Eight million people are at risk of losing their homes because Wall Street abandoned responsible lending practices to gain short-term profits. The housing crisis is not just a problem for families facing foreclosure - it's a problem for every homeowner in America. As long as foreclosures persist, home values will keep going down, and everyone loses.
We need your help. Have you been affected by the housing meltdown? Foreclosed on? Underwater? Record your story, or the story of a friend, family member, or neighbor, and send it to us. You can also add your written story along with a photo for the map. Then, watch the video stories of the families, mothers, fathers, and children who have lost, or are losing the place they call home.
Last Wednesday, a miracle happened. More than 30 people showed up at 6AM in front of a neighbor’s house to do one thing: save it from foreclosure. Martha and Eddie Daniels, tenants in the house in Oakland, California, were about to be evicted because their landlord had been taking their rent, but not paying the mortgage. The sheriff was coming to put them out, and the Daniels were in danger of joining the millions of families who have lost their homes in this crisis. But the community, working with ACORN members and staff, came together to say, “Not this time. Not here. Not now.”
ACORN members rallied their neighbors, spoke with local media, including one radio station that broadcast live from the home, and flooded the Sheriff’s office with calls urging compassion and forbearance of the scheduled eviction. Meanwhile, ACORN Housing Corporation worked furiously behind the scenes with the lender to negotiate a stay on the eviction, which successfully came through.
This is one story from the front lines of America’s economic meltdown, a crisis which contains one issue above all others at its heart: foreclosures.
The GOP and Fox News have been ganging up on the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) like a couple of bullies picking on the scrawniest kid in the schoolyard–and they can only push that kid so far until he gives them a well-deserved bloody nose. Last week, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) unjustly accused ACORN of receiving a $4.19 billion bailout from President Obama’s economic stimulus package. His false claims were echoed by Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) on Fox, who claimed this money was a “payoff” for ACORN’s activism in the last election. That was all it took for bloviators Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Malkin to resuscitate allegations of ACORN’s voter fraud. They even blamed the low- and moderate-income advocacy group for the subprime meltdown, rather than discuss the banks actually caused this mess and have subsequently received tens of billions in bailout funds they continue to squander.
These cries amount to nothing more than fearmongering in the name of obstructionism, what ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis called “a complete fabrication of overheated partisan fever dreams.” As Congress Matters noted, the $4.19 billion was actually set aside for “neighborhood stabilization activities related to emergency assistance for the redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed homes.” In other words, any non-profit housing developer could bid on this money.
Here comes the bloody nose. Yesterday, the organization sent a letter to Boehner’s office and media in Ohio shooting down each and every accusation and attacking Boehner on his home turf, a district where more than 4,800 families faced foreclosure in 2008 alone. They also went after Boehner’s record of voting against the Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 and the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act. Simultaneously, they’re asking everyone to contact their Senators and tell them to support the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a version of which passed in the House last week despite the GOP’s partisan rancor.
