In conjunction with the nomination, the Congressional Budget Office released a report detailing the $2.8 Billion that taxpayers could save were Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to commit to reducing principal balances on mortgages to their current market value. More here.

VICTORY! Campaign To #DumpDeMarco Celebrates Nomination of Permanent FHFA Director; Urges Watt To Support Principal Reduction

Occupy Our Homes Atlanta Joined With New Bottom Line’s 16-Month Campaign To Force Out:

“The biggest roadblock to our country’s economic recovery”

Since early 2012, Occupy Our Homes Atlanta has joined with New Bottom Line in driving the campaign to get President Obama to dump Ed DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Today, Occupy Our Homes Atlanta joined with New Bottom Line in celebrating the news that the president announced Rep. Mel Watt as the nominee to become the permanent director of FHFA. Occupy Our Homes Atlanta also urges Congressman Mel Watt to support principal reduction at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in his new position, as well as supporting the vital role they play in ensuring homeownership opportunities for all communities.

Occupy Our Homes Atlanta and New Bottom Line’s #DumpDeMarco campaign helped drive Ed DeMarco, a virtually unknown appointee from the Bush administration, into being known as the “the biggest roadblock to our country’s economic recovery.”

During his tenure, DeMarco blocked needed and sound economic policies such as principal reduction, which in turn helped to drive millions of homeowners into unneeded debt and foreclosure while holding down our country’s economic progress.

“This is a good day for homeowners and families across the state of Georgia and a big step in the right direction for our economy,” said Mark Harris with Occupy Our Homes Atlanta. “We now encourage Congressman Watt to implement common-sense policies like principal reduction to bring relief to tens of millions of homeowners like me and to jumpstart the economic progress our country needs.”

Occupy Our Homes Atlanta joined with New Bottom Line on a 16-month campaign that included:

• On the ground actions in 15 states, protests inside FHFA offices, at DeMarco’s home, and within a Congressional hearing
• Press conferences on Capitol Hill and in cities around the country with elected officials
• One-on-one meetings with state and national elected officials
• Online ad buys during the election in key battleground states and the 2013 state of the union
• Op-eds from Huffington Post to The Hill and producing media coverage from in national and local media outlets
• Driving housing into the 2012 national election debate
• Dynamic online organizing and high-impact social media execution from America Underwater, tens of thousands of petition signatures, and hundreds of calls into the White House

John Wieland Homes is one of the largest builders of upper-middle class suburban developments in the country. They build homes all across the south east and are headquartered in Georgia. Mike and his family were living in California when they commissioned a house to be built by John Wieland Homes. They paid for it up front and John Wieland Homes proceeded to build the house with forged and incomplete permits. The electrical permit for Mike’s house was denied.

When he and his family relocated to Georgia they discovered these problems after multiple water heaters and televisions blew out due to faulty wiring. When they discovered the permits were missing and/or forged it began to make more sense. John Wieland Homes refused to correct the problem and Mike has been fighting them sense.

This past year Mike and his disabled wife couldn’t live in the home they spent their savings on. They had to boil water for warm showers as their water heaters had blown out multiple times due to faulty wiring. They took out equity on the home they had paid cash for, and were then denied an insurance claim because the house wasn’t fully permitted. They lost their home to foreclosure late last year.

Today a group of Occupy Our Homes Atlanta members rolled in to John Wieland Homes’ posh suburban headquarters to voice these grievances. Mike Figaro met with the woman in charge of handling his former neighborhood’s homeowners association. She listened politely as Mike told his story and his supporters chimed in occasionally. Then she called her supervisor to further discuss the matter.

Her supervisor came downstairs with someone from John Wieland Homes’ legal department and things got heated. The supervisor was impolite and the legal aide was obviously flustered by the presence of Mike and his supporters. When the discussion heated up, and the legal aide seemed on the brink of a physical outburst, Mike and his supporters gave a deadline of the end of the week for further communication from John Wieland Homes and left the building to demonstrate outside.

The crowd of 10-15 held signs and banners in front of John Wieland Homes’ headquarters sign and handed out information to those that walked by, cars that stopped to see what was going on, and people about to walk in to the building to do business with John Wieland Homes.

If there is no response by Friday, Mike and OOHA will escalate and continue putting political pressure on John Wieland Homes in a way they have obviously never felt before.

This action was the latest in a push to force GMAC to make a deal with Ms. Barber. Her cancer is getting worse, and she is just out of the hospital from an operation on her back made necessary by the injury that ended her career a decade ago. Jacqueline needs all her strength available to fight her cancer, but GMAC has filed a writ of possession and is threatening to evict. While US Bank, trustee to the securitized pool owned by GMAC that Jacqueline’s home was bundled into, has acknowledged the horror in this situation and said they would make a deal as quickly as possible were the decision in their hands, GMAC has not.

GMAC has the final say on what happens with Ms. Barber’s home. GMAC also happens to be a mortgage giant that received billions in bail out money, failed to repay it, and is now being sliced and diced out of existence as its parent

company, Ally Financial, puts it through bankruptcy. Hopefully today’s action at the GMAC office in Minneapolis was a reminder that no matter how hard GMAC is trying to disappear, Jacqueline Barber’s life is still in their hands. Now it’s time they make the right choice, and make a deal Ms. Barber and her family can afford.

Jacqueline’s fight has been a long one. It began when Wells Fargo doubled her monthly mortgage payments back in 2008. Foreclosure proceedings began against her as she battled her first bout of bone marrow cancer in 2009. Her son took her to NACA events in a wheelchair to wait in line for hours before being told nothing could be done. She paid a con-artist consultant (a type of business that thrived in Atlanta during the worst of the crisis) thousands of dollars after they guaranteed to solve her mortgage problems. After three years of struggle with various financial institutions and successfully beating her cancer into remission, Jacqueline’s home was auctioned off on the steps of the county courthouse in March of 2012, sealing her foreclosure and turning the home over to US Bank as trustee for a GMAC trust.

In Georgia homeowners have few ways to defend themselves against foreclosure and eviction, so Jacqueline declared bankruptcy to earn a stay on eviction proceedings. In October she reached out to Occupy Our Homes Atlanta (OOHA), became a member, and started her fight outside of the legal system which is set up for monied interests to dominate.

Around October the stress of the overbearing threat of her family being evicted pushed her cancer out of remission. She began undergoing treatment again as OOHA and allies found evidence of massive fraud and forgery in her mortgage documents. Jacqueline, friends, and allies flew from Atlanta to Minneapolis to demand a deal be worked out. Thousands of people have signed Jacqueline’s online petition, made calls, and sent emails on her behalf.

Since OOHA began pressuring US Bank and GMAC, they have agreed to sell her home back at market value, about the price they bought it for at auction in March of 2012. For five months Jacqueline has paid $1800 into a court registry, far more than a fair monthly payment on a mortgage would be. Jacqueline’s pension is more than enough to cover mortgage payments, and the family has gathered enough to make a 15% down payment on financing towards the repurchase. As a result of the bankruptcies she filed her credit is less-than-prime. And thanks to the housing crisis caused by the speculation of financial institutions like GMAC and US Bank, the only people getting financing from the most popular institutions are those that rode out the crisis with pristine credit and ample wealth for a down payment.

Jacqueline has the income and family support to afford her home at a time when she needs stability the most. There are two things standing in her way 1) lack of financing and 2) US Bank and GMAC’s willingness to evict a retired police detective with rapidly spreading bone marrow cancer. If they come to evict, OOHA will defend the home non-violently alongside Jacqueline and her family.

Contact Occupy Our Homes Atlanta at info@occupyourhomesatl.org or call at (678)-744 9303 if you’d like to get more involved or help in any way.

- Rob Call

anonymous activists dropped two banners over the downtown connector during morning rush hour. They read “#DumpDeMarco” and “Fannie Mae Settle with Mark Today”. They hung over the side of the 5

On Wednesday April 10^th members of Occupy Our Homes Atlanta gathered in a north east Atlanta neighborhood to draw attention to someone that thrives on anonymity, Catherine Lasher, southern regional vice president of Fannie Mae. Led by OOHA member and resident-in-struggle Mark Harris a group of about twenty people gathered beside the Occupy bus in front of Catherine “Candy” Lasher’s private residence. We gathered to draw attention to the fact that Candy Lasher could make a decision to make a deal Mark can afford, keep him in his home, and remove the burden and discomfort of peeking out the window daily checking for sheriff’s deputies ready to evict. We held a candlelight vigil to let Ms. Lasher experience some uneasy window-peeking herself.

When we arrived it was obvious that Ms. Lasher and her family were not at home. It was still light out and we decided to canvass the neighborhood, letting people know that we were there to raise awareness of Mark’s situation and pressure Ms. Lasher to make the call to keep Mark in his home. After speaking to a few residents we were told that a notice had gone out on the neighborhood’s listserv and people were warned of our presence, which explained the furtive looks through window blinds and undercover police officer posing as a landscaper with an entirely unused lawnmower.

After letting people know why we were standing in Catherine Lasher’s yard, we held a candlelight vigil to dwell on Mark’s fight, how we can win through solidarity, and how life can be better when the powerful are made uncomfortable. After a drive by from an unmarked police car and attention from an obvious undercover officer posing as a landscaper with a lawnmower that had never been used, we marched down Candy’s driveway with our candles and Mark delivered a demand letter. Candy wasn’t home, and no one came to the door, so Mark left the letter tucked between the door and the knob. She got the message, we’re sure.

Finally, to wrap up the week of action Mark held an Eviction Free Fish Fry at his home on Friday April 12^th. Supporters came out to share a meal and solidarity with Mark. After everyone had eaten their fill we gathered on Mark’s front lawn to learn how exactly we would defend Mark’s house. We trained in soft and hard eviction blockades as police officers rolled by, reminding us that the order to evict Mark could come down from Fannie Mae any day.

We thank everyone who participated in this amazing week of action. Moving forward we plan to continue organizing to keep Mark in his home. We also have a contingency plan. We’re currently organizing Mark’s neighborhood to stand by Mark should an eviction order come through the courts. We’re committed to fighting Mark’s eviction on all fronts: in the courts, with public pressure, and with non-violent direct action.

Upon entering the conference room Mike’s party of seven (Mike, Patrice, two local pastors, a disability advocate, Rob Call with OOHA, and Tim Franzen with AFSC) were met with a lone Fulton County employee who promptly asked, “Uh, am I in the right meeting?”

After being assured that this was in fact the meeting to discuss the fraudulent permits and certificates behind the pain the Figaros have faced for years, the employee left the conference room. Shortly after, the two pastors were called back into the commissioner’s office by his chief of staff, Deloris J. Baskin. After the pastors had left the room Ms. Baskin then came into the conference room and asked for everyone’s name and organizational affiliation, so she could have a sense of who was in the room. Mike and Patrice introduced themselves. Rob introduced himself as a community organizer with Occupy Our Homes Atlanta, and Tim introduced himself as a program director with American Friends Service Committee. The other advocate in the room introduced himself as a disability advocate with Zuma Press.

Ms. Baskin’s tone changed almost immediately upon hearing that both a member of the press and someone affiliated with Occupy was in the room. She promptly stated that Mike and Patrice’s meeting would simply be canceled unless the three people with “Occupy Atlanta” or the press left the room immediately. She specifically stated that “no one with Occupy Atlanta would be allowed in this meeting.” This was contrary to what had been agreed to by the commissioner when setting up the meeting. The media advocate agreed to recuse himself from the meeting and went to the lobby to wait.

When pressed on the issue Ms. Baskin claimed that Occupy affiliates were not allowed in the meeting because their names had not specifically been on the form used to request the meeting. Mike told Ms. Baskin that he had gotten final confirmation on attendees only days before, and regardless, the commissioner knew he was bringing allies and advocates. Ms. Baskin was asked whether or not the pastors’ names had been submitted. She said they hadn’t been but it didn’t matter because both she and the commissioner knew the clergy as they work in South Fulton. When confronted with the fact that OOHA and AFSC have members and do work in South Fulton she said it didn’t matter. The meeting wouldn’t happen with Rob or Tim in the room.

Rob and Tim agreed to step out of the meeting as long as they were assured the meeting would still take place. Upon stepping out of the conference room they continued to question Ms. Baskin on the legitimacy of excluding people from a public meeting for obviously politically biased reasons. When Ms. Baskin refused to answer she called a uniformed police officer to escort Rob and Tim away from the conference room.

Under threat of arrest they complied and headed towards the lobby. Upon trying to take a seat in the lobby to wait for Mike and Patrice’s meeting to conclude, the armed officer again threatened them with arrest if they did not leave the building. After some protest the officer issued a “lawful order” for them to leave the building or “face arrest and charges of obstruction of justice.” They left the building and were again threatened with arrest if they waited on the stairs. They began walking toward one of their personal vehicles to wait and were again threatened with arrest if they didn’t leave the parking lot.

Finally the officer had deemed that Tim and Rob had gone far enough not to face threat of arrest for waiting for a resident fighting for justice to exit a meeting, what in his and Ms. Baskin’s opinion is considered obstructing justice.

Instead of allowing two community advocates to sit down and have a non-antagonistic conversation with the commissioner over forged and un-notarized documents coming out of Fulton County government, the commissioner made an enemy. Rob and Tim quickly organized a call-in to try to find answers as to why they had been evicted from the meeting.

Mike and Patrice, along with the clergy they had brought along, met with half a dozen county employees to discuss their case for nearly three hours. They said that throughout the entire meeting the commissioner’s phone was ringing off the hook with people calling to ask why Rob and Tim had been kicked out. At one point Ms. Baskin asked the Figaros if they could please get people to stop calling because they were now rendered unable to make or receive any calls besides those related to the earlier incident. The Figaros replied that it would be impolite for them to get on the phone during a meeting they had waited months for, and that if Rob and Tim had been allowed to stay in the meeting the commissioner and his chief of staff could ask them personally, instead you kicked them out and now you can’t use your phones.

At the end of a three hour long meeting the Figaros managed to take a step towards justice in their case. One of the county employees present concurred with the Figaro’s that one of the documents used to construct their home had been forged. Commissioner Edwards promised to open an investigation and would have results within 60 days.

After having his phones shut down for at least a full business day hopefully the commissioner realizes that it’s better to have Occupy Our Homes Atlanta as a friend instead of an enemy. Should the commissioner lag in his response, OOHA will be there to hold him accountable.