A protest at the Wells Fargo headquarters at 420 Montgomery Street in San Francisco took place on April 13, 2013, in coordination with a protest earlier the same day at the Wells Fargo Shareholder meeting held in Salt Lake City, Utah. These protests are a special edition of the Occupy Wells Fargo Vigil to Stop Evictions.
More than a dozen protestors from the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) and other organizations infiltrated the shareholders meeting and told Wells Fargo executives what they thought of their practices regarding predatory, illegal, and discriminatory lending and related foreclosures and evictions. Maria Alvarez, whose family is facing eviction by Wells Fargo, got to tell Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf to his face that he is a liar, then Wells threw the protestors out of the shareholders meeting.
Meanwhile, in San Francisco, about one hundred protestors from the ACCE (San Francisco and Oakland), Occupy Bernal, Occupy Noe, and the Occupy the Auctions and Evictions campaign held a memorial service in front of the Wells Fargo Headquarters and History Museum at 420 Montgomery Street. A trumpeter named Elaine played taps and Archbishop Franzo King delighted participants with his saxophone stylings. Various spokespeople read out the names of those who have lost their home or their lives to foreclosures and evictions, spoke in solidarity with those protesting in Salt Lake City, and listed off the many families still struggling to save their homes from Wells Fargo. After each name or section, the crowd chanted repeatedly, “Housing Justice, Home Security!”. Finally, Kathy Lipscomb and Merrie Jo Musni delivered some calalilies to Wells Fargo to complete the memorial service.
ACCE, SEIU, Occupy Bernal, and Occupy Noe Foreclosure and Eviction Fighters and supporters again 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 March 13, 2013, just as previously on January 9, 2013 and on February 13, 2013.
The group again 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.
Grace Martinez of ACCE provides testimony to SFERS Retirement Board.
Foreclosure and Eviction Fighter Gladys Dewitt provides testimony to SFERS Retirement Board.
SFERS Retirement Board President Wendy Paskin-Jordan, a former Wells Fargo employee, responds to public testimony.
San Francisco Muni employee and Local 200 former President Alice Fialkin provides testimony to SFERS Retirement Board.
Foreclosure and Eviction Fighter Ian Haddow provides testimony to SFERS Retirement Board.
Former San Francisco city employee Susan McDonough provides testimony to SFERS Retirement Board.
Foreclosure and Eviction Fighter Larry Faulks, evicted from his home by Wells Fargo, provides testimony to SFERS Retirement Board.
Foreclosure and Eviction Fighter and Teamster Ricardo Rodriguez provides testimony to SFERS Retirement Board.
Harry Baker, Retirement Security Chair for SEIU Local 1021, which is the largest union representing SFERS members, provides testimony to SFERS Retirement Board.
Foreclosure and Eviction Fighter Jackie Wright provides testimony to SFERS Retirement Board.
Grace Martinez of ACCE provides testimony to SFERS Retirement Board.
SFERS Retirement Board staff and commissioners discuss whether they can calendar consideration of a resolution on foreclosures and related evictions at the next SFERS meeting in April 2013.
SFERS Retirement Board staff and commissioners continue discussing whether they can calendar consideration of a resolution on foreclosures and related evictions at the next SFERS meeting in April 2013.
The rest of the discussion was not captured on video.
#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, March 13 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.
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.
Organizers from the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco, San Francisco Tenants Union, Senior & Disability Action, AIDS Housing Alliance, Causa Justa::Just Cause, Chinatown Community Development Center, Occupy Bernal, Occupy Action Council SF, and other supporters gathered at 12:00 noon on December 19, 2012, to protest a rash of Ellis Act evictions of tenants living in San Francisco. A number of tenants spoke to the crowd in front of the Christmas tree on Castro Street near 18th Street, explaining how they are facing eviction in neighborhoods all over San Francisco when property owners use the Ellis Act to take the property off the rental market as an excuse for evicting them from their homes, including some who are seniors, disabled, living with AIDS, and/or have lived in their homes for decades. Representatives of various organizations spoke and the crowd chanted, displaying protest signs and banners.
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.
Dozens of protestors brought chairs and benches to Harvey Milk Plaza in the heart of San Francisco’s Castro district on November 18, 2012, to protest the removal of benches by the cabal of merchants known as the Castro / Upper Market Community Benefits District (CUMCBD). CUMCBD had previously decided to remove the $40,000 benches at Harvey Milk Plaza at an additional cost of $1,800 because homeless people were actually using the benches!
