The Scoop on Leslie's lockout
Finally, after a long day, Leslie Parks is back in her home! This morning, we went to Housing Court and filed papers against IndyMac/One West for doing an unlawful lockout. In a preliminary order, the judge ruled that IndyMac must let Leslie back in her home.

Next we met with Leslie's lawyer who is eager to take her case, particularly since the bank did this to her before. Meanwhile, THE CEO of IndyMac, Terry Laughlin, CALLED LESLIE PERSONALLY, leaving a message that included an apology!!! Later on the phone, through her lawyer, Terry Laughlin explained that they were taking full responsibility for the lockout, and again he wished to offer great apologies to the Parks family. "I want to become personally involved in this" he added. He also said that locksmiths had been standing by outside Leslie's house for hours, waiting for us.

It took the locksmiths over two hours to fix all the locks at Leslie's house. In all eight locks had to be replaced - including padlocked closet doors in the basement and interior of the house - there was a lot of senseless damage done to wrench open locked doors.

NEXT LEGAL STEP:
Housing Court Hearing regarding the illegal lockout.
Wednesday, Dec. 16 at 8:30 a.m.
Hennepin County Government Center, Third floor

Thanks to everyone who spread the word and did calls so we were able to get this outcome. We will never stop the pressure until Leslie gets her house back at terms she can afford!

Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout: 612-822-8020, mn-peoples-bailout.org
Poor People’s Economic Human Campaign: 651-497-4644, economichumanrights.org

Update on Linda Norenberg
Good news! Chase bank returned to the table with a better offer, more affordable, but with payments still too high for comfort.
Linda is getting more hopeful that negotiations can proceed in her favor. One by one, we can keep families together and SAVE OUR NEIGHBORHOODS!

Upcoming Video Productions
Barbara Byrd is still in her home and has heard not one word from EMC bank. So rather than sit around anxiously, she has decided to put up lights and decorate for the holidays! In a few weeks, she and Linda will appear on a program produced by Eric Angel at SPNN (time/date to be announced). All of the Minnesota Five foreclosure resisters were together in-studio this week taping a public access (MTN) documentary that is being produced by Luis Alvrenga. His work involves training the homeless in video production-camera, sound, lighting, editing. The focus of the documentary will be on how the MN Five are fighting foreclosure. Also on the panel is Donna Fletcher speaking for the thousands of renters in our state who face homelessness due to eviction.

HISTORY PROVES THAT IF WE KEEP ON FIGHTING INJUSTICE, THE STRONGER WE BECOME UNTIL AT LAST, BULLIES BACK DOWN. BUT WE CANNOT GO UP AGAINST THEM ALONE....Also the longer we suffer in silence and allow bullying to continue, the worse it gets.
Peace Everyone . . . .

Labels: Barbara Byrd, Chase Home Mortgage, EMC Bank, Foreclosure, Foreclosure 5, Hennepin County, IndyMac, Leslie Parks, Linda Norenberg, Minneapolis, MN PPEHRC, One West

by Jeff Rousset | Philly Indymedia Center | 12.05.2009

Original Article: http://phillyimc.org/en/philly-protesters-seize-street-demand-housing-rights

Police watched as more than 100 people blocked a busy intersection at 6th and Market yesterday, near the Federal Building, to call attention to the nation's housing crisis.

Police watched as more than 100 people blocked a busy intersection at 6th and Market yesterday, near the Federal Building, to call attention to the nation's housing crisis. Speakers questioned national priorities, with President Obama sending 30,000 more soldiers to Afghanistan as thousands of Americans continue to be pushed into poverty and homelessness. The group, organized by Kensington Welfare Rights Union and the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, demanded a moratorium on evictions, and vowed massive nationwide civil disobedience at the end of January if Obama has not taken adequate steps to address the housing issue.

Protesters gathered at the Federal Building at 11 am holding signs and banners, wearing colorful cardboard houses, beating drums in rhythm, and chanting “What do we want? Housing! When do we want it? Now!” Lead by about a dozen disabled individuals in wheelchairs, the group marched to the intersection of 6th and Market and picketed in a large circle, blockading the entire intersection, before converging on the south side of the intersection and blocking traffic across all of 6th Street. A number of people spoke to the gathered crowd, including two women whose homes were recently foreclosed.

“I was renting a home and received a letter stating my house was going up for foreclosure because the owner had not been paying his mortgage. A week later the sheriff was knocking on my door giving me five minutes to leave,” said Starleen Pringle, a longtime resident of Philadelphia.

Pringle said she was forced to immediately leave her home of three years, along with her nine year old daughter and seven year old son, even though she already paid full rent for the month.

“I wasn't even allowed to get school clothes for my daughter the next day,” said Pringle. “They said, 'If you touch or take anything we're gonna lock you up.'” She had to make an appointment to later return to her house and collect all her belongings under a sheriff's supervision.

