Occupy Wall Street demonstrators and other housing activists are heading to neighborhoods hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis to protest mortgage lenders’ mistreatment of homeowners. Protesters in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and other cities are expected to visit neighborhoods for one scheduled day of protests on Dec. 6.
Occupy Our Homes Rallies Against Foreclosure Crisis
In a continued effort to make their voices heard through demonstrations across the country, Occupy Wall Street participants are now speaking out against the mistreatment of homeowners who have been wrongfully foreclosed in the past year through a protest known as Occupy Our Homes.
The one-day event is partly a response to last year’s robo-signing scandal where major mortgage servicers illegally created computer-generated signatures to quickly approve foreclosures rather than processing them appropriately through the court system.
Millions of homeowners have been impacted by the scandal. As a result, government officials have required banks to conduct foreclosure reviews for potentially wrongful foreclosures and pay homeowners when “a borrower suffered financial injury.” However, Occupy Our Homes protesters say that lawmakers should go a step further by implementing a foreclosure moratorium.
Occupy Wall Street protesters also argue that big banks have made billions of dollars from the housing bubble thanks to predatory loans that included balloon payments, variable rates and other features that they designed. They believe banks chose borrowers who were least capable of paying their loans in order to make the greatest profit on defaults.
Occupy Our Homes Protesters Will Attempt to Stop Evictions
In an attempt to put a stop to the foreclosure crisis, Occupy Our Homes protesters will try to stop police from evicting residents of homes in 25 cities. They are also expected to occupy homes that have already been foreclosed on and currently lie vacant.
In New York, protesters plan to march to Brooklyn’s East New York neighborhood then occupy a foreclosed home that has been vacant for years in the area. In Los Angeles, protesters will set up camps and stay overnight on the lawns of two homes whose families refuse to leave, despite planned court-ordered evictions.
“The Occupy Wall Street movement and brave homeowners around the country are coming together to say, ‘Enough is enough,’” protesters said in a press release. ”We, the 99 percent, are standing up to Wall Street banks and demanding they negotiate with homeowners instead of fraudulently foreclosing on them.”
