NEWSBYBERTHA LEWIS

Hello everyone!

Thursday was a pretty exciting day for us. Earlier I announced our plans for formally launching the HomeStaying Campaign, in which families facing eviction for foreclosure will announce plans to stay in their homes, and Home Defender teams will stand in solidarity with those homeowners. This is part of our larger campaign to address the foreclosure crisis at the heart of the economic meltdown. We did the launch in seven cities, from Baltimore, Maryland to Orlando, Florida, to Oakland, California and they were all inspiring!

For example, in Baltimore, ACORN member Donna Hanks re-took her home. Foreclosed on last Fall, the house has stood empty since then, a stark reminder of the failure of the system. But Donna joined with 30 ACORN members to liberate her home from the bank. Her act of civil disobedience was covered by 2 radio stations, 2 TV stations, the Baltimore Sun, and the Huffington Post.

Donna used bolt cutters to break the lock to the door and re-enter the home. Unfortunately, in the six short months since the home was seized, it has been extensively damaged, essentially partially gutted. The toilets are missing, and the upstairs ceiling is badly damaged. The greatest tragedy here is that Donna worked for months with ACORN sister organization ACORN Housing Corporation to try to get the bank to modify the loan so it could be affordable, but they refused, taking the home and now allowing it to be a haven for squatters and a target of looters.

Donna, on the other hand, is committed to the cause of saving families from foreclosure and winning a comprehensive package of policies to address this crisis. She joined with ACORN before she lost her home and vowed to return to it sometime. That happened Thursday.

People like Donna represent the heart of the foreclosure crisis that President Obama took the first steps to address with his announcement on Wednesday in Phoenix of a $75 billion package of policy adjustments and legislation.

Arizona ACORN members organized a watch party of the announcement, which was covered by local media.

I would argue that in terms of addressing the specific genesis of our present crisis – the toxic assets crippling the financial sector – the announcement today is of greater magnitude than the economic recovery bill he signed on Tuesday. For without a plan to address the predicted 8-9 million foreclosures over the next 4 years, that’s in addition to the 2.3 million that occurred in 2008 with a total estimated cost to the economy of over $850 billion, attempts to spur an economic recovery will fail. There can be no long-term solution without addressing the immediate foreclosure crisis.

That’s why we’re doing the HomeStaying campaign. Now that the President has announced a commitment to helping people stay in their homes, it would be a double tragedy for people to lose them. And policy makers need to be reminded of the human toll this crisis is taking.

ACORN’s Foreclosure Campaign will continue until the crisis has passed. We will continue to work to save individual families who are caught up in the mess through the ACORN Home Defenders. And we will fight against the fat cats and their allies in Congress who will attempt to stop the proposed solutions, so that we can take another step on the road to economic recovery.

(Friends, I'm thrilled to feature this guest post by Bertha Lewis, CEO & Chief Organizer for ACORN, detailing the scope of the foreclosure crisis and ACORN's response. This is part of an on-going series with ACORN here at Change.org. - Leigh)

Yesterday, President Obama announced a $75 billion program to address the challenge that foreclosures pose to our collective economic future with an orientation towards helping families stay in their homes. But the provisions in the President's proposals won't be implemented for weeks and months. Between now and then there are still 2.3 million families in the country facing foreclosure proceedings. And one new family joins them every 13 seconds. The reality is that everyone is affected by this crisis; the foreclosure epidemic is at the heart of our economic meltdown.

So, today, Thursday Feb 19, ACORN members and community activists in seven cities are formally launching the HomeStaying Campaign, in which families facing eviction for foreclosure will announce plans to stay in their homes, and Home Defender teams will stand in solidarity with those homeowners.