“Every 15 seconds in this country someone's home is foreclosed!” announced Cheri Honkala, one of the rally organizers, and a national organizer for the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC). “We want to know what the government is going to do for these people!”

PPEHRC organized similar rallies across the country and demanded that the Obama administration make housing its top priority and increase the federal government's funding for affordable housing to the $83 billion dollar level it was at in 1978.
Honkala criticized the government for bailing out banks and corporations, and spending tens of billions of dollars to escalate war, while neglecting the swelling masses of Americans who are living in poverty and homelessness.

“Bail out the people, not the banks!” the group chanted in unison.

Another Philadelphia woman whose home was recently foreclosed spoke on the megaphone. “I'm homeless with my children,” she said with both her daughters, aged two and four, by her side. “I'm living in my car now. I want the government to get me a house so my kids don't get taken away from me by DHS.”

PPEHRC is demanding that Philadelphia immediately take measures to house its entire homeless population, which numbers around 4,000 people on any given day.
Last month dozens of people gathered at City Hall with the AIDS advocacy group ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) to pressure Mayor Nutter to provide housing for the 8,000 people living in Philadelphia with HIV/AIDS who do not have access to adequate housing, one of the worst records for AIDS housing in any American city. People who are disabled and/or living with diseases are particularly hard hit by the nation's lack of housing and health care.

As the economic crisis continues to strangle poor and working Americans, the numbers of homeless keep rising in Philadelphia and throughout the country. Meanwhile, many of the banks that received billions of dollars in federal taxpayer bailout funds are the same ones evicting people and taking their homes. The banks keep posting high and even record profits. The people keep paying the price.

PPEHRC and the Kensington Welfare Rights Union announced that if President Obama does not adequately address the housing crisis there will be massive civil disobedience planned at federal buildings across the nation at the end of January, including Philadelphia. The highly energized crowd seemed fearless and ready for this escalation, even with police officers watching closely.

As one of the speakers said to the crowd, “The war is not over there in Afghanistan. It's right here in America!” The nonviolent soldiers seemed determined to keep fighting for economic justice until all their demands are met, and everyone has access to adequate housing.

The Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign is a national coalition of over a hundred groups building a multiracial movement to unite the poor and fight for economic justice and human rights. Their website is http://www.economichumanrights.org .

The Kensington Welfare Rights Union, according to their website, is “a multiracial organization led by poor and homeless families organizing for Economic Human Rights in the poorest district of Pennsylvania.” Their website is http://www.kwru.org .

Labels: Affordable Housing, Cheri Honkala, Foreclosure, KWRU, Obama, Philadelphia, PPEHRC, Starleen Pringle

// posted by Arun @ 7:25 AM 0 Comments

Oral testimony from GW Rolle (St. Petersburg, FL) exploring the criminalization of homelessness and its effect on housing the American citizenry presented to the Special Rapportuer on Adequate Housing for the United Nations, Raquel Rolnik, which is to be submitted to the General Assembly in March of 2010.

The Criminalization of American Homelessness
I would like to thank the special rapporteur holding this important hearing on adequate housing. This is an important conversation, in some cases, regarding life and death. I am deeply honored to be asked to participate.

I am a VISTA Volunteer, who is attached to the Pinellas County Coalition for the Homeless in St. Petersburg, FL, as the Faces of Homelessness Speaker’s Bureau Director, most of my work in the area of homelessness comes in an at large capacity. The Pinellas County Coalition for the Homeless is a countywide organization charged with coordinating services to homeless individuals and families, generating revenue to help fund homeless service, and providing information and education to the general public about homelessness in the county.

My personal expertise in regards to the issue of homelessness stems from the fact that I first experienced homelessness at the age of fourteen. I last experienced a five year episode of homelessness two and a half years ago. My five year experience with homelessness in St. Petersburg, FL began when I was the victim of a house fire.

During the five years that I was homeless I lived under freeway overpasses, under bridges, in tents, in abandoned buildings, at construction sites and on the floor of tenement rooms. No matter where I lived, upon being discovered, I was warned by the police to leave the area.

When my house burned, I was employed as a chef on a day gambling cruise ship. As a renter, I had no insurance and received no compensation. As the house was rendered uninhabitable with no damage to the bathroom and my personal room, I would sneak in at night and leave early in the morning,. When I was caught and forbidden to stay there, I started paying people to stay on there couches. Because of my job as a cook, it was necessary for me to bath and have clean clothes.

I found it impossible to save money while having to take care of the needs of the often unemployed people who would let me stay on their couches. Determined to be independent so I could save the money for a new home (about a two paycheck period a month). I moved outside.

I quickly lost most of my property, my job, and my way. Without a job, it became impossible to “save” anything. Every resource became incorporated into the survival process. I found that living outside was legislated against, and dangerous.

Anti-homelessness ordinances had been passed to make every location where I tried to sleep subject to law enforcement. In St. Petersburg, the City Council has crafted local ordinances which have in effect, made it illegal to be homeless.

The reason I became homeless in the first place after my house burned is that I could not afford to transition into other housing with the barriers of first months rent, last month’s rent and a security deposit, which landlords required.

At the time of the fire, I was paying one hundred fifty dollars a week for an apartment attached to a house. The home owner was my friend and I occasionally worked for him at his accounting business, plus I performed yard work. My salary was approximately four hundred ninety dollars every two weeks. I had no savings. Post fire I could not generate the money necessary to move into another apartment.

The Pinellas County Comprehensive Plan suggests one reason the number of street homeless and persons at risk of homelessness is increasing is the lack of affordable housing.(Pinellas County Planning Report, 2008)

In Pinellas County, the 2008 US Dept of Housing and Urban Development states, the fair market rent is $658. per month for a modest studio apartment, $730. for a one bedroom, $993 for a two bedroom, $1,119., for a three bedroom, $1351. for a four bedroom. (Florida Housing Data Clearing House)

The above figures do not include the last months rent, and in many cases the security deposit (half a months rent) which landlords charge before one can enter a house.

In St Petersburg, the City Council has crafted local ordinances which have in effect made it illegal to be homeless, These laws include ordinances which make it illegal to panhandle, camp within the city limits, lay and recline on the public right of way, trespass , possess an open container, engage in disorderly conduct and public urination.

This criminalization makes it difficult for the homeless to maintain a flow of employment, counseling services, and sheltered living. These St. Petersburg ordinances, have the effect of keeping the homeless, homeless.

According to the Pinellas County Sheriffs Office, the cost of housing an inmate is $92. per day. This cost does not include jail medical costs or expenses associated with retaining a Public Defender.

A recent study, Chronic Minor Offenders in Pinellas County Jail, showed that between 2005 and April 2008, 3,789 unique arrests for 1,997 unique individuals, The St. Petersburg Police Dept. accounted for 55% of the arrests.

The 3,844 local ordinance arrests resulted in 12,015 jail days and a total estimated cost of $1,108,692. These figures do not reflect the cost of police surveillance, investigation, arrest and transportation to jail. This money could be better spent linking the homeless with affordable housing and homeless services.

The five years that I was homeless in St Petersburg, I was arrested five times. I was arrested two times for trespassing in attempts to shelter myself and three times for possession of an open container.

I served nine days in jail at various intervals. Every time I went to jail I lost my job, or position in the day labor pool and had to start over. Truthfully, I had no idea of what was to become of me because I had no way to accumulate the vast amount of money needed for lodging. Every cent I made went towards maintaining my existence. Not having a job upon release from incarceration forced me to engage in even more illegal actions such as panhandling and further trespassing.

Proposed Remedies and Solutions
Proposals to demolish and replace structures must be accompanied by an Environmental Impact Study.

This study must include the effect demolition would have on humans, the financial environment, and the misery index, as well as the effect on animals, wetlands, and air quality.

The United States must respect the rights of every citizen in regards to food clothing and shelter. There is no reason for any American not to be afforded the dignity of a home.

As a member of the Pinellas County Leadership Network, I participated with a housing committee. Upon investigation, I found that there are four hundred and ninety nine boarded and abandon houses in St Petersburg Florida. (In an article complaining about graffiti, vandalism and trespassing by homeless people, the St Petersburg Times counted Five hundred and twelve.)

Those houses should be made available to homeless citizens. These citizens should be given the tools and the skills to repair these abandoned structures.

There must be a moratorium on legislation criminalizing street homelessness.

In order for the homeless individual to gain access to the development of services that are necessary to put him into housing, his status must be compatible with that of a legal, housed citizen.

Every American should be able to live inside and have access to adequate affordable housing. This is not a rhetorical statement. Given the vast resources of this country, this is simply a matter of compassion and priority.

Labels: GW Rolle, Homelessness, Pinellas County, PPEHRC, St. Petersburg, UN Special Rapporteur Raquel Rolnik, United Nations Human Rights Council

Homeless in America: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-3BsB3-s9o

Greetings,

The aboveis a short German film about St Petersburg's Homeless issues. More and more the conversation and the focus of America's homeless issues are held up to international scutiny. In the richest country in the world, why are some many people sleeping on the streets?

The homeless issue is quickly becoming an issue of human rights.Housing for all, is a human right, covered by Article 25 in the United Nations Charter.

We must began to see housing as a Human Right, and not as we currently see it as a commodity.

Recently, I was invited to attend a Town Hall Meeting in Washington DC, in which I gave oral testimony to the Special Rapportuer on adequate housing for the United Nations, Her excellency Raquel Rolnik.

In this testimony I explored the criminalization of homelessness and it's effect on housing each American citizen. This testimony, to be submitted to the General Assembly in March of 2010, is contained below.

I encourage those interested to compare other countries responses to homelessness and to make adjustments accordingly.

Labels: FL PPEHRC, GW Rolle, Homelessness, Pinellas County, St. Petersburg, UN Special Rapporteur Raquel Rolnik, United Nations Human Rights Council