BROADCAST TO ASK, "WHY NOT END HOMELESSNESS NOW?"

13th Annual Homelessness Marathon begins 7 p.m., EST, Tues. Feb 23rd
and run for 14 hours until 9 a.m., EST, Wed. Feb. 24th

"We have a mindset in this country that homelessness is a problem that can wait," comments Jeremy Weir Alderson, founder of the Homelessness Marathon, "but it's a dire emergency for the people who are homeless, a drain on our economy, and a stain on our national honor. We ought to solve this problem, and we could if we would only turn our attention to it."

The Homelessness Marathon will address the problem of homelessness by speaking directly with homeless people, who will give their first-hand testimony on how they became homeless and the obstacles they face before they can be housed again.

Hundreds of homeless people will be brought by bus (in rotating shifts) so that they can participate in this event and speak directly to the nation. They will be brought by shelters, advocacy groups, and grass roots organizations formed by homeless people themselves.

The broadcast will feature, as well, such speakers as Senator Carl Levin; Ron Gettlefinger, president of the United Auto Workers; and two of America's most outstanding anti-poverty advocates, Cheri Honkala, director of the Poor Peoples' Economic Human Rights Campaign and Paul Boden, director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project.

Prominent advocates from Detroit will participate, including Rev. Faith Fowler, director of Cass Community Social Services and Maureen Taylor, the state chairperson of Michigan Welfare Rights Organization.

Experts from elsewhere in the country will also participate, including Kathleen Johnson, director of Katrina Relief in Mississippi and Mike Rhodes, editor of the Community Alliance newspaper in Fresno, California, arguably, the cruelest city in America towards its homeless citizens.

The broadcast will originate from 12025 Woodrow Wilson St., a "green gym" recently opened by Cass Community Social Services for the use of its homeless clients. Detroit area radio stations participating in the broadcast will include, WHFR in Dearborn, the broadcast's host station; WHPR in Highland Park and CJAM in Windsor, Ontario.

The Homelessness Marathon is a consciousness-raising not a fund-raising broadcast. There will be no on-air solicitations.

More information about the broadcast can be found at: http://www.homelessnessmarathon.org.

Acclaim for the broadcast can be found at:
http://homelessnessmarathon.org/2008/2009/thank-yous-acclaim.html

To donate to the Homelessness Marathon go to:
https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=8154

Labels: Carl Levin, Cheri Honkala, Homelessness Marathon, Kathleen Johnson, Maureen Taylor, Mike Rhodes, MWRO, Paul Boden, PPEHRC, Rev. Faith Folwer, Ron Gettlefinger, WRAP

Optimism about an economy recovery may lead many to believe that jobs, housing, health care and other trappings of an American middle class lifestyle could be around the corner. However, this New York Times article titled, The New Poor - Despite Signs of Recovery, Long-Term Unemployment Rises - Series - NYTimes.com, suggests that a better, more stable future is unlikely for those hit hardest by the economic meltdown. In fact, the standard of living for Americans who've been foreclosed, laid off, injured or fallen sick without health care, besieged by debt, could very well be permanently ratcheted down to the ranks of the poor and dispossessed.

March 9 will be Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign Night at Natural High! What does that mean?

Along with a full evening of music and poetry, the special guest speaker will be Cheri Honkala, national director of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign. Cheri will give a report from the front lines about how people in every state are joining together to fight foreclosures and how artists everywhere are becoming part of the struggle.

Timeka Drew of Natural High will explain her revolutionary concept of "Social Capital" and break down how it can empower artists to change the world.

Come on out and get connected!

More info: timekadrew@gmail.com


Natural High
Tuesday
March 9
9 PM
Industry Cafe and Jazz
6039 Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA
Hosts: Lady T and Talissa Love
donation requested

Labels: CA PPEHRC, Cheri Honkala, Natural High, Timeka Drew

On Standby...

As our governor cuts scant resources to the poorest, we await
decisions by the rich and powerful.

Barbara Byrd still is in her home and has heard not one word from her
bank since October of '09. Her law suit filed against them in court
still stands.

Linda Norenberg remains in her home, waiting for her bank to offer her
affordable terms in writing to follow up on their verbal offer over
the phone.

Leslie Parks, still in her home, is looking for a reference from any
of you for a reliable, honest appraiser. The bank's appraiser came in
with a valuation report, and now she needs a second opinion before
proceeding with negotiations. Please reply to this email if you know
of a good realtor and/or appraiser. Thank you.

Ann Patterson is unsure may have received final word from her bank.
Their verbal terms were uonafforable. She is determined to bring about
a resolution soon.

