Protests called in Michigan to halt home foreclosures

Activists fighting for a moratorium on home foreclosures in Michigan are stepping up their efforts after an organizing meeting held on Jan. 5. They produced a leaflet to call people out to a public hearing to be held by the Detroit City Council Housing Task Force on Jan. 11. At the hearing activists will press the council to formally apply to Gov. Jennifer Granholm to declare Detroit an economic disaster area, the first step in having her impose a halt on foreclosures in the city.

Thelma Curtis, Detroit renter resisting her eviction. WW photo: Cheryl LaBash

Progressive attorneys are drafting language that other municipalities will be able to use as well. Foreclosures in the metro Detroit area are up 100 percent from a year ago, with over 72,000 homes now in foreclosure.

United Community Housing Coalition coordinator Ted Philips, who is involved in stopping tax foreclosures in Detroit, told the meeting participants that show-cause hearings are scheduled on Jan. 7-9 for Wayne County tax foreclosures. Activists plan to leaflet the hearings each day.

Community organizer Thelma Curtis spoke about her upcoming eviction from the home that has been owned by her family for over 30 years. “After I was divorced and became responsible for the bills, the mortgage payments rose from $252 a month to $550. My daughter bought the home in 2001 and the mortgage payments rose to $1,100 a month. We found out our house was on a list to be sold, which we did not know about. Now we are in the redemption period which ends on Jan. 19.”

The meeting unanimously agreed to fight to keep Curtis in her home, which she rents from her daughter. An emergency response task force was set up to plan an action to prevent the bailiff from evicting Curtis.

Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice (MECAWI) activist Jerry Goldberg reported on the demonstration, leafleting and petitioning that took place at a mortgage fair on Dec. 13 sponsored by state Attorney General Mike Cox. Thousands of people attended in an effort to find some relief from the foreclosure process.

The response to the demand for a moratorium was overwhelming, Goldberg stated. “The racist and predatory lenders aren’t going to solve the crisis they’re responsible for. Nothing is abating the situation. All the proposals are like putting a thumb over a bursting dam. The only way to get a state of emergency declared and a moratorium on foreclosures is by mass pressure. Our task is how to build this movement.”

MECAWI has called for a demonstration at the State Capitol on Tuesday, Jan. 29, at 6:00 p.m. during Gov. Granholm’s annual State of the State Address, to keep up the pressure on the governor to declare a state of emergency and a moratorium on all foreclosures.

A Detroit News article on Jan. 5 as well as on channel 2 Fox News reported on MECAWI’s call. The moratorium campaign was also bolstered by an hour-long community radio and television program hosted by Agnes Hitchcock on Jan. 5. MECAWI organizer Jerry Goldberg was Hitchcock’s guest and reported an overwhelming positive response to the moratorium call.

On Jan. 7 MECAWI organizers will make a presentation on the foreclosure moratorium struggle to a mass meeting of Detroit community organizations.

For bus tickets from Detroit to the Jan. 29 demonstration in Lansing, and for more information on the struggle for a moratorium on foreclosures, call (313) 319-0870 or visit www.mecawi.org.