Action: Petition Bank of America to Save the Musni’s Home

Dear friends,

The Musni family is in foreclosure with Bank of America after 40 years in their house on Randall Street.

The foreclosure date is scheduled in two weeks -July 25. We must put pressure on BofA and need your assistance.

We’ll have a petition drive at the bank on Wednesday, July 18, and Saturday, July 21.

  See below for times & location.

Please join the Musni Family and others:

Wed July 18, 4 to 7pm
Sat July 21, 9am-3pm
Noe Valley Branch of Bank of America
4098 24th Street at Castro

Download a flyer

 

Phone Banking: Occupy Bernal negotiates on behalf of homeowners

We are phone banking on Wednesday. July 18, from 6-9 p.m. at ACCE, 1717 17th Street in order to identify more homeowners who have loans with Wells Fargo who would like to participate in the negotiations Wells Fargo is having with Occupy Bernal, Occupy Noe and ACCE.

Please come and help out. There will be a limited amount of Pizza and salad.
Please let Deborah G. know if you’ll come. (415) 550 1030

Below is the letter we are using to reach homeowners with Wells Fargo loans.

If you are a homeowner with a Wells Fargo loan and want to be part of the negotiations, please read the letter below for the qualifying information you’ll need to have, then contact  us to see if it will be possible to be included in this round of negotiations.  Please see the letter below for the appropriate contact information.


July 2012 WELLS FARGO will negotiate with homeowners

Dear Neighbor and Homeowner,

After more than six months of struggle: emails, phone calls, requests for modifications, protests at the auction of our neighbors’ homes, a unanimous resolutions from the San Francisco Board of supervisors and most recently, the passage of the HOME OWNERS BILL OF RIGHTS by the California Legislature, WELLS FARGO has entered a negotiation process with representatives of Occupy Bernal, ACCE and Occupy Noe.

We now have the opportunity to represent more Wells Fargo loan holders. This process allows Occupy Bernal and ACCE negotiators to advocate for your home, and makes a fair settlement of your situation more likely. Please join your neighbors in waging a unified and well planned struggle to achieve homeowner justice.

To be part of these negotiations—and any potential settlement– Wells Fargo demands and Occupy Bernal and/or ACCE agrees to deliver:

  1. PROPERTY IDENTIFICATION: Name, address, phone number, loan number and email.
  2. FINANCIAL PACKAGE—Complete and up-do-date. Please check with OB or Ed Donaldson for completeness.
  3. SIGNED 3rd PARTY AUTHORIZATION, specifically naming any SF ACCE, Occupy Bernal or Occupy Noe negotiators.

If you have a Wells Fargo loan, this is an overdue and important opportunity to get real satisfaction. And be assured: no modifications, or other payments will be finalized without your full knowledge and consent.

To join this negotiation process, call or email:

  • Buck B. (415) 385-0389 BuckB@devinegong.com
  • Deborah G. (415) 550-1030 dgerson646@gmail.com

Tell Wells Fargo: Stop the Auction of Ernesto Viscarra’s Home!

Tell Wells Fargo: Stop the Auction of Ernesto Viscarra’s Home!

Call/Email TODAY!

Ernesto Viscarra received a trial loan modification from Wells Fargo in March. So why is his home still scheduled for auction?

Ernesto has been living in his home in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco for 33 years. In 2008, he fell into default on his mortgage with Wells Fargo. Despite the fact that he had the ability to work out a loan modification he could afford, the bank refused to negotiate with him–until Ernesto began working with Occupy Bernal, staging demonstrations, making phone calls and sending emails targeting bank representatives.

In March, Ernesto won a trial loan modification and has been making payments ever since. Yet Wells Fargo hasn’t lifted a May 21 auction date on his home. It was in response to highly-publicized situations just like these that Atty. General Kamala Harris called for a homeowners’ bill of rights. Among other things, it would ban “dual tracking”, a practice where homeowners are simultaneously on track for a loan modification and for foreclosure, and may lose their homes as a result. Let’s call and email Wells Fargo TODAY and make sure Ernesto is NOT a victim of dual tracking.

Please take action with three steps to save Ernesto’s home:

1) Send the following email right now to Wells Fargo’s CEO, Board Members, and other staff–

To: john.g.stumpf@wellsfargo.com, alfredo.pedroza@wellsfargo.com, ruben.pulido@wellsfargo.com, boardcommunications@wellsfargo.com, jason.ohara@wellsfargo.com, eric.tang@wellsfargo.com

Cc: action@occupybernal.org

Subject: Postpone Auction of Ernesto Viscarra’s Home at 249 Anderson St., San Francisco (Loan # 46110532)

Dear Wells Fargo staff,

Please take IMMEDIATE action to postpone the auction of Ernesto Viscarra’s home at 249 Anderson St., San Francisco (Loan # 46110532).

Mr. Viscarra has lived in his home for 33 years. After four years of being ignored, he finally was able to negotiate with your institution, and was granted a trial loan modification. He has been making his payments on time, but he still has an auction date of Monday, May 21 on his home.

I am aware of situations in which Wells Fargo staff have engaged in dual tracking, where homeowners are simultaneously on track for a loan modification and for foreclosure, and have lost their home as a result.

Please make assurances that you will make good on the terms of Mr. Viscarra’s loan modification and take immediate action to cancel the auction of his home.

Sincerely,

your name here

2) Starting at 8:00am on May 16, call the following Wells Fargo representatives with the message below.

Contact:

  • Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf at 866-878-5865
  • Wells Fargo Director of California Local Government Relations Alfredo Pedroza at 415-396-0829
  • Wells Fargo Communications Staff Ruben Pulido at 415-852-1279
  • Wells Fargo Branch Manager Eric Tang at 415-977-9357
  • Wells Fargo Branch Manager Jason O’Hara at 415-554-8820

Tell them (or leave a message):

 “Please take IMMEDIATE action to postpone the auction of Ernesto Viscarra’s home at 249 Anderson St., San Francisco (lLoan # 46110532). Mr. Viscarra has lived in his home for 33 years. After four years of being ignored, he finally was able to negotiate with your institution, and was granted a trial loan modification. He has been making his payments on time, but he still has a May 21 auction date on his home. I am aware of situations in which Wells Fargo staff have engaged in dual tracking, where homeowners are simultaneously on track for a loan modification and for foreclosure, and have lost their home as a result. Please make assurances that you will make good on the terms of Mr. Viscarra’s loan modification and take immediate action to cancel the auction of his home.”

3.) If the sale of the home is not cancelled, join us on the steps of City Hall (Van Ness side) on Monday, May 21, at 9:45 a.m. to stop the auction.

Protest the Wells Fargo Shareholders’ Meeting

There is a planning meeting for Occupy Bernal in preparation for this action. The planning meeting will occur on Thurs. April 19 at 7 p.m at the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center.

We’ll be be taking our demands directly to John Stumpf as part of a broad coalition of community, faith, labor, immigrant rights and movement organizations that is going to the Wells Fargo shareholders meeting on April 24, to fight for justice for homeowners and our communties.

Be a part of the 99% takeover. Join us on April 24th and tell John Stumpf that enough is enough!

We are just ONE WEEK away from the 99% Takeover of Wells Fargo’s annual Shareholder’s meeting!!! Thanks to the hard work and commitment of so many folks we have a very solid plan shaping up that will likely shake up the Bank that is breaking up communities, families and people’s future!

Meeting Reminder

The final coalition planning meeting will be this Thursday, 4/19 from 5:30-7:30 @ Local 87’s office, 240 Golden Gate in SF just a few minutes from the Civic Center BART stop.

