Martin Michaels | Mint Press News |
Protesters marched for International Workers Day on May Day in Minneapolis, Minn. (Photo/Fibonacci Blue via Flickr)
“Last week, housing rights advocates in 15 U.S. cities delivered 10,000 petition signatures to Chase Bank branches demanding justice for Sergio Ceballos, a Minneapolis resident who faces what advocates believe is an unjust foreclosure proceeding.
Despite being one of five major banks to agree to the $25 billion National Mortgage settlement last year, Chase continues to practice “dual tracking,” a process in which the bank negotiates a loan modification while carrying out foreclosure and eviction proceedings against a homeowner. It’s one of many practices explicitly banned by the settlement.
As the summer weather heats up across the U.S., so do the actions in defense of besieged homeowners like Sergio, a father of three.
Internationally recognized hip-hop artist Brother Ali joined dozens in demonstrations this week both to defend the Ceballos home and to demand a change to Chase policies.
“We all know that something is very very wrong. We read in the news about people losing their homes, we hear about people losing their jobs, we hear about the common people getting more and more poor, having less and less while the people at the top enjoy more — record profits, record bonuses and all these things,” said Ali in a statement to Mint Press News.
Occupations heat up
Ali has lent more than just his name to helping defend homes in the Twin Cities. When he isn’t touring, Ali often speaks at events, attends demonstrations and even got arrested last year while peacefully defending a home against foreclosure.
“When people open up their lives so that we can come and be activists it’s something that does make a difference. We’ve seen a lot of families fight and win,” Ali said. “There has been the Homeowners’ Bill of Rights. The legislators that passed that let us know that this work was a huge motivation and helped a lot. If everyone knows that there is a group of activists in the streets going to jail forcing the issue, forcing banks to renegotiate it makes it easier to pass legislation.”
Minneapolis passed a Homeowners’ Bill of Rights earlier this year joining California among just a handful of states and cities to have laws protecting homeowners from predatory foreclosure practices. The results have been dramatic in California, where foreclosure proceedings have dropped 75 percent between January 2012 and February 2013, according to statistics from RealtyTrac.”