Hundreds of organizers gathered at noon on January 28, 2013, on the Eastern steps of San Francisco City Hall to demand an end to proposed legislation from Supervisor Mark Farrell and Supervisor Scott Wiener that threatens the rental market and rent control laws in San Francisco. The measure would lift the standing annual limit on TIC condo conversions to permit 2,000 more conversions, increasing price pressure on real estate, effective pushing more rental units out of the housing market in San Francisco.
Speakers and/or organizers from the San Francisco Tenants Union, Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco, San Francisco Community Tenants Association, Gray Panthers, AIDS Housing Alliance, Sierra Club of San Francisco, Senior and Disability Action, Occupy Bernal, Occupy Noe, and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), and many other organizations and individuals attended the press conference and rally, then entered City Hall for a Board of Supervisors Land Use Committee hearing to provide public comment on the proposed measure.
Update: The Occupy the Dream House event at the so-called Dream House in Menlo Park was a great success… thanks to all who participated and please check out the media coverage, videos, and photos below.
You are invited to our event! Please come help us show the contrast between get rich quick raffle illusions and those fighting to keep their homes and their ability to create wealth.
Occupy the Dream House Press Conference/ Action in front of the “$4.1 million Silicon Valley Dream House” in Menlo Park
Demonstrating the stark contrast of our hardworking neighbors trying to save their homes from billion-dollar corporations and the “Let Them Eat Cake” mentality of the 1 Percent financial institutions.
When: 10 a.m., Thursday January 10, 2013
Where: Silicon Valley Dream House in Menlo Park
3 Patricia Place
Menlo Park, CA 94025
(Cross street is San Mateo Drive) map
Who: Foreclosure and Eviction Fighters and supporters
Confirmed speakers include Ian Haddow and Stardust. (Please contact us if you would like to volunteer to speak or if you would like to carpool to the event.)
Why: Occupy, other social justice organizations, foreclosure fighters and people who just want to reclaim the American dream of home ownership, gather the day before the raffle winner is chosen to bring attention to economic injustice.
$4.1 Million Silicon Valley Dream House Raffle Demonstrates Homeownership Nightmare
Dream House Raffles such as the one for the opulent home in Menlo Park serve as lures and create a lottery mentality that blinds people to the economic nightmare. They serve as a ruse to keep people from seeing how bad things really are.
Why hold a Press Conference in front of the “$ 4.1 Silicon Valley Dream House?”
To send and repeat the message that the banking and financial system is rogue and is devouring the well-being and livelihood of the 99%.
To send a message to besieged homeowners to fight back and that they are not alone. We stand ready to help.
To send a message to the banks that they must create a humanitarian solution for the economic crisis they helped to create.
To send a message to lawmakers that they have to do more to protect the people from the laws and policies that created this financial quagmire that has eroded the middle class.
To repeat the message that raffles and lotteries are a tax on the poor and create false expectations. Policies and laws should be put back in place to invest in people to grow the economy.
As a story subtext: Banks and corporations should more robustly support public organizations through paying their fair share of taxes. Arts organizations should, in a better world, receive public funds from taxes paid by corporations for their operations. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and other nonprofits are used by banks and other corporations for “public relations” subterfuges to clean up their image and deflect attention from the criminal and inhumane activity they engage in as part of their business practice. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts raises much of their funding in this annual raffle. However, compared to their profits, the minimal donations corporations give, while creating profits on the back of the 99%, using tax loopholes, sending jobs and finances offshore, create an illusion of helping the needy. We need an end to austerities. We need to restore funding to public institutions (libraries, universities, parks/lands) and an end to privatization of the commons. We can do better than this!
Occupy The Dream House, Cheryl Meeker +1 415-255-0668, Stardust +1 415-425-3936, and Eric.
Update: ACCE, Occupy Bernal, and Occupy Noe Foreclosure and Eviction Fighters and supporters provided important testimony about the illegal, predatory, and discriminatory practices of banks like Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, and Bank of America at the meeting of the San Francisco Employee Retirement System Retirement Board on January 9, 2013.
