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From Foreclosure to Occupation
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Dan Clore
Dec 5, 2011, 8:16:37 PM12/5/11
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News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20111202074848773
From Foreclosure to Occupation: Tenants Organize To Beat Evictions
A group of low-income San Franciscans has come up with a positive, long
term solution to the housing crisis that is causing millions of
Americans to be evicted and some to embrace the "Occupy Homes" movement:
buy the buildings.
In October 2011, residents of the Columbus United Cooperative (CUC) in
San Francisco celebrated final approval of the ownership of their
building as a permanently affordable, resident-owned limited-equity
housing cooperative. The residents can now purchase shares in the co-op
for only $10,000 in the heart of San Francisco (where most housing
starts at $500,000) to become cooperative homeowners, though most earn
less than 50 percent of area median income. Previous to the conversion
they had been living in their building under the threat of eviction.
According to a Lender Processing Services report on November 18, "just
under 6.3 million properties nationwide are either 30 or more days
delinquent or in foreclosure." Another study published in June by
Templeton LPA states that the number of court orders to evict tenants
have risen by 9% over the last year, and the number of tenants in
serious arrears with their rental payments is up by 13%, with 2.1% of
all tenancies in arrears nationwide.
Long waiting lists for public housing mean that people remain homeless
or in shelters longer. The National Coalition for the Homeless reported
that in 2007, before the economy went into full recession, the average
stay in homeless shelters for households with children was 5.7 months .
Rising foreclosures and tenant evictions have been helping to fuel the
fire of the Occupy movement. "Occupy Homes" is a new offshoot of Occupy
Wall Street that links homeowners with activists in direct action to
halt foreclosures in some of the local strongholds across the country of
the Occupy movement. Occupy Oakland has announced it will start
occupying vacant homes starting in December and Occupy Portland is
already starting to move into foreclosed homes. Homeless advocacy group
"Homes Not Jails" is teaming up with Occupy San Francisco to turn
abandoned hotels into homeless shelters.
After Occupy L.A. organized a vigil and camp at her home and occupied
the local Fannie Mae office, Rose Gudiel was able to keep her and her
disabled mother's home from which they were being evicted, as the bank
opened up to renegotiating their mortgage.
Chicago, New York and Minneapolis have branches of Occupy Homes, too.
Ohio Congresswoman Max Rameau, an organizer for Take Back the Land who
began this work five years ago, says, "The banks are actually occupying
our homes."
But in the US, squatters have few rights and face an steep uphill battle
to stay in the homes they've claimed. Owners of foreclosed homes might
have some ability to bargain with banks if they can afford to, but many
can't, and others are being kicked out of rentals, especially as former
homeowners are now moving down the housing chain and renting. The
National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that "40 percent of
families facing eviction due to foreclosure are renters and 7 million
households living on very low incomes are at risk of foreclosure.
Squatting isn't for everyone, in particular the sick, disabled, elderly
and children, and living in substandard housing under threat of the
police isn't exactly ideal. Unless the mainstream joins Occupy Homes and
the government starts recognizing squats of vacant and foreclosed
properties, the movement will likely remain on the fringe.
Tenant-owned, cooperative housing can provide a more stable solution to
the housing crisis. When the residents of the 21-unit Columbus United
Cooperative (CUC) in San Francisco converted the building to a
limited-equity housing cooperative, the low income, Chinese-speaking
resident families were able to stay in their homes.
The San Francisco Community Land Trust (SFCLT) used the limited-equity
housing cooperative model to prevent eviction, which Director Tracy
Parent says is a first.
"This building represents the community," said longtime resident Miao
Yan Wen. "It is important to take care of the low-income people who live
here. There are many seniors who live in this building. If the building
were torn down, they would have to move out of the neighborhood and lose
their access to doctors, stores, services."
Now that the building is a cooperative, she says,"I feel stable and safe."
SFCLT Director Tracy Parent remarked, "This is a victory not just for
these 21 families but for the greater community of San Francisco.
Limited equity housing cooperatives ensure that other families can buy
these homes for an affordable price in the future."
SFCLT has several of buildings in the queue at various stages to become
new housing cooperatives, including a rental coop with an income cap and
a 139 rental unit that will be converted to tenant-owned housing - both
in a rapidly gentrifying, African-American community. These coop
conversions can take many years to complete, but they make a long term
impact. Families that are being evicted are able to buy their homes for
only slightly more than than their controlled rent.
