Monthlong sit-in ends as woman forced out of home

Source: MN Star Tribune

A south Minneapolis woman who had refused to leave her foreclosed home after being evicted last month has been removed from the house again.

More than 40 supporters of Rosemary Williams on Friday afternoon lined the yellow tape that police used to cordon off the property, chanting and yelling as workers boarded up the house with metal sheeting and friends helped Williams carry out boxes of personal items.

"It's not over yet," Williams told the crowd when she emerged from the house, smiling through tears as she held high a bouquet of flowers.

The largely peaceful rally briefly turned physical when several protesters crossed the tape, leading to a short scuffle during which police pepper-sprayed several people and arrested half a dozen.

Read more: http://www.startribune.com/local/59088692.html?elr=KArks7PYDiaK7DU2EPaL_V_

All of them should have been willing to go to jail, and twice as many willing to take there place on the picket line.
That is how civil disobedience works.

...And, without assuming too much hopefully, I think we're both showing our age in that belief. :(

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USA - land of the free, and home of the brave . . . .

Does ANYONE really believe that anymore?

This is not the same as taking in poor immigrants. It's a contract that you sign and agree that you'll pay for a house while getting to live in it until you really own it. It has nothing to do with the American way, or anything so romantic.

when they kick somebody to the streets

This is about a person who took out an unnecessary re-fi on what had been a debt-free house.

I've seen way too many re-fi-obtained Hummers and luxury backyard swimming pools to feel much sympathy.

Just out of curiosity. Does your country welcome the poor, downtrodden, or disadvantaged? Seems to me that you're living in a glass hou...er, country.

lose the collateral. The law worked the way it was supposed to.

I do whatever I have to do, every month, to pay my mortgage. I always have. If I can't afford to own a home, then I rent. And I don't make myself a victim if I stop paying on my house. That kind of stuff costs the rest of us eventually. Why do people think they're entitled to stay in a house they can't pay for?? And those lawyers and groups that find loopholes in paperwork to give people the house for free are just as bad. A default is a default. I'm sorry that folks have hit hard times.. but you get roommates, you rent out your house and live in an apartment until you can sell it. You don't go into foreclosure and try to screw the people that lent you the money.. because you're screwing your neighbors and the rest of us when you do.

I'd much rather have the houses in my neighborhood actually occupied than left by the banks to sit empty and rot, inviting pest infestation, squatters, or those who would set up a meth lab. Yes, honest people who've fallen on hard times are SO MUCH WORSE for my safety and my property values as broken windows, jungle-height lawns, and fucking drug dealers. :eyes:

I would rather the original occupants of a house stay there, even if they are no longer able to pay their mortage and have technically become "squatters", as you say, than have the bank take possession and let it sit unused for months on end, inviting actual vagrant squatters who will just destroy the place. Or animal pests, or drug dealers...banks also generally don't keep up maintenance on a property, so the place looks like shit and brings down property values even more.

The house next to us went vacant for months shortly after we moved in. Place looked like a jungle and we had rats and snakes coming into our yard from that one...not a great thing when you have a dog...I even accidentally ran a snake over with the mower one day. I was so glad when flippers bought it and starting renting it out shortly after they realized they wouldn't be able to sell it, either. At least the place is occupied. Other people living next to vacant places further down the street have not been so lucky. Drug busts have been the least of it for them.

Magically boarders and renters appear ... it's magic I tell you.

Society is supposed to be based on something called "the rule of law". Keeping it short and sweet, it assumes that you have two parties that follow the rules. There are always disputes - that's why we have courts.

It's more than just a signature on a contract. The signature assumes an attempt at fair dealing on the part of both parties - a naive assumption at best.

Right after the Revolution, we had Shays' Rebellion. The bankers and merchants of Boston started using little-understood clauses in their lending agreements to foreclose on small landowners.

The commonly understood deal was that loans would be repaid with commodities, something that made sense in an economy that was about 90% based on barter.

The merchants and bankers demanded payment in gold, foreclosed, and split the loot with the lawyers.

Shays was a Captain in the Revolutionary army.

The Shaysites, (or regulators, as they were called) refused to be cheated. They shut down the courts and prevented any new foreclosures.

Unfortunately, few of them actually had guns. The bankers and merchants hired mercenaries and crushed the Rebellion.

And, by the way, that's what Jefferson was talking about in reference to the tree of liberty and the blood of tyrants and patriots. When he made the statement, the rebellion was long over, but it was a pretty turn of phrase.

Whether they win or not, every so often people refuse to be fleeced by crooks. When the people running the system refuse to play by the rules, you can make a strong argument that there are no more rules.

For twenty or more years, we have had a financial industry that has become more openly predatory. The real estate crisis is the result of their attempt to extract as much money as possible from the sheeple.

A loophole is part of the contract. The lenders also signed the contract (that they wrote in the first place). They agreed to do certain things, but they were too busy lying, cheating and stealing to live up to their own agreements.

And if they can't live with their own contracts, it's too damn bad.

Where shall the EVER GROWING jobless people LIVE?

“ Reckless fools lost first because they deserved to lose,
and careful, wise men lost later because a world-wide earthquake
doesn’t ask for personal references."

Edwin LeFevre, 1932



When they signed the mortgages on their modest homes,
they COULD afford it.

Thank GAWD for defenders of the banks like yourself!

:shrug:

:eyes:

A vision of America, where 8% live in
palatial homes, and the teeming, unemployed
masses live in "public housing".



The banks CREATED this problem.

They can *ucking well SUCK IT at this point.

Still ... if you can't pay up, out to the street with you.

Let's not forget the 65K/year H1-B that are being brought into the US to scab wages by displacing Americans at work.

PAY ME NOW ... what movie was that?

The new rallying cry heard at DU.

Fuck Compassion!!!!

She got what she deserved.

Fuck Compassion. It's for losers.

She lost her job just when her loan reset to a higher percentage. She is someone that President Obama's Making Homes Affordable was designed to help. Her lender chose to foreclose instead of working with her. Her neighborhood and many just like it are being left abandoned by the greed of the banks. It is often more profitable for the banks to foreclose these homes and collect the insurance on the home in addition to tax credits. Then the banks often leave these homes empty and further drive down the value of surrounding homes. Not to mention the safety issues of living around empty homes. I know it is easier to blame the victim because then we can justify that "it will never happen to me", but the truth is it could happen to any of us.

off. And to my knowledge, no one has ever said where the 100's of 1000's of dollars were spent. This is not someone that Obama wanted to "help." This is someone who was hurting everyone with legitimate claims.

You don't just qualify with a loss of income. Your DTI has to be able to be brought to 38% per a vary specific set of requirements. The government then pays the servicer to bring the DTI to 31%. If this cannot be accomplished, you do not qualify for HAMP or HMP which many do not.

area. Ms. Williams and her mother have lived on the same block for 55 years so make of that what you will. Here is much more info on the story and how convoluted it is.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/08/18/williams-update/

It appears that Ms. Williams cannot make ANY payments.