Note: Occupy Bernal is having an organizing meeting for the OB contingent this same night, at 7pm at the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center

Action/Training Updates

4/21
Occupy SF will be hosting one of the final Direct Action trainings for participating in non-violent direct action that will cover: risking arrest, role-playing actions, legal consequences and details of the April 24th action on Saturday April 21, 10am to 1pm in San Francisco. This will be followed by a mandatory training from 2:30-4:30pm for anyone who is committed to participating in non-violent direct action on the outside takeover. To attend please respond to this email for the location.
4/23
The inside action planning team will be holding a final training and meeting from 3-6pm for all of the fighters planning to be inside the meeting on the 24th in the event the meeting is not shut down. This training is for folks with proxies and share only and for more information, please email Marguerite Young. Marguerite.young@seiu.org.
Later in the day
Occupy SF will be holding a “pop up” occupation and teach in starting @ 5pm in front of Wells Fargo’s corporate HQ on Montgomery & California St. in downtown SF. There will be another non-violent, direct action training as part of that event for folks who have to miss the training on Saturday. (Bring warm clothes!)

Legal Information

For folks participating in Non-violent Direct Action: please read this legal information from Occupy Legal if you are willing to participate in non-violent direct action

Websites and Social Media

How to Spiffy Up Your OccupyBernal List Subscriptions

Here are some instructions to get the digest form (one email per day) of any Occupy Bernal email list.  Also, how to unsubscribe.

These instructions work for all lists.  However, in this example, we will use the General Assembly list ga@lists.occupybernal.org to illustrate how to do it.

We are working on a simpler way;  please bear with us.  For now you need to use the mailing list website to set your own subscriptions. This should take less than five minutes.


This is how to get the digest form of a list:

  1. Go to http://lists.occupybernal.org/index.fcgi/firstpasswd
  2. Enter your email address and click the Request first password button.
  3. Check your email for a message from SYMPA with the subject Bernal neighborhood organizing
  4. Click on the link in the email, which will send you to the mailing list web page.
  5. Type in a password of your choosing and click the Submit button.
  6. In the navigation, click on the Lists of Lists link.
  7. Find the name of the list (such as ga@lists.occupybernal.org) for which you want to change your subscription mode and click on the name of the list.
  8. In the left navigation, click on the Subscriber Options
  9. In the drop-down menu labeled Receiving mode, choose either digest MIME format or digest plain text format and click the Update button.
  10. Take a deep breath, relax, and feel good about continuing to help our neighbors fight the banks so they can stay in their homes, while not getting too many messages in your inbox.


This is how to unsubscribe from a list:

  1. Go to http://lists.occupybernal.org/index.fcgi/firstpasswd
  2. Enter your email address and click the Request first password button.
  3. Check your email for a message from SYMPA with the subject Bernal neighborhood organizing
  4. Click on the link in the email, which will send you to the mailing list web page.
  5. Type in a password of your choosing and click the Submit button.
  6. In the navigation, click on the Lists of Lists link.
  7. Find the name of the list (such as ga@lists.occupybernal.org) for which you want to change your subscription mode and click on the name of the list.
  8. In the left navigation, click on the Unsubscribe.
  9. Make sure to check the website on a regular basis since you will no longer hear about what is going on through your email.

Occupy Bernal Action at Bank of America Branch

About 40 protestors, led by the Wild Old Women (WOW) affinity group, picketed a Bank of America branch at 3250 Mission St. today to protest for-profit evictions and foreclosures, as well as poor bank treatment of the elderly and the banks not paying their fair of taxes. The B of A branch staff closed and locked their front door. At first we thought they had closed for the day, but it turns out their back entrance was still open. We made lots of great contacts with people on the street and lots of mainstream media covered the event. Thanks to the WOW for pulling this together!

This protest is a weekly action at 12:00-1:00pm on Thursdays, except instead of Thursday, January 19, the action will switch to 9:00am on Friday, January 20, in solidarity with the Occupy Wall St West actions throughout the city focusing on the S.F. Financial District.

Join our neighbors in the Excelsior at their protest at 12:00 noon this Saturday, January 7, at the Persia Triangle (Mission St., Ocean Ave, and Persia) and head to the Mission for a protest at 12:00 noon on Saturday, January 14, at the 16th Mission BART station plaza.

