Why Not End Homelessness Now?

by Dollars and Sense

Here is the press release for the 13th annual Homelessness Marathon, an annual overnight radio broadcast on homelessness and poverty. It is a truly amazing program--especially the moving testimony from homeless folks who call in or show up at the broadcast site. We encourage you to tune in for at least part of it. You can listen online or tune over the airwaves--it's carried on over a hundred radio stations across the United States and Canada. This year's marathon originate in Detroit. It starts in an hour and a half--tune in!

BROADCAST TO ASK, "WHY NOT END HOMELESSNESS NOW?"

13th Annual Homelessness Marathon begins 7 p.m., EST, Tues. Feb 23rd
and run for 14 hours until 9 a.m., EST, Wed. Feb. 24th

"We have a mindset in this country that homelessness is a problem that can wait," comments Jeremy Weir Alderson, founder of the Homelessness Marathon, "but it's a dire emergency for the people who are homeless, a drain on our economy, and a stain on our national honor. We ought to solve this problem, and we could if we would only turn our attention to it."

The Homelessness Marathon will address the problem of homelessness by speaking directly with homeless people, who will give their first-hand testimony on how they became homeless and the obstacles they face before they can be housed again.

Hundreds of homeless people will be brought by bus (in rotating shifts) so that they can participate in this event and speak directly to the nation. They will be brought by shelters, advocacy groups, and grass roots organizations formed by homeless people themselves.

The broadcast will feature, as well, such speakers as Senator Carl Levin; Ron Gettlefinger, president of the United Auto Workers; and two of America's most outstanding anti-poverty advocates, Cheri Honkala, director of the Poor Peoples' Economic Human Rights Campaign and Paul Boden, director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project.

Prominent advocates from Detroit will participate, including Rev. Faith Fowler, director of Cass Community Social Services and Maureen Taylor, the state chairperson of Michigan Welfare Rights Organization.

Experts from elsewhere in the country will also participate, including Kathleen Johnson, director of Katrina Relief in Mississippi and Mike Rhodes, editor of the Community Alliance newspaper in Fresno, California, arguably, the cruelest city in America towards its homeless citizens.

The broadcast will originate from 12025 Woodrow Wilson St., a "green gym" recently opened by Cass Community Social Services for the use of its homeless clients. Detroit area radio stations participating in the broadcast will include, WHFR in Dearborn, the broadcast's host station; WHPR in Highland Park and CJAM in Windsor, Ontario.

The Homelessness Marathon is a consciousness-raising not a fund-raising broadcast. There will be no on-air solicitations.

More information about the broadcast can be found here;

Acclaim for the broadcast can be found here;

To donate to the Homelessness Marathon go here.

Labels: affordable housing, homelessness, Homelessness Marathon, poverty

 

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2/23/2010 05:27:00 PM 2 comments

 

What to Do About Housing Foreclosures?

by Dollars and Sense

Dollars & Sense and the Boston chapter of Democratic Socialists of America are co-sponsoring a forum on the housing foreclosure crisis, on Wednesday, March 3, 2010, in Boston. We hope to see our Boston-area friends and supporters there! Here are the details:

We are facing a crisis of housing foreclosures in Massachusetts. In November 2009 alone, there were 76% more foreclosures than in the same month a year ago. This wave of foreclosures is decimating whole communities, leaving buildings empty and people without homes. Big banks get bailed out, but our government has done little to help working people tricked into bad loans, who are now losing their homes to foreclosure. Is this fair?

Our forum will look at the way the greedy and unethical actions of the big
financial institutions help caused the global economic crisis, of which the
foreclosure crisis is only a part. We will learn about efforts to pass legislation to help people facing foreclosure, as well as the way people are organizing in their communities to help themselves. And we will learn what we can do to help!

Speakers:
Grace Ross – Former Green Party gubernatorial candidate, now challenging Gov. Patrick in the Democratic Party Primary. Currently a staffer for the Massachusetts Alliance Against Predatory Lending (MAAPL), and author of the forthcoming book, "Main Street Smarts: Who got us into this economic mess and how we get through it."

Melonie Griffiths – Tenant and Economy Project Organizer for City Life/Vida
Urbana, the Jamaica Plain-based social justice organization which has been
organizing community members to resist evictions and save their homes.

Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz (D-Boston) – Co-sponsor of SB1609, one of the MAAPL-supported bills, which would protect tenants from eviction in foreclosed properties.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010, 7:00 P.M., at Encuentro 5, 33 Harrison Ave., 5th floor, Chinatown (Boston). For directions to 33 Harrison Ave., visit www.encuentro5.org

Labels: affordable housing, Democratic Socialists of America, foreclosures, housing crisis

 

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2/16/2010 12:52:00 PM 0 comments

 

Statement on the Bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

by Dollars and Sense

A statement from Dean Baker of the Center for Economics and Policy Research:

The collapse of the housing bubble has put the survival of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in jeopardy, as those of us who warned of the bubble have long predicted. While there can be no question of supporting these mortgage giants at such a critical moment for the housing market, the public should place serious conditions on this support. These companies face bankruptcy because of the incompetence of their management. They should not be given unlimited access to taxpayer dollars without any strings attached.

Before delving into the terms and conditions of the bailout, it is important to be clear on why Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in crisis. Last week’s downturn may be attributable to a sudden change in sentiments in financial markets, but the underlying problem is not investor confidence. The underlying problem is that Fannie and Freddie either own or guarantee a large number of mortgages that are in default or will be in default in the very near future. This is due to the collapse of the housing bubble.

In ordinary times, the prime mortgages that fill the bulk of Fannie and Freddie’s portfolios go bad at very low rates. And when they do default, most of the debt is covered, since the value of the house is typically close to the value of the mortgage.

The collapse of the housing bubble, however, has created extraordinary circumstances where even prime mortgages are going bad at very high rates. As many mortgages in former bubble markets sink further underwater, Fannie and Freddie now own or guarantee mortgages on homes that will lose in the neighborhood of 50 percent of their value.

Fannie and Freddie both contributed to the bubble and created the financial crisis that they now face. These mortgage giants continued to make loans in bubble-inflated markets, thereby supporting purchases at bubble-inflated prices. Their top economists insisted that there was no bubble, assuring others in the market that everything was fine.

If Fannie and Freddie had constrained their loans, and tied their price to multiples of rent (e.g., a maximum loan value of 15 times appraised annual market rent for an area), they could have done much to stem the growth of the housing bubble and protected themselves from the bankruptcy they now face.

Read the full statement.

Labels: affordable housing, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Dean Baker, Fannie Mae, Fredddie Mac, housing bubble

 

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7/17/2008 04:53:00 AM 0 comments

 

Cousin ♥ NY Landlord

by Dollars and Sense

We received a long and interesting comment about our recent post, Scenes from the Class Struggle in the East Village, from a close relative of the landlord who is trying to turn the five-story tenement he owns into an 11,000-square-foot mansion. We initially posted the comment in full, but our, um, legal department is worried about libel issues. So here is the comment, with the potentially libelous bits taken out:

New York landlord Alistair Economakis's fight to rid the five-story tenement on 47 East Third Street of its tenants has disturbed me, but it hasn't surprised me. That's because I have known Alistair's family for many years now. You see, I have the misfortune of being his first—and eldest—cousin.

Alistair was always ♥♥♥♥. I remember once, in some village in southern Greece, he stuck his five-year-old head out of his father's—my uncle's—car, and, encouraged by his guffawing dad, ♥♥♥♥♥♥. I nearly slapped my little cousin's face for that. I regret now I didn't.

The apple doesn't usually fall far from the tree. My uncle Alexander (Alistair's father) is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Back in 2005, when I first learned of the scandal brewing in New York around the Economakis name, I asked my uncle if it was true Alistair was trying to evict people from the building in the East Village. His answer, word-for-word, was: "♥♥♥♥♥♥♥"

Shocked? You shouldn't be. It's almost impossible to be filthy rich and not be a rotten scoundrel inside. After all, behind most great fortunes lies a crime. But Alistair and his wife Catherine Economakis (who is ♥♥♥♥♥♥) will reap what they've sown. Their crime will come back—again and again, for as long as they live—to haunt them. Of this I haven't the slightest doubt.

My cousin, who grew up in Greece and England, wraps himself in the American flag and evokes the U.S. Constitution to "justify" his family's need to live in 60 rooms, in a 11,000-square-foot home. I've read the popular outcry, the indignant outrage. Yet what do people expect from the likes of my cousin and his wife? Crying "shame!" or noting the irony in the fact that Alistair's mother-in-law is a Columbia University dean who teaches urban studies, of all things [as reported here and elsewhere], is an exercise in futility. I can assure you they aren't at all fazed by such criticism.

So many good people bemoan the legal ruling allowing the eviction to take place. This is naïve. Who makes the laws, after all? The government does. And what is the government but the representative of a country's ruling class? What do low-income tenants expect from the enemy, after all?

Yet what goes around tends to come around. You can spit on the collective—as Alistair and Cathy Economakis have done, but it's quite another thing when the collective turns around and spits on you!

Low income tenants of New York! Run the Economakises—and all human lice like them—out of town! Turn their "American dream"—a dream at your expense—into a real nightmare! Give them no quarter! Make it physically and psychologically impossible for them to evict you! Send THEM packing!

Evel G. Economakis,
Athens, Greece

Labels: affordable housing, Alistair Economakis, rent control

 

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6/27/2008 12:27:00 PM 0 comments

 

Scenes from the Class Struggle in the East Village

by Dollars and Sense

The New York Times recently ran a story about a New York landlord, Alistair Economakis, who is trying to convert the five-story East Village tenement he owns into an 11,000-square-foot mansion for himself and his family. The building formerly housed fifteen rent-stabilized apartments, whose rents ranged from $675 to $1200 per month. So far Economakis has been able to buy off six of the tenants, and has renovated and converted the spaces into a home with which he, his wife, and his two children are making do.

But the remaining tenants are fighting back:

At its core, the fight involves a law allowing landlords to displace rent-stabilized tenants if the landlords will use the space as their primary residence. The Economakis family has prevailed, thus far, on the principle that the law applies even to a building this large. But the tenants continue to press the notion that given the scope of the proposed home — which calls for seven bathrooms, a gym and a library — the owners are just trying to clear them out so they can sell the building off to become so many market-rate condos.

As evidence that they have no such intention, the landlords emphasize how much they love the neighborhood, especially its working-class history:

“Once we realized we wanted to make this building our home, nothing else compared,” said Mrs. Economakis, 36, who, along with her husband, works for her father’s company, Granite International Management, which manages about a dozen apartment buildings in Manhattan and Brooklyn. “I love this building, and I love this neighborhood.”

Part of the charm, she said, is that the block includes the Hells Angels headquarters and Maryhouse, one of the city’s most enduring Roman Catholic missions for the homeless.

In Manhattan, it seems, the super-rich want have the working class and eat it too.

The Times's coverage of the struggle is characteristically even-handed, depicting both landlords and tenants as in enviable positions:

In a way, each faction is living a version of the New York real estate dream. Anyone might envy the Economakises, who work at a family-owned apartment-management company and lucked into buying the building for $1.3 million — what some one-bedroom condos in the area cost today. They have both the cash and the connections to create a sprawling showpiece. But there are also countless New Yorkers who would sacrifice their firstborns (or at least a beloved pet) for a charming if cramped perch like [tenant] Mr. Boyd’s in a coveted neighborhood where comparable spaces command twice or three times as much.

Evidently, the Times regards affordable housing in New York as but a dream, and rent-stabilization as a luxury.

Read the whole story here.

For information about the tenants' struggle, visit their website.

Labels: affordable housing, rent control, wealth inequality

 

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6/17/2008 09:16:00 AM 4 comments

 

As homes foreclose in U.S., squatters move in

by Dollars and Sense

This is from Reuters:

By Jason Szep

BROCKTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) - They enter through a broken first-floor window each night to sleep on a moldy bed in the abandoned four-family house at 827 Main Street, part of a new generation of squatters emboldened by America's housing foreclosure crisis.

"For squatters, foreclosed homes like this are like a camp-ground with free camping," says real-estate broker Marc Charney, a foreclosure specialist, as he enters the home in Brockton, Massachusetts, and shines a flash-light at a mattress where homeless people have been sleeping each night.

Squatting is on the rise across the United States as foreclosures surge, eviction notices mount and homes go unsold for months, complicating the worst U.S. housing slump in a quarter century and forcing real-estate brokers to enlist the help of law enforcement and courts to sell empty houses.