The group asked the Retirement Board to investigate the illegal, predatory, and discriminatory practices of the banks, to request that the banks stop these practices, to sponsor shareholder resolutions if they don’t stop, and to divest from the banks’ stocks if the shareholder resolutions do not succeed. Some of the Commissioners responded favorably to the public comment testimony.
#1 in SF Foreclosures and Related Evictions: Racist and Predatory
Who: (Retired and Current) City Employees, especially those facing foreclosure/eviction and supporters What: Public Comment at San Francisco Employees Retirement System (SFERS) Retirement Board Meeting (2 minute limit) When: 2:00pm, Wednesday, January 9 Where: 30 Van Ness Avenue, 3rd floor (near Market Street)
We are asking SFERS to do the following:
Investigate investments in Wells Fargo, which is #1 in foreclosures and related evictions in San Francisco and elsewhere, as well as other lenders foreclosing on and evicting San Francisco homeowners..
Prepare and submit a Wells Fargo shareholder resolution to stop predatory and/or racist foreclosures and related evictions for consideration at the next annual Wells Fargo shareholder meeting (probably in April 2013).
If Wells Fargo doesn’t adopt the shareholder resolution at its next shareholder meeting and take immediate steps to implement policies and practices in line with the resolution, then divest from any investment in Wells Fargo within three months after that shareholder meeting.
We are asking San Francisco Mayor Lee to do the following:
Appoint only qualified candidates to the SFERS Retirement Board who are not executives or employees at Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, or Bank of America (the top three in predatory foreclosures and related evictions in San Francisco).
Issue a statement in support of divestment from Wells Fargo of all San Francisco City and County funds, including employee retirement and disability funds.
Background:
The San Francisco Employee Retirement Systems (SFERS) handles investments for pension funds for current and retired San Francisco city employees. SFERS has policies that include “Social Investment Procedures” adopted at the SFERS Retirement Board meeting of September 27, 1988, which requires the SFERS Retirement Board when making investments in stocks, mutual funds, and so on, to consider:
“Community Relations: the relationship of the corporation to the communities in which it operates shall be maintained as a good corporate citizen through observing proper environmental standards, supporting the local economic, social and cultural climate, conducting acquisitions and reorganizations to minimize adverse effects and not discriminate in making loans or writing insurance.” (emphasis added by Occupy the Auctions)
Wells Fargo is #1 in San Francisco foreclosures. San Francisco’s Mayor and Board of Supervisors have unanimously requested a halt to foreclosures and related evictions, especially since San Francisco Assessor-Recorder’s report showing that 84% of foreclosures have at least one legal violation and due to Wells’ $175 million settlement with the United States Department of Justice paid in response to allegations of racial discrimination in providing mortgage loans in San Francisco’s Bayview-Hunters Point and other neighborhoods.
Wells Fargo’s “waterfall” model, along with similar policies from other lenders, ensures that the bank can squeeze the most money possible from homeowners struggling to make payments while finally discarding them like trash if the bank can’t make a profit on every single loan. Running a mortgage loan business means assuming risks, especially after receiving billions in bailout funds from the taxpayers, many of whom are Wells’ mortgage loan borrowers.
Senior and Disability Action and the Grey Panthers announced that they plan to move their money out of Wells Fargo due to Wells’ policies with regard to foreclosures and evictions of senior and disabled folks. Protestors from those and other supportive groups such as Poor Magazine, Occupy Noe, Occupy Bernal, Occupy Action Council SF, and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) gathered at the Wells Fargo bank branch at 1 Grant Avenue in San Francisco at noon on December 18, 2012. Foreclosure and Eviction Fighters including Kathy Galves spoke at the rally.
Update as of 3:57pm on December 6, 2012: The protest was an amazing success as more than 60 organizers occupied and shut down the Bayview branch of Wells Fargo in San Francisco as part of a nationwide Occupy Our Homes anniversary day of actions. The protestors chanted “Stop the Evictions, Stop the Foreclosures”, “Save the Wells 27” (click on the link to call and email in support of the 27 San Francisco families at risk of Wells Fargo foreclosures and evictions during the holiday season), and other slogans, as well as decorating the interior and exterior of the bank branch with crime scene tape, displaying banners and placards, and chalking body shapes and slogans on the sidewalk in front of the branch.
Wells Fargo security closed the bank branch and contacted the San Francisco Police Department and eventually the nonviolent protestors voluntarily departed from the bank branch after delivering demands to the bank manager. Then, a number of Foreclosure and Eviction Fighters and representatives from organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Color People (NAACP) spoke to the crowd assembled in front of the branch and demanded an end to predatory foreclosures, short sales, and evictions, as well as demanding that Wells Fargo provide fair deal loan modifications for all homeowners, particularly those who are elderly, disabled, have school-age children or life-threatening illnesses, during the holiday season and beyond.
ACCE members, Occupy Bernal, Occupy Noe, Occupy Action Council SF, Senior and Disability Action, and Allies,
The movement for housing justice and bank accountability continues. We have had many victories and saved many homes, but the Big Banks continue to operate as “Community Killers”, wreaking havoc on our families and neighborhoods. It’s time to demand Wells Fargo and other big banks fix the economy by addressing the massive underwater crisis facing California. It’s time for the resetting of mortgages to fair market value.
What: Don’t Sell Californians Short — Affordable Mortgages, NOT Short Sales! Justice for the Wells 26! No Holiday Foreclosures or Evictions! Speeches by Wells Fargo Foreclosure and Eviction Fighters Larry Faulks and Bernetta Adolph.
When: Thursday, December 6th 10:30am
Where: Meet at Bayview KFC parking lot, intersection of 3rd St. and Jerrold
December 6th is the one year anniversary of Occupy Our Homes, a movement led by Occupy activists and community group allies that has helped to create the political will for a stronger settlement between the Attorney General and the 5 largest banks, as well as passage of Californians landmark foreclosure prevention bill, the CA Homeowner Bill of Rights.
A recent report by the independent monitor of the CA AG settlement showed that the “relief” banks banks claim to be providing is based more on Short Sales than anything else. We demand mortgage relief that KEEPS CALIFORNIANS IN OUR HOMES!
On November 17, 2012, Foreclosure and Eviction Fighters and their supporters gathered at a Chase bank branch at 15th and Market Streets in San Francisco to protest the effect of bank foreclosures and evictions on homeowners and renters. About 10 police officers turned out for the protest. Meanwhile, someone altered the signage at a nearby Wells Fargo Home Mortgage location so that it became a Wells Fargo Homeless Shelter.
The protestors moved to the Wells Fargo location on Market Street between 15th and 16th Streets and set up a soup kitchen, played music, and spoke about the problem of foreclosures, evictions, and homelessness, as well as connections with the banks investing in prisons and environmental degradation.
The protestors highlighted the case of Larry Faulks, a disabled African-American gay senior — while negotiating a loan modification with him, Wells Fargo sold his home at a foreclosure auction and now refuses to buy it back from DMG Asset Management, the company who bought the property at the auction. Wells Fargo also refuses to give Larry Faulks a fair deal loan modification.
As one participant read off the names of families at risk from Wells Fargo’s foreclosures and evictions, the group responded by chanting “…shall not be moved” after each name.
Thanks to Arizmendi for donating delicious bread and pastries from their worker-owned cooperative bakery and to Space Transformers for organizing the fabulous soup kitchen. Representatives from many groups participated, including Occupy Bernal, ACCE-SF, Occupy Direct Action Workgroup, Occupy Action Council of SF, Occupy SF Environmental Justice Workgroup, Community Not Commodity, Occupy Noe, San Francisco Tenants Union, Senior and Disability Action, Manilatown Heritage Foundation, Communities United in Defense of Olmsted, and Occupy South San Francisco.