Protestors from Community Not Commodity and various other groups dedicated a replacement bench installed for $30 in recycled wood and concrete plus labor (yay Craig! update as of 9:37pm the bench was removed) with speeches in a soap box chalked on the pavement (yay Carmen et al.!) and songs from Tommi Avicolli-Mecca and Francis Collins. The speeches highlighted connections between the bench removal and the attitudes of certain business people and Supervisor Scott Wiener toward the homeless in San Francisco, as well as the needs of elderly and disabled people for public places to rest, the need for a public commons where people can sit, lie, and congregate, the special needs of LGBT youth who are homeless for places safer than Golden Gate Park, and the economic crisis caused by the super-wealthy 1% who got bailed out while foreclosing on and evicting homeowners and renters by the millions. People suggested future gatherings to protest as well as finding out how people who aren’t necessarily property owners or businesses can take back control of public space from the greed-mongers.
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.
Dozens of protesters held a press conference at the former home of Kathy Galves at 12:00 noon on October 23, 2012, to tell the story of thousands of disabled elders and families that end up homeless when they lose their homes. Wells Fargo foreclosed on the home of Kathy Galves, then evicted her and her sister in December 2012. Since then, she has been staying with friends and paying out of her pension to stay at hotels. “I have nowhere else to go,” says Galves. Kathy, a disabled, African-American senior, needs a safe, secure, and affordable home.
Thousands of elders and families have lots their homes to foreclosure here in San Francisco and they often end up homeless staying in motels, their cars, shelters, and even sometimes on the streets. Many of the foreclosures happen when someone in the family becomes ill and the family can no longer afford skyrocketing medical bills.
The event also highlighted the plight of 82-year-old Dr. Lehmann Brightmann, a Native American scholar and educator who is in the hospital while his family teeters on the edge of foreclosure and 80-year-old Fred Wahpepah, a Native American medicine-giver who needs financial assistance to prevent his home from going into foreclosure after his wife became ill and could no longer work.
The event was co-sponsored by POOR Magazine / Prensa POBRE, The Manilatown Heritage Foundation, The Idriss Stelley Foundation, and the San Francisco Bay View newspaper, with speakers from some of those organizations, as well as the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), Occupy Bernal, and the Occupy the Auctions and Evictions Campaign.
Brother Robles of Poor Magazine and Manilatown Heritage Foundation speaks.
“Tiny” aka Lisa Gray-Garcia of POOR Magazine speaks.
Kathy Galves speaks.
Son of Dr. Lehmann Brightmann speaks.
Son of Dr. Lehmann Brightmann continues.
Tommi Avicolli-Mecca of Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco speaks.
Tommi Avicolli-Mecca of Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco continues.
Fred Wahpepah speaks.
Devina Estrella O Jai speaks.
Ross Rhodes of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), Occupy Bernal, and Occupy Noe speaks.
On October 10, 2012, Homes Not Jails briefly occupied a building in solidarity with the 3rd annual World Homeless Action Day. Beginning with a rally at 5pm in Dolores Park the crowd had marched to the occupation site on Castro Street. But San Francisco police quickly raided the site and arrested 20 people. Unusually, most were charged with burglary, conspiracy and vandalism.
Homes Not Jails reclaims vacant space to provide housing through direct action and protest the criminalization of homelessness.
A protest at the Wells Fargo headquarters at 420 Montgomery Street in San Francisco took place on April 13, 2013, in coordination with a protest earlier the same day at the Wells Fargo Shareholder meeting held in Salt Lake City, Utah. These protests are a special edition of the Occupy Wells Fargo Vigil to Stop Evictions.
Meanwhile, in San Francisco, about one hundred protestors from the ACCE (San Francisco and Oakland), Occupy Bernal, Occupy Noe, and the Occupy the Auctions and Evictions campaign held a memorial service in front of the Wells Fargo Headquarters and History Museum at 420 Montgomery Street. A trumpeter named Elaine played taps and Archbishop Franzo King delighted participants with his saxophone stylings. Various spokespeople read out the names of those who have lost their home or their lives to foreclosures and evictions, spoke in solidarity with those protesting in Salt Lake City, and listed off the many families still struggling to save their homes from Wells Fargo. After each name or section, the crowd chanted repeatedly, “Housing Justice, Home Security!”. Finally, Kathy Lipscomb and Merrie Jo Musni delivered some calalilies to Wells Fargo to complete the memorial service.