As each situation changes, TIME IS ON OUR SIDE. We keep on learning
while we wait. You won't want to miss the video below passed along by
Ann Galloway that explains why IndyMac One West bank resists
remodifying loans:

http://www.thinkbigworksmall.com/mypage/player/tbws/23088/1572747

And remember there IS grass beneith all that snow- to inspire us in
our grass roots organizing where lies the power of the people. Carry
on everybody!
Minnesota Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign
PO Box 6316
MPLS, MN 55406-9998
www.mnppehrc.wordpress.com

Homeowners take a radical stance on foreclosures.

By Daniel Denvir
Posted Feb. 16, 2010
Original Article: http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/Fighting-Against-Foreclosures.html




Kensington Welfare Rights Union Coordinator Galen Tyler was on the march in 2000.

Ray Sanchez is three months behind on his mortgage payments. The North Philadelphia native is confident that Bank of America, which took over his mortgage after subprime connoisseurs Countrywide Financial went south, will soon move to foreclose. But Sanchez isn’t looking for an apartment or thinking about crashing with friends—he’s not going anywhere.

“I couldn’t just give up all my hard work. The house is basically my dream come true,” says 30-year-old Sanchez, who was laid off last year after working four years at Home Depot. “I’ve done everything I’m supposed to do.“

Standing up to save his home, Sanchez has joined a movement of homeowners that are preparing to resist foreclosure—and face arrest if need be. The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign is currently reaching out to property owners across the city and linking them up with neighbors who are in a similar predicament so that they can resist en masse. If the police come to evict them, homeowners and community supporters will employ non-violent civil disobedience and refuse to leave the property.

The Campaign is a national organization that grew out of Philly’s Kensington Welfare Rights Union, whose housing takeovers and protests during the economic boom of the ’90s drew national attention to the plight of the working poor and homeless. With the foreclosure epidemic now dragging even middle-class families into crisis, Philadelphia is once again poised to become the epicenter for the radical housing rights movement.

“It’s like a finger in the dam,” says the Campaign’s executive director Cheri Honkala, discussing an expected surge of home foreclosures. “And it’s going to burst.”

The foreclosure crisis has already forced millions from their homes and brought the global economy to its knees. In January alone, 88,000 people had their homes repossessed, a 31 percent increase from last year. By this June, an estimated 5.1 million Americans are expected to be “underwater,” according to The New York Times, meaning they will owe more on their home than the property is worth.

Activists say Obama has gone soft on banks that refuse to modify loans, occasional tough talk notwithstanding. Now, the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign says grassroots action is the only option left.

“People always say ‘Cheri doesn’t work within the system,’” says Honkala. “Well, the system doesn’t work.”

Honkala, 47, has been an irritant to Philadelphia officials over the past decades. The brash and energetic founder of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union and Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign has led building takeovers and established tent cities full of the homeless and poor. After leaving the city for two years, the formerly homeless mother of two and longtime welfare recipient is back in town and busy organizing homeowners facing foreclosure—and she knows what she’s doing.

The Kensington Welfare Rights Union was founded in 1991 to protest for the rights of welfare recipients, demonized in the media as lazy welfare queens. Honkala and the organization were immortalized in Inquirer reporter David Zucchino’s 1997 book The Myth of the Welfare Queen .

The Union’s first action was to take over an abandoned welfare office at the corner of Front and York, which they turned into a community center—until police arrested them. Many arrests would follow: in houses, apartments, churches and at the Liberty Bell. Honkala says the Union has secured housing for hundreds of Philadelphia families, many of whom have also been arrested in protest actions. Honkala has been arrested over 80 times.

During the late ’70s Honkala became pregnant at age 16 after years bouncing around the Minnesota child welfare system. She and her 8-year-old ended up homeless and sleeping in her car until a drunk driver totaled it. Hearing that the government kept the heat on in publicly owned properties so the pipes wouldn’t freeze, she moved into an empty house owned by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. She was arrested so she moved in to another. And then another.

Honkala has spent the last two years organizing back in her native Twin Cities, helping five local women resist foreclosure and organizing raucous protests against the 2008 Republican National Convention. Having established a new Campaign chapter, she returned to Philadelphia in August and is working out of offices in a Fishtown Lutheran church.

Housing activism in Philly slowed down in her absence, and Honkala says the powers that be are not happy she’s back.

“When I came back to the city, I went down to the foreclosure court,” says a bemused Honkala. “They ID’d me and escorted me out.”

In an ironic twist, Honkala says the city offered her work as a housing counselor after hearing of her return, a job she unsurprisingly refused.

“She just got back into town. Let’s offer her money so she doesn’t do the crazy shit she does,” says Honkala, laughing as she imagines what people in City Hall must have been thinking.