Community land trusts are local non-profit organizations that retain
ownership of the land under the coop housing and separate it from the
ownership of residential buildings. Residents control their buildings by
owning one share in the housing cooperative, which allows each household
one vote in the affairs of the co-op. By separating the ownership of the
land from the buildings, using permanent deed restrictions to restrict
maximum resale increases (limited equity), and receiving government and
private grant money, the CLT can drastically reduce the cost of owning
to slightly more than the cost of a rent controlled unit. Other
nonprofits which are not land trusts, like the Alliance to Develop Power
in Massachusetts, are developing new housing coops (1,200 units so far)
run by their low income members as part of their social justice mission.
This is not an entirely new concept. A housing advocacy group called the
Urban Homesteading Assistance Board in New York City, has since 1974
enabled the conversion of over 1,600 foreclosed, city-held rentals into
limited-equity, resident-controlled co-ops, preserving over 30,000 units
of affordable housing. In 1977, while many NYC landlords were failing to
maintain and pay taxes on their properties, the city passed Local Law
#45. This law allowed the city to begin foreclosure proceedings after
just one year of non-payment of taxes, resulting in thousands of
buildings, some of them occupied, to be confiscated by the city of New
York through in rem foreclosure. In 1978, the city's housing agency
created new housing programs that gave residents and community groups
control and eventual ownership of in rem buildings.
Pressure for housing will likely only continue to grow at current
unemployment rates. Local governments and police will have to spend more
and more money and time on evictions and property security and on
shelters and subsidized housing.
Or they can proactively support permanently affordable, limited equity,
tenant-owned housing development, which is a much more cost effective,
humane and safe plan for everyone in the long run.
For more more info on how to start a tenant-owned housing cooperative
see http://www.shareable.net/blog/how-to-start-a-housing-coop.
Mira Luna is a community activist working to develop an alternative
economy in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her article was originally
published at Shareable.net. If you would like to contribute as a citizen
journalist to The Huffington Post's coverage of American political life,
please sign up at www.offthebus.org.
--
Dan Clore
New book: _Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon_:
http://tinyurl.com/yd3bxkw
My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-unspeakable-and-others/6124911
Lord We˙rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
"From the point of view of the defense of our society,
there only exists one danger -- that workers succeed in
speaking to each other about their condition and their
aspirations _without intermediaries_."
--Censor (Gianfranco Sanguinetti), _The Real Report on
the Last Chance to Save Capitalism in Italy_
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20111202074848773
From Foreclosure to Occupation: Tenants Organize To Beat Evictions
A group of low-income San Franciscans has come up with a positive, long
term solution to the housing crisis that is causing millions of
Americans to be evicted and some to embrace the "Occupy Homes" movement:
buy the buildings.
In October 2011, residents of the Columbus United Cooperative (CUC) in
San Francisco celebrated final approval of the ownership of their
building as a permanently affordable, resident-owned limited-equity
housing cooperative. The residents can now purchase shares in the co-op
for only $10,000 in the heart of San Francisco (where most housing
starts at $500,000) to become cooperative homeowners, though most earn
less than 50 percent of area median income. Previous to the conversion
they had been living in their building under the threat of eviction.
According to a Lender Processing Services report on November 18, "just
under 6.3 million properties nationwide are either 30 or more days
delinquent or in foreclosure." Another study published in June by
Templeton LPA states that the number of court orders to evict tenants
have risen by 9% over the last year, and the number of tenants in
serious arrears with their rental payments is up by 13%, with 2.1% of
all tenancies in arrears nationwide.
Long waiting lists for public housing mean that people remain homeless
or in shelters longer. The National Coalition for the Homeless reported
that in 2007, before the economy went into full recession, the average
stay in homeless shelters for households with children was 5.7 months .
Rising foreclosures and tenant evictions have been helping to fuel the
fire of the Occupy movement. "Occupy Homes" is a new offshoot of Occupy
Wall Street that links homeowners with activists in direct action to
halt foreclosures in some of the local strongholds across the country of
the Occupy movement. Occupy Oakland has announced it will start
occupying vacant homes starting in December and Occupy Portland is
already starting to move into foreclosed homes. Homeless advocacy group
"Homes Not Jails" is teaming up with Occupy San Francisco to turn
abandoned hotels into homeless shelters.
After Occupy L.A. organized a vigil and camp at her home and occupied
the local Fannie Mae office, Rose Gudiel was able to keep her and her
disabled mother's home from which they were being evicted, as the bank
opened up to renegotiating their mortgage.
Chicago, New York and Minneapolis have branches of Occupy Homes, too.
