Labor, community coalition fights foreclosures in California

Wednesday, Sept. 10, won’t be a day of “business as usual.” Day after day newspapers advertise the “wonderful opportunity” of buying bargain-basement-priced homes at various auctions. And, so far, this mid-September week was no exception.

But that Wednesday a block association and representatives of SEIU’s second largest union local in California, along with the large and influential community organization Hermandad Mexicana, will be challenging the insensitive celebratory nature of these events. These organizations will protest at one of the major outdoor auctions of Los Angeles County homes.

Organizers plan to shame the auction organizers outside of the Norwalk Courthouse for acting like vultures. They believe that instead of trying to find a solution to this state of emergency disaster in California, these auctioneers are cashing in on and exacerbating the misery of others.

According to realtytrac.com, California already has 338,000 foreclosures filed in 2008, making it the number one U.S. state in foreclosures, with one-quarter of the 1,348,000 filed foreclosures countrywide this year. The crisis in California prompted the union and community organizations to create a Labor/Community Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions, which meets at the SEIU Local 721 office located in downtown Los Angeles.

This action will contribute to the building of a major press conference and protest at the Los Angeles downtown Federal Building on Sept. 17, where the Labor-Community Coalition will demand an immediate national state of emergency be declared along with a national moratorium on foreclosures and evictions. To help mobilize for this and future actions, contact the Labor-Community Coalition at 310- 677-6407.

The groups chose Sept. 17 to coincide with a mass protest action at the Michigan state capital of Lansing, which will demand the voting on and passage of a moratorium bill in that state.

The growing activism and influence of various communities of color is reflected in this latest struggle against economic injustice here in Los Angeles—the city that saw the largest demonstrations for immigrant rights. Some of the major organizations that led those events, like Hermandad Mexicana Nacional led by Gloria Saucedo, are participating in the auction protest and the Sept. 17 action. The SEIU Local 721 grouping initiating the Labor/Community coalition was the Latino Caucus led by Rosie Martinez, who is also the executive board member of the Local.

Also participating in both events are the organizations BAYAN-USA, representing the Filipino community; the South Asian Network; and the African American Committee of SEIU Local 721. Rev. Richard Estrada of La Placita Church in Los Angeles and Rev. Meri Ka Ra Byrd of KRST Unity Center for African Spirituality will also participate.

Given the disproportionate effect the foreclosure crisis has had on people of color—Black and Latin@ communities have lost over $200 billion combined in personal wealth as a direct result of the crisis—their rising influence in the movement to stop foreclosures comes as no surprise.

On Sept. 6 the Mortgage Bankers Association told the Los Angeles Times that “the one-two punch of declining home prices and resetting adjustable-rate loans in California and Florida is largely responsible for unprecedented national foreclosure numbers.” The bankers added that although California and Florida account for 18 percent of the nation’s population, they account for 39 percent of the nation’s foreclosure starts, which occur once a lender turns a delinquent loan over to lawyers.

Why California and Florida? Well, according to the Mortgage Bank Association, you can blame the lenders and banks for that. As paraphrased by the Times: “Tricky pay-option adjustable-rate mortgages, which allow borrowers to pay so little that their loan balances rise, were more common in California and Florida.” And these adjustable rate schemes, according to the bank association, were made to borrowers with decent credit scores.

In addition, subprime adjustable mortgages were offered to “highest-risk” borrowers more frequently in California.

So, if these banks admittedly created this crisis here in a state where it supposedly never rains, why is money raining down to bail out Freddie, Fannie, Indy and many more to come, allowing them what Treasury officials called “breathing room,” while homeowners and tenants are gasping in debt and foreclosure.

Given that California also suffers from high unemployment rates of over 7 percent compared to the nation’s average of 6.1 percent in August, according to the latest federal labor statistics, the crisis of foreclosures and evictions is far from over and will inspire more workers and their unions here to come up for air and join the struggle against this government’s latest war on the poor.