Philadelphia has received accolades for its foreclosure prevention program, which has helped keep a number of homeowners off the street. But while she concedes the situation in Philly is slightly better than in most cities, Honkala is not impressed. “What Philly has done is put you on life support even though they’re eventually going to pull the plug.”

The political and legal climate to resist foreclosures couldn’t be better. For one, almost everyone hates the banks. Secondly, the courts seem to be coming around. Banks packaged mortgages into complex securities and sold them off during the housing bubble. It made them a lot of money in the short run, even though it eventually brought down the economy. But in their rush to make big money, many banks didn’t keep accurate records of property ownership, and courts have recently ruled that if a bank can’t definitively prove that it owns a home, it can’t foreclose on it.

Labels: Cheri Honkala, Countrywide, Galen Tyler, KWRU, Obama, PPEHRC

BROADCAST TO ASK, "WHY NOT END HOMELESSNESS NOW?"

  13th Annual Homelessness Marathon begins 7 p.m., EST, Tues. Feb 23rd
        and run for 14 hours until 9 a.m., EST, Wed. Feb. 24th

"We have a mindset in this country that homelessness is a problem that can wait," comments Jeremy Weir Alderson, founder of the Homelessness Marathon, "but it's a dire emergency for the people who are homeless, a drain on our economy, and a stain on our national honor.  We ought to solve this problem, and we could if we would only turn our attention to it."

The Homelessness Marathon will address the problem of homelessness by speaking directly with homeless people, who will give their first-hand testimony on how they became homeless and the obstacles they face before they can be housed again.

Hundreds of homeless people will be brought by bus (in rotating shifts) so that they can participate in this event and speak directly to the nation.  They will be brought by shelters, advocacy groups, and grass roots organizations formed by homeless people themselves.

The broadcast will feature, as well, such speakers as Senator Carl Levin; Ron Gettlefinger, president of the United Auto Workers; and two of America's most outstanding anti-poverty advocates, Cheri Honkala, director of the Poor Peoples' Economic Human Rights Campaign and Paul Boden, director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project.

Prominent advocates from Detroit will participate, including Rev. Faith Fowler, director of Cass Community Social Services and Maureen Taylor, the state chairperson of Michigan Welfare Rights Organization.

Experts from elsewhere in the country will also participate, including Kathleen Johnson, director of Katrina Relief in Mississippi and Mike Rhodes, editor of the Community Alliance newspaper in Fresno, California, arguably, the cruelest city in America towards its homeless citizens.

The broadcast will originate from 12025 Woodrow Wilson St., a "green gym" recently opened by Cass Community Social Services for the use of its homeless clients.  Detroit area radio stations participating in the broadcast will include, WHFR in Dearborn, the broadcast's host station; WHPR in Highland Park and CJAM in Windsor, Ontario.

The Homelessness Marathon is a consciousness-raising not a fund-raising broadcast.  There will be no on-air solicitations.

More information about the broadcast can be found at: http://www.homelessnessmarathon.org.

Acclaim for the broadcast can be found at:
http://homelessnessmarathon.org/2008/2009/thank-yous-acclaim.html

To donate to the Homelessness Marathon go to:
https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=8154

The snowstorms are over... and the training is on!

"Zero Evictions and Foreclosures!"
National Training in Philadelphia:
Feb. 12th - 14th
Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign

Atonement Church
1542 E. Montgomery Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19125 (see google map)
267-273-0932 or 267-439-8419
phillyppehrc@gmail.com
www.economichumanrights.org
Join PPEHRC for a (rescheduled) weekend of training, networking, and movement building to end poverty. This is also the opening session of our National Education, Organizing, Arts and Culture Center!

Email phillyppehrc@gmail.com to register now! Include name, contact info, organization (if any), number of people you'll bring, and any special needs you may have.
SEE DIRECTIONS & DETAILS BELOW AGENDA
Housing is a human right!
AGENDA
Friday, Feb. 12th
5 – 8 pm: Arrivals, Unpacking, Dinner
8 – 9 pm: Introductions, Local Struggles & Local Organizing
9 – 10 pm: Role of Nonviolent Civil Disobedience, History of PPEHRC Housing Takeovers & Tent Cities
10 pm: Social time & sleep

Saturday, Feb. 13th
8 am – 9 am: Breakfast
9 – 10 am: PPEHRC Organizing Model
10 am - 1 pm: Visit takeover house
1 pm – 2 pm: Lunch/ Break
2 – 7 pm: WORKSHOP – How to Do Housing Takeovers & Resist Foreclosures
7 – 7:30 pm: Dinner/ Break
7:30 – 8:30 pm: Debrief, Questions
8:30 – 9 pm: Travel to West Philly
9 pm: Party & Fundraiser in West Philly!  4940 Cedar Ave., Phila, PA 19143

Organizing Tools:
Takeover Handbook
Takeover web clips
Land struggles
Tent Cities - current one in CA

Sunday, Feb. 14th
8 – 9 am: Breakfast
9 – 10 am: March to Fulfill the Dream/ May 1st Housing Takeovers/ US Social Forum
10 – 11am: Movement Building – Building relationships with artists, allies, & community groups
11 – 12 pm: Debrief, Questions, Closing
12 pm: Lunch, Departures

GO ORGANIZE!!!