In some regions, squatting is taking on new twists to include real-estate scams in which thieves "rent out" abandoned homes they don't own. Others involve "professional squatters" who move from one abandoned home to another posing as tenants who seek cash from banks as a condition to leave the premises -- a process known by real-estate brokers as "cash for key." Read the rest of this Reuters article.

Labels: affordable housing, foreclosures, homelessness

 

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6/05/2008 10:54:00 AM 0 comments

 

New Report: Nation's Gentrified Neighborhoods Threatened By Aristocratization

by Ben Greenberg

This new report reminds us yet again why it is so important to follow the independent press. You never get ground truth like this in the mainstream media.

WASHINGTON—According to a report released Tuesday by the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank, the recent influx of exceedingly affluent powder-wigged aristocrats into the nation's gentrified urban areas is pushing out young white professionals, some of whom have lived in these neighborhoods for as many as seven years.

Maureen Kennedy, a housing policy expert and lead author of the report, said that the enormous treasure-based wealth of the aristocracy makes it impossible for those living on modest trust funds to hold onto their co-ops and converted factory loft spaces.

"When you have a bejeweled, buckle-shoed duke willing to pay 11 or 12 times the asking price for a block of renovated brownstones—and usually up front with satchels of solid gold guineas—hardworking white-collar people who only make a few hundred thousand dollars a year simply cannot compete," Kennedy said. "If this trend continues, these exclusive, vibrant communities with their sidewalk cafés and faux dive bars will soon be a thing of the past."

Read the whole thing at The Onion.

Photo credit: © Copyright 2008, Onion, Inc.

Labels: affordable housing, aristocratization, economic class, gentrification, satire, urban life

 

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3/31/2008 11:25:00 AM 1 comments

 

Homeless take to the airwaves tonight

by Dollars and Sense

The 11th Annual Homelessness Marathon, a 14-hour national radio dialogue on poverty and housing in the US, will take place Wednesday night to Thursday morning, February 20-21. Originating this year in Nashville, the Marathon is a live, outdoor, broadcasting event featuring homeless people, advocates for the homeless and call-ins from the public. A broadcast booth is set up outside, with open mics for people who are out on the street in Nashville that night.

The Marathon does not raise money for charity. Its mission is to raise consciousness, by covering a broad range of topics, speaking with experts, taking calls from around the country, and above all, by putting homeless people on the air directly. It is the largest broadcast on homelessness, and indeed on poverty, in the United States.

The Marathon will be streaming live on the program's website, or find a radio station near you that is carrying the broadcast. If you miss the broadcast, excerpts from this and previous year's marathons are posted at the program's website.

Read a Dollars & Sense article about the Marathon, from our Jan./Feb. 2007 issue.

Labels: affordable housing, Homelessness Marathon, poverty, radio

 

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2/20/2008 01:18:00 PM 0 comments

 

Take action to save NOLA public housing

by Dollars and Sense

This is from Facing South (slogan: "Blogging for a Progressive South"), the excellent blog of the excellentInstitute for Southern Studies.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Next Monday, Dec. 10, is International Human Rights Day. It's also the day when activists in New Orleans are calling for actions opposing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development plans to tear down more than 4,600 public housing units in four complexes across the city—while replacing them with private, mixed-income developments that will set aside only 744 apartments for low-income people.

The decision to demolish these public complexes, which suffered only relatively minor damage [PDF] during Hurricane Katrina, comes as rents across the city have doubled since the storm—as has the homeless population.

The activists are asking concerned citizens across the country to join the actions in New Orleans or to take action at home. According to a statement from Kali Akuno, director of the Stop the Demolition Coalition:

What is at stake with the demolition of public
housing in New Orleans is more than just the loss
of housing units: it destroys any possibility for
affordable housing in New Orleans for the
foreseeable future. Without access to affordable
housing, thousands of working class New Orleanians
will be denied their human right to return.

Although this situation is unique and urgent in the
city of New Orleans, it does not occur in
isolation. The plans for redevelopment here are
part of a national assault on public housing, in
which tens of thousands of homes have been
demolished in the past decade.

Organizers are asking supporters from across the country to organize demonstrations at local HUD offices and other government buildings. They are also asking them to make calls to government officials demanding the reopening of public housing in New Orleans. Among those leaders they are asking people to call:

* New Orleans City Council Member Stacy Head, who has been a leading force in pushing for the tear-downs. Her number is 504-658-1020.

