Housing & Gentrification

Minneapolis, MN - Over 50 people gathered at the home of Leslie Parks, Nov. 13, to declare solidarity for Leslie Parks and her mother as they fight foreclosure and eviction.

Ms. Parks has made it clear that she will not be put on the streets when the ‘redemption period’ ends on Nov. 30. “IndyMac Federal Bank needs to come to the table and give my family justice. I have no intention of walking away from the place I call home,” she said before the event.

by Charles Hallman
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 11/4/2009

Lax legislation leaves homeowners, renters ill equipped to fight banks

Rosemary Williams and four other Minnesota women have decided to resist the foreclosure and eviction monster that's destroying our communities.

People from the Twin Cities are helping these women defy eviction, the Hennepin County Sheriff, and the big banks that want to steal their homes. Produced by Twin Cities Indymedia and the Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign. Here's the 110-second trailer; the full 12 minute video is posted below the fold...
 

110-second trailer URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGZCXaXSbbA
12-minute video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQeNyVjHuvQ

Neighbors, Friends and Community Organizations Rally & Intervene in Court on Rosemary Williams’ Eviction Case

Wednesday, April 22nd

Over two weeks after being told she had to leave her home on Clinton Avenue in Minneapolis, Rosemary Williams is still staying put - and the campaign to keep her there is getting ready to escalate.  Neighbors and activists still waiting for a potential forced eviction are calling for mass attendance at a noviolent civil disobedience training to take place Saturday at 2pm at the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign office in Sabathani Community Center.  Organizers announced that the training will be conducted transparently and that members of the press will be in attendance. Williams' fight, a flashpoint of the national foreclosure crisis, has drawn the attention of national media.

On Wednesday, tax day, Williams was among the speakers at a Minnesota Coaliton for a People's Bailout Rally at the State Capitol.  If you have more news about Rosemary's campaign or the foreclosure crisis in the Twin Cities, please publish a comment or article to TCIMC!  (The video here is from a March 30 press conference.)

Related: MPLS Woman Becomes Center of Foreclosure Debate | What Housing Crisis? | Opposition to War and Occupation Statement of Solidarity | Video: People's Resistance to Scheduled Minneapolis Home Eviction | Evict the Poor--Rescue the Banks? | Stopping Foreclosure: One Woman's Home (from TC Daily Planet) | TCIMC Video of March Hennepin County Sheriff's Sale Action | Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign

MINNEAPOLIS - Last September, Rosemary Williams, a long-time resident and activist of South Minneapolis, received a Notice of Foreclosure on her home. Monday was her last day to legally reside in her home of 55 years.

“When I first learned that my house was being foreclosed on I was very depressed and emotional. I had just gone through some difficult times, temporarily losing my job and seeing my adjustable rate mortgage nearly double in one year, ” Williams related. “But when banks like TCF rejected federal aid money to help people stay in their homes, I said to myself, ‘Someone has got to step up and be a spokeswoman.”

Related: Video: People's Resistance to Scheduled Minneapolis Home Eviction | Evict the Poor--Rescue the Banks? | Stopping Foreclosure: One Woman's Home (from TC Daily Planet) | TCIMC Video of March Hennepin County Sheriff's Sale Action | Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign