Activists support family facing foreclosure

The dumpster was returned to the Maxwell home on the morning of April 23, one week after community activists successfully emptied it and moved the family’s belongings back into their foreclosed home on Detroit’s near northwest side.

On April 23, Michelle Maxwell, sitting, speaks to Detroit Free Press reporter about her foreclosed home while Maxwell’s daughter holds sign. WW photo: Alan Pollock

An emergency demonstration called by the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions convened at the home in the afternoon in solidarity with the Maxwells and all those facing foreclosure in Detroit. Activists with the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice (MECAWI), Michigan Welfare Rights Organization (MWRO), ACORN, Call ‘Em Out and other groups participated.

While the demonstrators gathered in front of the home, a tow truck came to take the dumpster away. People cheered but knew that the dumpster was on its way to another foreclosed home, although the driver claimed he didn’t know where it was going next.

An emergency motion was filed in Detroit’s 36th District Court to set aside the judgment for eviction entered by the court on Feb. 28. On April 25, community activists packed the courtroom with the Maxwell family as Judge E. Lynise Bryant-Weekes heard arguments on why the family should be allowed to stay in their home. A community attorney represented the Maxwells on a pro bono basis.

The judge refused to consider that the Maxwells had no legal representation at the previous hearing when the eviction was ordered. She refused to hear the legitimate grounds for challenging the foreclosure. “The deadlines have passed and I must uphold the law,” she stated. Judge Bryant-Weekes set an eviction date for April 29, but extended it to May 5 at the request of the family.

Like 99 percent of people losing their homes to foreclosure, the Maxwells had no attorney to challenge the irregularities and illegalities of their mortgage. So they were railroaded through the foreclosure process in assembly line-like courts along with tens of thousands of other homeowners.

After the hearing, as supporters gathered in the corridor outside the courtroom, Maureen Taylor of MWRO stated: “This proves that poor people have no rights, that if you can’t afford an attorney, so be it. Poor people cannot get justice in a courtroom. We need to keep fighting.”

Abayomi Azikiwe of MECAWI told Workers World: “This is precisely why we need a moratorium. There are thousands of families like the Maxwells all throughout Metro Detroit. We need to step up the struggle to force the state legislature to enact the two-year foreclosure moratorium law. We can’t wait another day.”

MECAWI organizer Jerry Goldberg spoke at the Labor and Community Conference held at UAW Region 1A on April 26. Sponsored by the Labor Studies Center of the University of Michigan, the conference linked community issues such as health care and the environment to the labor struggle. Goldberg spoke on the foreclosure crisis and motivated the audience to support the two-year mortgage foreclosure moratorium introduced by State Sen. Hansen Clarke. Participants signed up to support the bill and responded enthusiastically to the developing struggle.