Tomorrow, at 10:30 AM, people will be coming together in Ypsilanti to discuss foreclosure resistance. The following notice comes from Ypsilanti’s Tad Wysor.
Pull out your long undies and wool socks, and consider joining us Saturday morning for a first “foreclosure research” canvass in eastern Washtenaw!
The new “Washtenaw Foreclosure Defense” group — an outgrowth of WCAT, Occupy Ypsi, and others — decided that talking to people directly in neighborhoods with high foreclosure rates would be a key early way to quickly get a handle on the problem in this area, AND identify people who might benefit from collective community action targeted, for example, at specific unresponsive banks.
We’ll be meeting at 407 W Forest in Ypsi, at the corner of Hamilton, at 10:30 am THIS SATURDAY, Feb 11. No experience necessary! We’ll go over materials and plans, answer questions, practice a bit, team up in pairs, and then fan out to visit folks in a high-foreclosure neighborhood till about 1:00. We’ll re-convene for a quick evaluation and sharing stories!
In addition to meeting some new potential activists and leaders, learning about potential local foreclosure issues, and exploring some alliances in the eastern part of the county, this will also be a chance for us to pile up some more Emergency Manager law (PA4) Repeal signatures — as we near the final certification of the signatures…almost there!
Gonna be a good time…Banksters beware!
As I’m not sure how Tad feels about having his email address posted on the blog, I’ve decided not to include it. If you want to contact him, though, just let me know, and I’ll pass along his contact information.
For those who are interested, there’s also going to be an Occupy Ypsi general assembly meeting tomorrow, from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM, at the Ypsilanti Senior Center (1015 N Congress, Ypsilanti).
And, for those of you who are interested, background on WCAT can be found here, in an interview I did a few months back with local organizer Adam Warner.
update: Our friend Richard Murphy just left the following note in the comments section, and I thought that it deserved to be moved up here, to the front page:
A subscription to the Washtenaw Legal News would be another way to identify coming foreclosures — notice of an upcoming foreclosure has to be published over 4 weeks, making the “first insertion” of a notice for a given property in the Legal News a reliable 1-month countdown to foreclosure.
Also note that Washtenaw County has an excellent foreclosure prevention program that can help homeowners facing foreclosure understand and work out options. I’d encourage the “Foreclosure Defense” team to contact the county’s foreclosure prevention staff to ensure that they’re supporting the processes already in place, and focusing on the cases where the county’s process can’t help, rather than duplicating effort and muddying the process.
Their digits: “Whether you are in need of assistance with loan or foreclosure counseling or help getting out of a predatory loan, make your first call to 734-222-9595, or email mfpp@ewashtenaw.org.”
[note: The context for the image used at the top of this post can be found here.]
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Here’s the provisional agenda for Saturday’s general assembly meeting, as prepared by the Occupy Ypsi Facilitation Committee.
Awww, I’m bummed that I won’t be able to make it down there tomorrow. Someone please tell Tad I said hello – I worked with him on the Obama campaign. He is such a kind and sincere person.
– Erika Nelson
Tad, is a really good guy.
Sounds great.
WL.
if you guys do any work in the Saline area.
(tran.longmoore@patch.com)
A subscription to the Washtenaw Legal News would be another way to identify coming foreclosures — notice of an upcoming foreclosure has to be published over 4 weeks, making the “first insertion” of a notice for a given property in the Legal News a reliable 1-month countdown to foreclosure.
Also note that Washtenaw County has an excellent foreclosure prevention program that can help homeowners facing foreclosure understand and work out options. I’d encourage the “Foreclosure Defense” team to contact the county’s foreclosure prevention staff to ensure that they’re supporting the processes already in place, and focusing on the cases where the county’s process can’t help, rather than duplicating effort and muddying the process.
Their digits: “Whether you are in need of assistance with loan or foreclosure counseling or help getting out of a predatory loan, make your first call to 734-222-9595, or email mfpp@ewashtenaw.org.”
Occupy Ypsi went well, as did the WCAT foreclosure thing. It feels great to just get out there and talk to people, and we got around 30-40 signatures for a 2 year moratorium on foreclosures in Michigan, as well as probably a couple on emergency financial manager repeal. And we got a bunch of people saying they’d like to go to a rally to protect someone who is being foreclosed on soon. We just need to get more people coming to these things.
I’m sure their hearts are in the right place, and this may have been meaningful two years ago, when banks were taking homes willy nilly, and often in a manner not consistent with the standing law, but I suspect that, right now, our efforts could best be spent elsewhere. Sure, there are going to be some instances where good people are having their homes taken, and we should help them fight back, renegotiate, and all the rest of it, but it seems like a waste of resources to scour the community, hoping to find someone in such a situation. A better plan might be to put up flyers, giving people the phone number that Mr. Murphy noted earlier, and then focus energy elsewhere.
update:
The Washtenaw Foreclosure Defense meeting (Occupy Ypsi, WCAT, all welcomed) is going to be tomorrow Wednesday Feb. 15th at 5:30 in Ann Arbor at the GEO office which is located at 330 E. Liberty St.
Dear “anonymous”
Thanks for the advice. No offense, but it sounds like *you* should spend your energies elsewhere.
We are not looking for victims of banker malfeasance only. We are also looking for community leaders to come out and collaborate with us in the effort to reclaim that which has been continually taken from *all* of us over the past century (in increments, to be sure):
our common spaces
our ability to shelter ourselves
our ability to adequately feed ourselves
our ability to be beautiful, together.
Quoting Tad’s email:
“In addition to meeting some new potential activists and leaders, learning about potential local foreclosure issues, and exploring some alliances in the eastern part of the county,”
I love hearing from “anonymous” naysayers.
I’d appreciate it if you spent your energy elsewhere. It was a great time. We met many great folks who want to be engaged with building power. We cannot build power by putting up flyers and calling the County (and NOT going out to talk with our neighbors, our fellow community members).
Greg Pratt
Washtenaw County Community Member
Greg, don’t take it personally. Most people do their activism in comments fields.
A few local events going on around the subject of foreclosure defense.
March 8th (This Thursday at 4pm): Press Conference at the home of Alma Counts. Alma is a paralyzed senior citizen on fixed income facing foreclosure by Chase. Her address is 19145 Marlowe St, Detroit, north of 7 mile, west of M-10.
March 13th: Tuesday Rally, noon, at Chase Bank’s Main Detroit Branch. This is part of a national demonstration against Chase. People will gather at the Spirit of Detroit Statue, Woodward and Jefferson, and march two blocks to Chase Tower.
March 17th: 11am-1pm. Organizing meeting and free legal clinic for all who want to join the fight to stop foreclosures and evictions. This will be held at UAW Local 600. 10550 Dix, Dearborn, MI.
March 31: National Conference to demand a two year federal moratorium on foreclosures. At Central United Methodist Church in Detroit from 9am-6pm.
I read that Michigan is only half way there in the foreclosure dept. so Anon…it is not only relevant two years ago. The rising costs of fuel and medical expenses keep these issues on the table.
Perverse justice: politics and hubris inside the Washtenaw County Courts
http://www.theannmag.com/perverse-justice-politics-and-hubris-inside-the-washtenaw-county-courts/
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