owners and renters resulting from a rise in foreclosures. City Life/Vida Urbana is currently based in Jamaica Plain, with satellite memberships in East Boston, Brockton, Lynn, Quincy, and Worcester.
Loss mitigation is used to describe a third party helping a homeowner, a division within a bank that mitigates the loss of the bank, or a firm that handles the process of negotiation between a homeowner and the homeowner's lender. Loss mitigation works to negotiate mortgage terms for the homeowner that will prevent foreclosure. These new terms are typically obtained through loan modification, short sale negotiation, short refinance negotiation, deed in lieu of foreclosure, cash-for-keys negotiation, a partial claim loan, repayment plan, forbearance, or other loan work-out. All of these options aim to reduce financial risks for the lender.
This article is a subordinate article to the subprime mortgage crisis. It covers some of the miscellaneous effects of the crisis in more detail, to preserve the flow of the main page.
Take Back the Land is an American organization based in Miami, Florida, devoted to blocking evictions, and rehousing homeless people in foreclosed houses. Take Back the Land was formed in October 2006 to build the Umoja Village shantytown on a plot of unoccupied land to protest gentrification and a lack of low-income housing in Miami. The group began opening houses in October 2007 and moved six homeless families into vacant homes in 2008. By April 2009, the group had moved 20 families into foreclosed houses. As of November 2008, the group had ten volunteers. Take Back the Land volunteers break into the houses, clean, paint, and make repairs, change the locks, and help move the homeless families in. They provide supplies and furniture and help residents turn on electricity and water. Though the occupations are of contested legality, as of December 2008 local police officers were not intervening, judging it to be the responsibility of house owners to protect their property or request assistance.
The 2010 United States foreclosure crisis, sometimes referred to as Foreclosure-gate or Foreclosuregate, refers to a widespread epidemic of improper foreclosures initiated by large banks and other lenders. The foreclosure crisis was extensively covered by news outlets beginning in October 2010, and several large banks—including Bank of America, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup—responded by halting their foreclosure proceedings temporarily in some or all states. The foreclosure crisis caused significant investor fear in the U.S. A 2014 study published in the American Journal of Public Health linked the foreclosure crisis to an increase in suicide rates.
Project No One Leaves (PNOL) is a Boston non-profit tenants' rights organization which provides legal education to people living in foreclosed homes to enable them to understand and protect their legal rights. The group was established in 2008 by members of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau who specialized in housing law in response to a perceived spike in foreclosures and mass evictions in low-income Boston neighborhoods.
In the United States, squatting occurs when a person enters land that does not belong to them without lawful permission and proceeds to act in the manner of an owner. Historically, squatting occurred during the settlement of the Midwest when colonial European settlers established land rights and during the California Gold Rush. There was squatting during the Great Depression in Hoovervilles and also during World War II. Shanty towns returned to the US after the Great Recession (2007–2009) and in the 2010s, there were increasing numbers of people occupying foreclosed homes using fraudulent documents. In some cases, a squatter may be able to obtain ownership of property through adverse possession.
Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a left-wing populist movement against economic inequality, corporate greed, big finance, and the influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Financial District, and lasted for fifty-nine days—from September 17 to November 15, 2011.
Occupy Atlanta has included protests and demonstrations. Occupy Atlanta began on October 6, 2011 in Woodruff Park, located in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. As part of the Occupy movement, it is inspired by Occupy Wall Street which began in New York City on September 17.
The Occupy movement was an international populist socio-political movement that expressed opposition to social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of real democracy around the world. It aimed primarily to advance social and economic justice and different forms of democracy. The movement has had many different scopes, since local groups often had different focuses, but its prime concerns included how large corporations and the global financial system control the world in a way that disproportionately benefits a minority, undermines democracy and causes instability.
Occupy Buffalo was a collaboration that included a peaceful protest and demonstrations which began on October 1, 2011, in Buffalo, New York, in Niagara Square, the nexus of downtown Buffalo opposite the Buffalo City Hall. It is related to the Occupy Wall Street movement that began in New York City on September 17, and called for economic equity, accountability among politicians and ending lobbyist influence of politicians. Protesters camped overnight in Niagara Square as part of the demonstration.
The Occupy movement spread to many other cities in the United States and worldwide beginning with the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City in September 2011. The movement sought to advance social and economic justice and different forms of democracy but each local group varied in specific aims. The demonstrations and encampment in New York City spread to other major and smaller cities. Some camps lasted through 2012. What follows is an alphabetical, non-chronological summary of Occupy encampments in the United States.
Occupy Baltimore was a collaboration that included peaceful protests and demonstrations. Occupy Baltimore began on October 4, 2011, in Baltimore, Maryland, in McKeldin Square near the Inner Harbor area of Downtown Baltimore. It is one of the many Occupy movements around the United States and worldwide, inspired by Occupy Wall Street.
Occupy Redwood City was a collaboration that began with peaceful protests, demonstrations, and general assemblies in front of the historic San Mateo County Courthouse in Redwood City, California. The demonstration was inspired by Occupy Wall Street and is part of the larger "Occupy" protest movement.
Occupy Minneapolis (OccupyMN) is a grassroots collaboration that began in October 2011 with a series of demonstrations in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Protesters have staged numerous occupations, most notably of the Hennepin County Government Center plaza.
The Making Home Affordable program of the United States Treasury was launched in 2009 as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The main activity under MHA is the Home Affordable Modification Program.
Moms 4 Housing is a housing activist group in Oakland, California. It was formed and received national attention after three formerly homeless Black women moved their families into a vacant three-bedroom house as squatters without permission from the owner, a real estate redevelopment company. The publicity of their occupation highlighted issues of homelessness, affordable housing, gentrification, and human rights. In January 2020, after resisting a judge's order to leave the residence, "the moms" were forcibly but peaceably arrested and removed by a heavily armed sheriff's department. A few days later, the governor and the mayor brokered a deal with Moms 4 Housing for a local community land trust to purchase what was came to be called the "Moms' House" from the owner. After refurbishing the embattled house, the group began to use it as a transitional home for homeless mothers. The actions of Moms 4 Housing inspired California lawmakers to make changes to housing laws statewide.
| Protests |
| ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Events | |||||||||||||
| Groups | |||||||||||||
| Media | |||||||||||||
| Related | |||||||||||||
| By location | |
|---|---|
| Types | |
| Sectors | |
| Law and regulation | |
| Economics, financing and valuation |
|
| Parties | |
| Other | |