Ohio Congresswoman Max Rameau, an organizer for Take Back the Land who
began this work five years ago, says, "The banks are actually occupying
our homes."
But in the US, squatters have few rights and face an steep uphill battle
to stay in the homes they've claimed. Owners of foreclosed homes might
have some ability to bargain with banks if they can afford to, but many
can't, and others are being kicked out of rentals, especially as former
homeowners are now moving down the housing chain and renting. The
National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that "40 percent of
families facing eviction due to foreclosure are renters and 7 million
households living on very low incomes are at risk of foreclosure.
Squatting isn't for everyone, in particular the sick, disabled, elderly
and children, and living in substandard housing under threat of the
police isn't exactly ideal. Unless the mainstream joins Occupy Homes and
the government starts recognizing squats of vacant and foreclosed
properties, the movement will likely remain on the fringe.
Tenant-owned, cooperative housing can provide a more stable solution to
the housing crisis. When the residents of the 21-unit Columbus United
Cooperative (CUC) in San Francisco converted the building to a
limited-equity housing cooperative, the low income, Chinese-speaking
resident families were able to stay in their homes.
The San Francisco Community Land Trust (SFCLT) used the limited-equity
housing cooperative model to prevent eviction, which Director Tracy
Parent says is a first.
"This building represents the community," said longtime resident Miao
Yan Wen. "It is important to take care of the low-income people who live
here. There are many seniors who live in this building. If the building
were torn down, they would have to move out of the neighborhood and lose
their access to doctors, stores, services."
Now that the building is a cooperative, she says,"I feel stable and safe."
SFCLT Director Tracy Parent remarked, "This is a victory not just for
these 21 families but for the greater community of San Francisco.
Limited equity housing cooperatives ensure that other families can buy
these homes for an affordable price in the future."
SFCLT has several of buildings in the queue at various stages to become
new housing cooperatives, including a rental coop with an income cap and
a 139 rental unit that will be converted to tenant-owned housing - both
in a rapidly gentrifying, African-American community. These coop
conversions can take many years to complete, but they make a long term
impact. Families that are being evicted are able to buy their homes for
only slightly more than than their controlled rent.
Community land trusts are local non-profit organizations that retain
ownership of the land under the coop housing and separate it from the
ownership of residential buildings. Residents control their buildings by
owning one share in the housing cooperative, which allows each household
one vote in the affairs of the co-op. By separating the ownership of the
land from the buildings, using permanent deed restrictions to restrict
maximum resale increases (limited equity), and receiving government and
private grant money, the CLT can drastically reduce the cost of owning
to slightly more than the cost of a rent controlled unit. Other
nonprofits which are not land trusts, like the Alliance to Develop Power
in Massachusetts, are developing new housing coops (1,200 units so far)
run by their low income members as part of their social justice mission.
This is not an entirely new concept. A housing advocacy group called the
Urban Homesteading Assistance Board in New York City, has since 1974
enabled the conversion of over 1,600 foreclosed, city-held rentals into
limited-equity, resident-controlled co-ops, preserving over 30,000 units
of affordable housing. In 1977, while many NYC landlords were failing to
maintain and pay taxes on their properties, the city passed Local Law
#45. This law allowed the city to begin foreclosure proceedings after
just one year of non-payment of taxes, resulting in thousands of
buildings, some of them occupied, to be confiscated by the city of New
York through in rem foreclosure. In 1978, the city's housing agency
created new housing programs that gave residents and community groups
control and eventual ownership of in rem buildings.
Pressure for housing will likely only continue to grow at current
unemployment rates. Local governments and police will have to spend more
and more money and time on evictions and property security and on
shelters and subsidized housing.
Or they can proactively support permanently affordable, limited equity,
tenant-owned housing development, which is a much more cost effective,
humane and safe plan for everyone in the long run.
For more more info on how to start a tenant-owned housing cooperative
see http://www.shareable.net/blog/how-to-start-a-housing-coop.
Mira Luna is a community activist working to develop an alternative
economy in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her article was originally
published at Shareable.net. If you would like to contribute as a citizen
journalist to The Huffington Post's coverage of American political life,
please sign up at www.offthebus.org.
--
Dan Clore
New book: _Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon_:
http://tinyurl.com/yd3bxkw
My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-unspeakable-and-others/6124911
Lord We˙rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
"From the point of view of the defense of our society,
there only exists one danger -- that workers succeed in
speaking to each other about their condition and their
aspirations _without intermediaries_."
--Censor (Gianfranco Sanguinetti), _The Real Report on
the Last Chance to Save Capitalism in Italy_
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