The Fabulous Five and Resurgence of a Housing Justice Movement:

Homeowners, Renters and Homeless families Unite For Secure, Affordable Housing For All

Fannie Mae wants Virginia Wooten and her son on the street by October 8.  You hear “Fannie Mae” and think of a kind aunt that will do anything to help you out.  Not this Fannie Mae.  This Fannie Mae does not care that Ms. Wooten has been in her home for 17 years, has raised 9 children there-- 7 of them adopted, has paid more than $200,000 on a house worth $120,000 and has just lost her job and is looking for another one.  All Fannie cares about is kicking her out and selling her home to an investor.

Virginia Wooten is one of The Fabulous Five, including Nell Myhand, CJJC's Oakland Homeowner Clinic Coordinator, who went to jail fighting for her home and for millions of others in the same boat.  The civil disobedience culminated a month of action against the mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. 

As Nell said at the time, "I am taking an arrest to call attention to my demand for community control of housing. As Ella Baker said about the courageous young people who sat in at lunch counters in the segregated south during the Civil Rights Movement to challenge unjust law, 'It’s bigger than a hamburger.' " 

Impacted residents and supporters totaling over 1,500 protested at their regional headquarters in Chicago, Atlanta, New York and Los Angeles and at the national headquarters in DC.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have significant sway over the housing market by owning over half of all mortgages in this country and hundreds of thousands of vacant foreclosed homes.  Amongst all banks, they rank #1 in kicking people out of their homes.  And despite 80% public ownership, Fannie and Freddie remain loyal servants to Wall Street, not Main Street.

The Fabulous Five and the hundreds of residents with them included homeowners, renters and homeless families and individuals.  They represent a growing movement fighting for housing justice that includes principal reduction for homeowners, renters’ rights and affordable housing for all.  

Go back five years and you would be hard pressed to find a homeowner, a renter and homeless family identifying with each other’s plight much less linking arms in the street and getting carted off to jail together.  

These five women represent a growing movement of people who see the Big Banks and Wall Street as the cause of the economic crisis and their housing and job woes.  They are part of Right to the City’s Take Back the People’s Bank campaign and the fight to hold Wall Street and the government accountable to secure, affordable housing for homeowners, renters and homeless families.  Thousands of residents have joined this campaign as have Occupy Our Homes, Home Defenders League, and Alliance for a Just Society.

Read more: The Fabulous Five and Resurgence of a Housing Justice Movement:

Resources for San Francisco & Bay Area Tenants

We will be closed Monday, Dec. 24-Tuesday, Jan. 2. On Jan 2 our office will be open only from 1-5 PM. Below are resources if you are having a housing emergency over the holidays.  Para español, haga una click aqui.

EMERGENCY CASES

Eviction

Eviction Defense Collaborative (EDC)

1. Unlawful Detainer (Summons-Need to respond within 5 days)

2. Three-Day Notice to Pay/Cure or Quit

3. Sheriff’s Notice

You must respond immediately and will need legal assistance.

Go to the EDC:

995 Market St., #1200 (12^th floor) on the corner of 6^th & Market St.

415-947-0797

Open Monday through Friday from 9:30-11:30AM and 1-3PM

Closed December 25 and January 1. Closed the afternoon of January 4.

For rental assistance ask for the RADCO program.

Rent Assistance

Catholic Charities

180 Howard Street, #100

415-972-1200

Tenant’s Rights Counseling

Utility Shut offs

Water:               San Francisco Public Utilities Commission    (415) 551-3090

Garbage:            Sunset Scavenger Company (415) 330-1300

PG & E:             (800) 743-5000

For more information about your rights in the case of a utility shut off, call the San Francisco Rent Board at 415-252-4602.

Lock outs

If your landlord changes the locks, call the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) al (415) 553-0123.

FOR RESIDENTS OF OTHER CITIES

Alameda County

Contra Costa County

San Mateo County

Marin County

Happy Holidays, Now Get the Hell Out

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more info: Tommi Avicolli Mecca, Housing Rights Committee,  415-703-8634/ 361-2940, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

What: Protest against Ellis Act Evictions
When: Weds., Dec. 19 @ Noon
Where: 18th & Castro at the Xmas tree
Who: Tenants facing evictions in 3 neighborhoods; Housing groups

Happy Holidays, Now Get the Hell Out!

SAN FRANCISCO-- Tenants facing Ellis Act evictions from three neighborhoods will gather at the Xmas tree at 18th & Castro on Wednesday, December 19 at 12 noon to demand that City and state elected officials do something to stop their evictions and the evictions of other tenants who are being tossed out of their apartments during this holiday season.

Tenant organizations in San Francisco are reporting an increase in Ellis Act evictions motivated by a desire to sell apartments as tenancies-in-common (TICs).  "In the last 2 months our SF Tenant's Rights clinic has seen at least 5 Ellis Act cases through our office alone," says Lucia Kimble of Causa Justa/Just Cause.

Supervisor Scott Wiener, whose district includes 18th & Castro, has introduced legislation to allow up to 2,000 TICs to condo convert, a move that tenant advocates say will give more incentive to landlords and realtors to do more evictions.

The tenants facing eviction are from several different buildings in the Mission, Castro and Chinatown/North Beach. Among them are people with AIDS, seniors, immigrants and disabled people. Many are long-term tenants who have nowhere else to go.

“Imagine getting an eviction notice for the holidays, talk about the Grinch that stole Christmas!” said Tommi Avicolli Mecca of the Housing Rights Committee. “With the real-estate market so hot in the City right now, we can only expect that it’s going to get worse.”

Added Kimble, “It’s really the most vulnerable tenants and those least able to relocate that end up being targeted by the Ellis Act. It’s got to stop. City and state elected officials need to do something, and do it now.”

Co-sponsored by Housing Rights Committee, Causa Justa/Just Cause, Chinatown Community Development Corporation, Senior Disability Action, Gray Panthers, Community Not Commodity/Occupride, Occupy Housing, Interesting Times Gang, SF Tenants Union and others.

Manuel de Paz: Significant Step Forward

Manuel de Paz feels like a weigh has lifted off his shoulders. He has been fighting for his home for a long time. After being "dual-tracked" by Bank of America -- who tried to sell his Oakland home at auction in August 2012 while at the same time De Paz having an open loan modification application with the bank -- CJJC organized a raucous protest outside a B of A branch.[see story and details here]  

The bank then assigned a "social media" representative to monitor the loan modification process.

It took four more months of back and forth with the bank, but this week of Dec.10, 2012, the bank offered De Paz a temporary loan modification at a low interest and thus lowering his payments.

This is a significant victory because De Paz declined to pay his mortgage on his home which is seriously underwater. He had been working long hours  and was no longer willing to work 12-14 hours a day, two jobs, six days a week to pay the bank for a home worth a fraction of the mortgage.

De Paz, who provides social services to immigrants and refugees at a local church, understands the power of unity to fight for our rights.