Things to bring and consider:
Everyone is strongly encouraged to attend every session of the training since we are dealing with serious situations and are concerned for people's safety when applying these lessons.
If attending please bring a financial contribution to pay for the Center, food costs, transportation, etc. $15 - $150 suggested donations - no one will be turned away for lack of funds. People with access to organizational resources are asked to give more.
Subway Transportation to the Center ($2 exact change) from 30th St. Station/ Center City: Take the Market/Frankford Line (Blue Line) EASTBOUND towards Frankford and get off at the BERKS stop. Walk south on Front Street. Make a left on Palmer. Make a left on Frankford. Make a right on E. Montgomery Ave. Atonement Church is on your right. See Google Maps Directions from Berks stop to the Center.

Housing is available at the Center. If you are planning on sleeping over, please let us know in advance and bring sleeping bags and warm clothes.

Also, bring writing materials.
Join our Announcements Google Group to stay posted on upcoming events in Philadelphia!

Due to the heavy snow storm or possible blizzard forecasted to hit the East Coast this weekend, the "Zero Evictions and Foreclosures” National Training in Philadelphia, originally scheduled for February 5th – 7th, will now be held the following weekend, Feb 12th -14th. Please plan accordingly.

We are making every attempt to contact all the people who planned to attend. If you know someone who was planning to join us this weekend, please let them know that we've reschedule for next weekend.

If you have any questions, please contact us at:

PPEHRC National Education, Organizing, Arts and Culture Center
1542 E. Montgomery Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19125
267-273-0932 or 267-439-8419
phillyppehrc@gmail.com

Thanks in advance,
Staff of the PPEHRC National Education, Organizing, Arts and Culture Center

“Zero Evictions and Foreclosures” National Training in Philadelphia: February 5th – 7th

PPEHRC National Education, Organizing, Arts and Culture Center
1542 E. Montgomery Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19125
267-273-0932 or 267-439-8419
phillyppehrc@gmail.com

Join PPEHRC for a weekend of training, networking, and movement building to end poverty. Please email phillyppehrc@gmail.com to register now! Include name, contact info, organization (if any), number of people you will bring, and any special needs you may have.

SEE MORE DETAILS BELOW AGENDA

Housing is a human right!

AGENDA
Friday, Feb. 5th
5 – 8 pm: Arrivals, Unpacking, Dinner
8 – 9 pm: Introductions, Local Struggles & Local Organizing
9 – 10 pm: Role of Nonviolent Civil Disobedience, History of PPEHRC Housing Takeovers & Tent Cities
10 pm: Social time & sleep

Saturday, Feb. 6th
8 am – 9 am: Breakfast
9 – 10 am: PPEHRC Organizing Model
10 am - 1 pm: Visit takeover house
1 pm – 2 pm: Lunch/ Break
2 – 7 pm: WORKSHOP – How to Do Housing Takeovers & Resist Foreclosures
7 – 7:30 pm: Dinner/ Break
7:30 – 8:30 pm: Debrief, Questions
8:30 – 9 pm: Travel to West Philly
9 pm: Party & Fundraiser in West Philly! 4940 Cedar Ave., Phila, PA 19143

Organizing Tools:
Takeover Handbook
Takeover web clips
Land struggles
Tent Cities - current one in CA

Sunday, Feb. 7th
8 – 9 am: Breakfast
9 – 10 am: March to Fulfill the Dream/ May 1st Housing Takeovers/ US Social Forum
10 – 11am: Movement Building – Building relationships with artists, allies, & community groups
11 – 12 pm: Debrief, Questions, Closing
12 pm: Lunch, Departures

GO ORGANIZE!!!

Things to bring and consider:

Everyone is strongly encouraged to attend every session of the weekend training since we are dealing with serious situations and are concerned for people's safety when applying these lessons.

If attending please bring a financial contribution to pay for the Center, food costs, transportation, etc. $15 - $150 suggested donations - no one will be turned away for lack of funds. People with organizational resources are asked to give more.

Housing is available at the Center. If you are planning on sleeping over, please let us know in advance and bring sleeping bags and warm clothes.

Also, bring writing materials.

Please email phillyppehrc@gmail.com now to register! We hope to see you soon!

Labels: Foreclosure, Zero Evictions