Housing Advocates Launch Civil Disobedience Movement

{snip}

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the nation’s largest community organization of low and moderate-income families, has trained volunteers how to peacefully sit-in and prevent a homeowner from being evicted because of foreclosure.

{snip}

“We’re standing together, helping to keep families in their homes until there is a comprehensive solution to the foreclosure crisis,” said Julia Boyd of ACORN.

The campaign was launched this morning outside the Laurelton, Queens home of Myrna Millington. The 73-year-old’s home was foreclosed in September and has already been scheduled for auction once. If there is a winning bid, Millington will be served an eviction notice.

{snip}

President Barack Obama announced a mortgage recovery program on Wednesday that will go into effect on March 4 and aims to save nine million homes from foreclosure. The plan allows families to negotiate loan modifications and restructure mortgages.

ACORN organizers are calling for a one-year moratorium for all foreclosures across the state that have already been filed.

“For too long now, families have been losing their homes because of terrible loans that Wall Street gave out, and banks gave out, and now they’re taking these people’s homes,” said ACORN community organizer Jon Westin.

{snip}

A spokesman with the mayor’s office says that citywide more than 4,000 foreclosed homes eventually went to auction in 2008, a significant increase from the year before.

{snip}

The ACORN campaign will continue until the president’s homeowners’ recovery package is officially in place.