UPDATE APRIL 3:
Maxim Properties have evicted the people in the upper unit in the back and placed "No Trespassing" signs, and called the police upon the Occupiers. They are attempting to outright bully Ingrid onto the street! See the end of this article.
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UPDATE APRIL 13:
LA Times does a story! On the inside of page 1!
An ugly foreclosure story, starring Bank of America
Dirma Rodriguez wonders how a house she'd been paying on for years, and which is specially modified for her severely disabled daughter, could be taken from her.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-holland-20120413,0,2707478.story
-------March 25/26:
Photo by deniZ:
Occupy Fights Foreclosures Rallies for Ingrid and her home
http://www.occupyfightsforeclosures.org/rally4ingrid?recruiter_id=93
Occupy Fights Foreclosure Fighting to Save Defrauded Family’s Home
By
http://www.laprogressive.com/occupy-fights-foreclosure/
Occupy Fights Foreclosures Update
http://occupylosangeles.org/?q=node/8820Private Equity Firm Buys 5 Home Per Day In Race For 'Awesome' Profits
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/02/private-equity-foreclosures_n_1397384.html?ref=businessCarlos' excellent photo collection of M26/M27:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.357590777626278.97828.100001260766273&type=1
Occupy Miami and Worchester MA
toxic plasmosis cerebral palsy, and is unable to care for herself. Maxim and the sheriffs wanted to throw her out on the street. The family have nowhere else to go, as renters balk at Ingrid's condition. The home has a long wheelchair ramp from the front door to the sidewalk....they have lived in this house for 25 years. It is the only home Ingrid has ever known.
March 26th:
Photo by Carlos:
Photos by Damon D'Amato:
Livestream:
March 27th:
We canvassed the neighborhood and talked with other homeowners, discussing Dirma's situation and calling them to a neighborhood General Assembly. We found several seemingly empty homes...
By deniZ:
Onward to the GA, first photo by deniZ
Dirma's daughter Ingrid. I took a photo of Ingrid, who is seemingly nearly always in anguish, but in attempted sensitivity, will not share it. Just know that she can use your prayers, and her home.
Dirma's sons. Photo by Carlos:
Livestream!
Michelle Shocked, another hard worker against foreclosures, brings it together with music:
Applause for Carlos and Cheryl: Kicking bank ass!
"
Livestream, neighborhood general assembly:
April 3rd...
Tweets and Facebook posts began flying when Maxim Properties, who claim to own the house (through fraudulent foreclosure proceedings) have evicted the people in the upper unit and had cops arrest them and the Occupiers stationed in the yard, making an obvious overture to take the entire property. They installed a watchman to protect "their" unit. A large number of police evidently showed up and terrorized Dirma and her family. Maxim are obviously hoping to terrorize Dirma out of the home even though they do not own it.
So...let's meet Ingrid, who has Toxic Plasmosis Cerebral Palsy. Renters balk at her special needs. Ingrid would likely be terrified by a move to an entirely new location. She cannot speak; she cannot take care of herself. She moves about the house often on her knees. The family do not have the money for a special care home for her or for a live-in nurse.
Maxim, Bank of America, and others want Ingrid on the street. Badly.
Occupiers have been arrested and cleared; Maxim use the police as a hammer, attempting to break everything to their will. And by will, read profit.
This in spite of Occupy's clear warnings on every gate and entrance to the property:
On a positive note, Ingrid is becoming used to Occupiers and greets us silently.
Tweets and Facebook posts began flying when Maxim Properties, who claim to own the house (through fraudulent foreclosure proceedings) have evicted the people in the upper unit and had cops arrest them and the Occupiers stationed in the yard, making an obvious overture to take the entire property. They installed a watchman to protect "their" unit. A large number of police evidently showed up and terrorized Dirma and her family. Maxim are obviously hoping to terrorize Dirma out of the home even though they do not own it.
So...let's meet Ingrid, who has Toxic Plasmosis Cerebral Palsy. Renters balk at her special needs. Ingrid would likely be terrified by a move to an entirely new location. She cannot speak; she cannot take care of herself. She moves about the house often on her knees. The family do not have the money for a special care home for her or for a live-in nurse.
Maxim, Bank of America, and others want Ingrid on the street. Badly.
Occupiers have been arrested and cleared; Maxim use the police as a hammer, attempting to break everything to their will. And by will, read profit.
This in spite of Occupy's clear warnings on every gate and entrance to the property:
On a positive note, Ingrid is becoming used to Occupiers and greets us silently.
Matt Occupylosangeles Ward sums it up so well:
"The big key is understanding that the banks have built a model that profits from tricking people into taking bad loans, screwing investors by selling those bad loans to them (bad loans offer high returns, and look good on paper), then taking out insurance policies that collect if the loan they just sold to sucker investors goes bad. Then when the loan explodes, they collected those insurance payouts which, when the insurance company (biggest was AIG) went out of business were backed by TARP bailout money footed by the U.S. taxpayer. They then evict the homeowner and collect a second set of huge insurance payouts (homeowners insurance pays out full value of home upon eviction, and this is setting aside all the equity money which is pure profit). When your neighbor gets evicted, your property value drops simply from the bad luck of being beside him. If enough neighbors get evicted, your house's value falls to a point it's no longer worth paying, you walk away, and now your house is part of the crisis too.
As the cycle continues, the all-consuming maw of the banks buys these houses backs, flips them into rental properties, and before you know it you've got a Corktown, MI story where the average home value is reduced to ~$14,000, or a mortgage payment of ~150/mo, yet 85% of residents are tenants and the average rent is ~450/mo. Why? Because the banks also have the power to grant the loans people need to own the homes, and have decided that no individuals and/or small investors can receive loans, even tiny ones like ~$10,000 mortgages. As a result, giant corporations and wealthy investors (many bank owned, and all bank-affiliated) are buying up massive tracts of housing that are suddenly affordable, with bank-provided competition elimination in the form of no small loans being granted, then flipping them into rentals and enslaving the former homeowners who can't even afford to move.
Do you see how the banks have figured out how to make this situation profitable at every step? I'm not even going to go into how, thanks to being part of the Federal Reserve (not government, privately owned, don't forget it) ownership team and most important in-crowd in the world, the banks have literally UNLIMITED money with which to buy up these homes, and the only person who loses as they do so is us, the taxpayer, AGAIN, because the more money that is printed to use to buy our homes out from under us, the less the dollar in our pocket becomes worth, a fact only relevant to those who do not have the power simply to crank up the presses more.
'We can promise money to pay any debt. What we cannot promise is its purchasing power.' - Alan Greenspan, while Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
The game is rigged, and we need some time to unrig it. That's all we're asking for, and it benefits every person who is not a bank, while still allowing them to remain profitable throughout (even though they don't deserve it)."
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I am only a supporter of OFF LA; the information here is what I have gleaned through the above releases and what I have heard while being with OFF as they work. Any errors are errors.