* New Orleans City Council Member Shelley Midura, who is being asked to oppose the demolitions and support the reopening of public housing. Her number is 504-658-1010.

* D.H. Griffin, the North Carolina-based contractor hired to demolish the Lafitte complex. For locations of the company's offices across the South, click here. The toll-free number is 888-336-3366.

* U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), who's blocking passage of the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act (Senate Bill 1668). Sponsored by his colleague, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), the measure would require any demolished public housing units to be replaced by other units available to low-income residents. Vitter can be reached in Washington at 202-224-4623 and New Orleans at 504-589-2753.

* Members of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, where SB 1668 is currently stuck. They are Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) at 202-224-6361, Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) at 202- 224-5941, Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) at 202-224-5623, Robert Bennett (R-Utah) at 202-224-5444, Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) at 202-224-2315, Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) at 202-224-4343, Tom Carper (D-Del.) at 202-224-2441, Robert Casey (D-Pa.) at 202-224-6324, Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) at 202-224-6142, Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) at 202-224-2823, Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.) at 202-224-6342, Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.) at 202-224-3424, Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) at 202-224-4224, Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) at 202-224-1638, Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) at 202-224-3041, Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) at 202-224-4744, Jack Reed (D-R.I.) at 202-224-4642, Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) at 202-224-0420, Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) at 202-224-5744, John Sununu (R-N.H.) at 202-224-2841 and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) at 202-224-2644.

Send information about any solidarity actions to action@peopleshurricane.org with "Solidarity" in the subject line. If you have any questions, contact the
Stop the Demolition Coalition at action@peopleshurricane.org or call 504-458-3494. For more information on the issues at stake and planned protest actions, visit the websites of Defend New Orleans Public Housing , Justice for New Orleans, and the People's Hurricane Relief Fund http://www.peopleshurricane.org/.

Labels: affordable housing, hud, katrina, New Orleans, public housing

 

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12/08/2007 11:50:00 AM 0 comments

 

Support Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act of 2007 S. 1668

by Dollars and Sense

We received this from Amelie Ratliff of Mass Action for the Gulf Coast:

Finally, there's a bill in Congress that would help some of the hardest hit Katrina survivors come back home. Unfortunately, it is about to die because some members of the Senate think it's fine for certain New Orleanians— specifically those who are Black and poor—to be shut out of the city.

I just called on my senators to support the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act of 2007 (S. 1668). It would re-open desperately needed housing and make sure there is no loss of affordable public housing in New Orleans. Please join me by contacting your senators and check out powerful videos about the housing situation in New Orleans created by Brave New Foundation and as part of the Voices from the Gulf Project. It takes just a moment:

http://www.colorofchange.org/s1668/?id=1834-142331

Saving Affordable Housing in New Orleans

New Orleans public housing residents have been fighting for over two years to return to apartments that were minimally damaged by the storm. But the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has shut them out, because it wants to demolish most of the available public housing units—and replace them with far fewer mixed-income housing.[1] The vast majority of the most affordable public housing units, pushing thousands of mostly Black low-income residents out of the city.

S.1668 honors the right to return of all New Orleans public housing residents. It requires the re-opening of at least 3,000 public housing units and ensures that there is no net loss of units available and affordable to public housing residents. It also designates $1.7 billion for rental housing assistance and earmarks millions for community development programs, which will benefit an even larger segment of the lower income population. But the bill is in danger of dying -- because some senators are opposed to preserving affordable public housing.

It's hard to know what motivates each senator, but it's an open secret that many folks have a desire to see a richer and Whiter post-Katrina New Orleans, and many of them have a great deal of political influence. Senators like David Vitter (La.) and Richard Shelby (Al.) appear to be playing to those interests by standing in the way of this legislation, and others are following their lead. If they win, it will be yet another instance of the federal government abandoning those most vulnerable during and after Katrina.

The Gulf Coast needs a housing policy that welcomes all citizens home, especially those who need the most help coming home. Senate bill 1668 is an opportunity to do that. Please join us in demanding that your senator support the bill.

http://www.colorofchange.org/s1668/?id=1834-142331

Thanks.

Labels: affordable housing, Gulf Coast, housing bubble, hud, katrina, New Orleans, public housing, S. 1668

 

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11/16/2007 03:12:00 PM 0 comments