There’s a flier for an upcoming march and rally making the rounds around Philadelphia, and it’s an interesting sign of the times: while most demonstrations are held to push for change in political institutions, this is a protest against the practices of an economic institution: foreclosure by banks. Although the foreclosure rate in the Philadelphia area is lower than in the Sun Belt, 7.3% of those who own houses in Pennsylvania have found the value of their house sink below the value of the loan to pay for their house. With a large number of people find themselves simultaneously struggling to keep a job and to keep their house, the answer is not as simple as the old line “Get a Job,” because for a lot of people there is no job to be found.
In Philadelphia this upcoming Monday, people will be marching to put a halt to foreclosures altogether:
March to Stop the War on American Families
“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people!” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
One in five families is in foreclosure in America. Join us as we lift up the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Stop foreclosures now!
January 17th – 12:00 PM
West Side of City Hall (across from Love Park)Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign
2200 Coral St Phila, PA 19125(216) 651-2606
info@economichumanrights.org
I agree that there needs to be a fix but I am not sure stopping all forclosures is going to solve any problem. These are mostly private institutions with loan agreements to private individuals. The terms of the contract have been defaulted. What does a bank do when someone hasnt paid the bill in 6 months or a year? Surely we cant expect them to provide free rent for everyone.
I dont know that I have a solution, but altogether stopping them seems off. That doesnt make any sense.
I agree with you that this is a really tricky problem.
Also, I have to think that in many cases a forclosure, although it may not feel as such, can be a really good thing for a person. Imagine the crushing pressure of being behind thousands of dollars in payments and the overwhelming thoughts of never being able to catch up. Also, you cant possibly sell the house because the market fell out fro under you so you owe more than you can get.
I would imagine that forclosure would be a relief in that position.
Maybe, but that’s like saying death is a relief compared to the suffering involved in end-stage brain cancer: neither one is a Sunday picnic.
The problem now is that there are too many foreclosures. Banks are too insensitive, along with governments, to the needs of poor people. So, as activists, we’ll push relentlessly in the other direction. We’re not politicians and it’s not our responsibility, at this point in time at least, to hash out specifics.
Oh, yeah, I forgot: thanks goes out to Ross Levin for tipping me off to this upcoming event.
So this went really well. It was led by Cheri Honkala, the national director/coordinator/I forget the exact title of the Poor Peoples’ Economic Human Rights Campaign. There were a few people who talked, including a reverend who led some prayers, about having their houses illegally foreclosed on, and one woman will lose her house tomorrow. We went to several banks, and at a few of them the employees were sneakily laughing at us. We went inside the building where the Philadelphia Sheriff works and continued the demonstration inside the lobby, where police started showing up (no one was arrested, but they didn’t let Cheri use the elevator to go up to the sheriff’s office). Cheri then said that if our demands aren’t met, she might just have to run for sheriff with the Green Party!
There were several other demonstrations and political gatherings in Philly today, along with a lot of service projects.
Here’s the only online report I could find of this march, but my mom heard some on the radio, too:
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/11290-17tmmarch