Foreclosure Moratorium Events

[Jay Rothermel]

On Dec. 6 the Detroit Foreclosure Moratorium Now coalition is hosting a statewide organizers conference from 12 noon to 4 p.m. on the second floor of Central United Methodist Church, 23 East Adams at Woodward in downtown Detroit. Call 313-887-4344

[Jay Rothermel]

Here in Cleveland we have had 2 meetings of the Ohio Moratorium Now Coalition.

The most recent was December 2. We are alternating east side and west side for each meeting.

The coalition is moving forward on several fronts:

1. Reaching out to those in imminent risk of eviction by the bailiffs to prevent such evictions, or to return people to their homes afterward.

2. Demands upon local and state government for immedeate moratorium on foreclosures, evictions, and utility shut offs.

3. Compiling a list of government and non-government housing resources for those in crisis.

Both meetings have been well-attended. Many with previous social justice movements and coalitions, as well as younger people looking for a way to fight back.


[email protected] is our email address. We hope to have a
website eventually.

How are others doing in their cities?

Jay R

[Jay Rothermel]

The link to the pdf of the Case Western Reserve University foreclosure study may be of use to you and your comrades. I am also including an article about the study from the December 9 Crain's Cleveland Business newspaper. Speculative real estate sharks and financial parasites are buying property at sheriff's auctions in NE Ohio at rock-bottom prices; I am sure this same study would generally pertain to other cities, too. The study is easy to read and has useful diagrams.

Some neighborhoods in Cleveland I have recently been through while looking for a job look like some kind of "ground zero." Yesterday in the deeply depressed areas off E. 55th and Grand Ave I saw an excavator demolishing an abandoned home that had burned. Out in the street were three Black men with grocery store shopping carts ready to salvage electrical wiring and copper from the site. There are two metal and wire salvage companies within half a mile of this residential work site. Recently the State of Ohio has taken to running a TV ad that says "Don't let your tombstone say: 'I died stealing copper from an empty dwelling.'" The precious metal from catalytic converters in cars goes for about $40.00 locally; one person at my old job didn't know theirs had been stolen from their car until the car failed an EPA test required for license renewal.

The sunrise in this dark period is rising with Chicago's sit down strikers, though.

Comradely,

Jay Rothermel
Ohio Moratorium NOW! on Foreclosures, Evictions, and Shut-Offs
__________________________________
The study itself:
http://blog.case.edu/msass/2008/12/09/20081209_beyond_reo_final.pdf
__________________________________

http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20081209/FREE/812099945/1004&Profile=1004
CWRU foreclosure study paints bleak picture


By STAN BULLARD


4:48 pm, December 9, 2008

A high-volume, low-margin business trading lender-owned properties after foreclosure is slicing and dicing Cleveland and several of its suburbs to an incredible degree, according to a just-completed study by The Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development think tank at Case Western Reserve University.

As the volume of bank-owned properties increase, lenders are shedding properties at startlingly low prices to investors who promptly resell them for gains from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. The report says that in 2005, 2.6% of foreclosed homes in Cuyahoga County sold for less than $10,000, but by July of this year the volume of such "extremely distressed sales" increased nearly twelve-fold to 42%.

Sales and repeat sales of foreclosed properties are ravaging Cleveland property values, as 63% of the properties in the city were sold for less than $10,000 between 2005 and July 2008. The study finds that 75% of lender-owned properties on Cleveland’s East Side were sold for $10,000 or less, while 32% of lender-owned properties on the West Side sold for similarly low prices.

The center’s study also identifies the 10 largest financial institutions shedding foreclosed properties in the county over the three-year period. Deutsche Bank National Trust sold 19% of the foreclosed properties, disposing of 44% of them for $10,000 or less, followed by Wells Fargo of San Francisco, which sold 18% of the properties, 39% of them for $10,000 or less.


Meantime, 10 investors or investment groups bought 481 of the properties, or 18% of the lender-shed properties, for $10,000 or less.

The CWRU study did not look at the effectiveness of buyers in returning low-valued properties to productive use, but it noted several efforts are taking shape.

One, the study said, is the proposed Cuyahoga County land bank of foreclosed properties, the Cleveland Housing Network’s program to leased rehabilitated foreclosed homes to low-income buyers and market-oriented land contract and lease-to-own efforts by some individual sellers.

PRINTED FROM: http://crainscleveland.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20081209/FREE/812099945/1004&template=printart

[Jay Rothermel]

Come to an organizing meeting

Help build a movement for a
Moratorium NOW on evictions, foreclosures, and utility shut-offs
in our communities.

Tuesday, Dec. 16 5:30pm

Glenville Branch, Cleveland Public Library
11900 St. Clair

Sponsored by: Ohio Moratorium Now! Coalition to stop evictions, foreclosures, and shut-offs

Sponsored by: Cleveland Chapter New Black Panther Party; People's Fightback Center; Baldwin-Wallace Chapter, Fight Imperialism Stand Together; Lucasville Uprising Freedom Network.

Contact: 216-531-4004
[email protected] ([email protected])

[Jay Rothermel]

Foreclosures…evictions…heat shut off…no jobs


IT'S A COMMUNITY EMERGENCY!

WILL THE STIMULUS KEEP OUR HEAT, ELECTRIC AND WATER ON?

WILL IT PUT THE HOMELESS BACK IN THEIR HOMES?


The experts are finally saying it but everyone else already knows it: we're in a recession and heading for a depression. Most of our neighborhoods are already there. Ohio is an economic disaster area.
It's time for us to join a nationwide movement that is keeping people in their homes and keeping their utilities from being shut off. Hundreds of billions of dollars have gone to a handful of bankers, while throughout the Cleveland area families are facing tragic disruptions. It's time to demand action for people, not just on Main Street, but on every street.



Come to an organizing meeting

Build a movement for a MORATORIUM NOW

on Evictions, Foreclosures, and Utility Shutoffs

Tuesday, February 17, 5:30 PM

Glenville Branch, Cleveland Public Library, 11900 St. Clair Ave.



For more information call 216-531-4004
[email protected] .com