Yesterday, Cheri Honkala and Deeq Abdi of the Poor Peoples
Economic Human Rights Campaign were both given
fines today in court for being in a public HUD office
during buisness hours. Honkala and Abdi went to
Housing And Urban Development with other members
of PPEHRC after HUD Director Dexter Sidney went back
on his written commitment to meet with families who were
being foreclosed on in the state of Minnesota during
the Republican National Convention.

Dexter himself appeared in court today along
with his attorney and five other staff members of
HUD.

HUD's attorney argued that the HUD office was in
danger of being visited again by Ms. Honkala and a
stay away order was than placed on Cheri Honkala.
A stay away order wasn't given to Deeq Abdi.

Honkala's closing statement to the Judge was "It's
a sad day in Minnesota when we have a foreclousre
crisis in our state and I'm not allowed to go into a
public government office during office hours to
petition my government."

Abdi & Honkala were represented by Ted Dooley of the National Lawyers Guild.

Labels: Cheri Honkala, Deeq Abdi, Dexter Sidney, HUD Sit-in, MN PPEHRC, Ted Dooley

In Minneapolis on October 1st at 9:30AM, PPEHRC members Cheri Honkala, Natasha Euler and Deeq Abdi will go to court for demonstrating at the Minneapolis Office Housing And Urban Development (a public building) regarding the housing crisis in America prior to the RNC.

On the afternoon of October 1st at 1:00PM in St. Paul, PPEHRC Members Cheri Honkala and Tim Dowlin will go to court for setting up Bushville, a tent city for poor and homeless people to gather, at Harriet Island Regional Park (a public park) prior to the RNC.

At a time when millions of people are losing their homes to foreclosure and banks are crashing, let's stand by the Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign in
order to create another kind of world.

Please call the Mayors of Minneapolis and St Paul today and demand that all
charges be dropped!

Mayor R.T. Rybak
City of Minneapolis
(612) 673-2100

Mayor Chris Coleman
City of St. Paul
(651) 266-8510

Please also send this to as many other people as you can.

Labels: Arrests, Bushville, HUD Sit-in, March for Our Lives 2008, Police, Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, PPEHRC

On Tuesday, August 26 2008, 25 members of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign conducted a sit-in at the offices of Dexter Sydney, Minneapolis Field Director of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Members from the Twin Cities and across the US entered the International Building on 920 2nd Street in downtown Minneapolis where the HUD offices are located.

At roughly noon, these poor and homeless families sat down in Sydney's front lobby, insisting that he follow through on his written agreement to attend PPEHRC's Minnesota Truth Commission Sat August 30th at 2PM. In a July 15th letter, Sydney “look[ed] forward to learning more about the concerns ... regarding homelessness, the housing crisis, and the challenges many people face with affordable housing”.
While in the HUD offices PPEHRC members were informed by building security that the public office was in private property and were to be escorted out by Minneapolis Police. A representative of the Department of Homeland Security informed campaign members that they were there to keep HUD workers safe during our nonviolent protest. The Minneapolis Police closed down the hallway outside, even pushing a KSTP reporter into an elevator.


Sit-in Video Part 1 | Part 2

Members of PPEHRC stayed behind in the offices after the final warning of the Minneapolis Police and were arrested. Cheri Honkala, PPEHRC National Organizer, Deeq Abdi of Minneapolis PPEHRC, and Natashia Euler of the Kensington Welfare Union in Philadelphia, PA were arrested and held at the Hennepin County Jail with bail.
They have since been released.

Labels: Arrests, HUD Sit-in, March for Our Lives 2008