Action Location (rain or shine):
Chase Bank Branch, 2112 15th Street, San Francisco, CA 94114 (at Market Street)
What: Occupy Chase to Prevent Homelessness, Foreclosures, and Evictions with a soup kitchen, street theater, foreclosure and eviction fighters and other speakers
Who: So far, we’ve got bread donated from Arizmendi and Ryan and the Space Transformers folks are setting up a soup kitchen, Bob on transport, Lisa and David on signage, music including guitarists Francis Collins and Tommi Avicolli-Mecca.
Brought to you by Occupy Bernal, ACCE-SF, Occupy Direct Action Workgroup, Occupy Action Council of SF, Occupy SF Environmental Justice Workgroup, Community Not Commodity, Occupy Noe, San Francisco Tenants Union, Senior and Disability Action, Manilatown Heritage Foundation, Communities United in Defense of Olmsted, and others coming soon.
Supporters of Foreclosure and Eviction Fighter Larry Faulks gathered at the Wells Fargo headquarters in downtown San Francisco on October 30, 2012, to demand that Wells Fargo rescind the sale of the Faulks home to DMG Asset Management and offer Larry a fair deal loan modification. Larry and his brother are elderly and disabled and don’t deserve to be thrown to the curb after Wells Fargo illegally sold their home at auction while negotiating a loan modification with them (a practice called “dual tracking”). The group also voiced support for Bernetta Adolph of San Francisco, Jacqueline Barber of Georgia, and Ana Casas Wilson in Los Angeles, California, all of whom Wells Fargo is trying to evict.
The group presented more than five hundred signatures to a representative of the bank who accepted them on behalf of Wells Fargo Community Relations Director Brenda Wright and Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf.
The action was organized by Occupy Noe, Occupy Bernal, and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) with participation from the Occupy Direct Action Workgroup (DAWG) and Community Not Commodity.
Supporters of Foreclosure and Eviction Fighter Larry Faulks gathered at the Wells Fargo branch in the Noe Valley neighborhood of San Francisco to demand that Wells Fargo rescind the sale of the Faulks home to DMG Asset Management and offer Larry a fair deal loan modification. Larry and his brother are elderly and disabled and don’t deserve to be thrown to the curb after Wells Fargo illegally sold their home at auction while negotiating a loan modification with them (a practice called “dual tracking”).
The group gathered hundreds of signatures to present to Wells Fargo Community Relations Director Brenda Wright and Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf.
Susan McDonough of Occupy Noe explains the situation with Wells Fargo, DMG Asset Management, and the Faulks family. She invites supporters to join an action at an open house of Climb Real Estate, the company that flips the homes DMG Asset Management evicts families like the Faulks family from. The protest will take place 12:00pm to 3:00pm on Sunday, October 28, at 1272 Rhode Island Street on Potrero Hill in San Francisco.
Larry Faulks talks about his situation and expresses his thanks to supporters.
The action was organized by Occupy Noe, Occupy Bernal, and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) with participation from the Occupy Direct Action Workgroup (DAWG) and Community Not Commodity.
Foreclosure and Evictions Fighters and their supporters from Occupy Noe, Occupy Bernal, and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) gathered at the home of DMG Assets Principal Angela Woo Lee at 370 San Benito Way, St Francis Wood
Neighborhood, San Francisco, yesterday to ask her to stop the eviction of the Faulks family. Protestors took their message to the neighbors, many of whom said they would respond to the action alert on this case by calling and emailing DMG Assets.
Larry Faulks and his brother — both disabled — as well as their renter want to stay in the home their parents purchased in 1962. Wells Fargo sold their house at foreclosure auction without their knowledge. They have the funds to make payments on a fair deal loan modification. DMG plans to evict them on Wednesday, October 10.