Pictures of the protest:

Occupy Bernal Newsletter for December 28, 2011

Welcome to the first issue of the Occupy Bernal Newsletter! (let us know if you have a better name)

In This Issue:

General Assembly Gathers For First Time on Bernal

The Occupy Bernal General Assembly (GA) met for the first time last Wednesday, December 21. About 60 people attended the meeting at the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center. Many participants focused on the issue of keeping Bernal residents in our homes by preventing pending foreclosures and evictions of owner-occupied properties and rental-unit properties. The GA set up six workgroups and set a next meeting for 7:00-9:00pm on Wednesday, January 11, in the same location if available. For more information, check out the minutes of the meeting and media coverage from the Huffington Post, the SF Weekly, and Bernalwood.

Join a Workgroup!

A great way to get involved in Occupy Bernal is to join one of the six workgroups created by the General Assembly (GA) meeting. Click on the link below to read more about the GA or a workgroup and to subscribe to the email lists that are right for you.

  • Announcements Only: a low-traffic moderated email list to receive occasional news about Occupy Bernal
  • General Assembly: the main regular meeting place for everyone involved in Occupy Bernal
  • Communications: organizing press, newsletter, website, email lists, social networking, etc.
  • Coordination: coordinating meeting logistics, facilitator training, and other activities that must take place between GAs
  • Education: research and develop educational materials and long-term strategies
  • Housing and Foreclosure Workgroup: organize to keep Bernal residents in our homes
  • January 20 Action Workgroup: organize local Bernal actions and participation in larger actions
  • Outreach: encourage broad and diverse participation and publicity for Occupy Bernal activities and events

Mark Your Calendar for Upcoming Meetings

Anyone in support of the Occupy movement is welcome to attend these upcoming Occupy Bernal meetings:

  • TOMORROW: 7:30pm on Thursday, December 29: January 20th Action Workgroup meeting, Coleridge Park Homes 190 Coleridge St (at Virginia Ave, across from mini-park)
  • 7:00pm on Wednesday, January 4: Housing and Foreclosure Workgroup meeting, Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center, 515 Cortland Ave
  • 7:00pm on Wednesday, January 11: General Assembly meeting, Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center, 515 Cortland Ave

If you don’t see a meeting listed for the workgroup you’re interested in, then join the workgroup email list and help organize a meeting!

Upcoming events are displayed near the top of the right sidebar of the website where you can click on an event to see more information or you can display the full-size calendar.

Member Profile: Thomas German Facing Foreclosure

For this issue, we offer a profile of Occupy Bernal member Thomas German who is facing foreclosure of his home. Thomas German was born in Mobile, Alabama, a bit after New Year’s Day of 1940. After serving in the U.S. Navy, Thomas, aka “Tommie” or “German”, found employment as a die setter at the San Francisco Mint. He rented a home in Bernal in 1967. Living in the neighborhood for some years, he decided to purchase the home he was renting on Andover Street in 1974 for $21,000. How did he end up in foreclosure? You can click here to read the entire profile.

Know Someone Facing Eviction or Foreclosure?

Are you facing eviction or foreclosure? Do you know someone who is facing eviction or foreclosure? Occupy Bernal is here to help owners of owner-occupied properties and renters in rental-unit properties. Please fill out the Add/Edit Property to Map and Listing form so that the Housing and Foreclosure Workgroup can research the situation and keep our Bernal neighbors in our homes. Check out the Map of Bernal Owner-Occupied and Rental-Unit Properties Facing Foreclosure or Eviction that the workgroup is already investigating.

Housing Is a Human Right

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948, includes Section 1 of Article 25 which reads as follows:

“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”

Needs and Donations

If you are able, please donate any of the following items (you can bring them to a General Assembly meeting or click on “Contact” above to let us know you’d like to arrange to deliver them to us):

  • Masking tape (several rolls)
  • Clear mailing and storage tape (several rolls)
  • Reams of blank 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper
  • Butcher block paper (large pad)

We also need donations of the following services:

  • Spanish interpretation for meetings
  • Spanish translation for flyers, posters, website
  • Chinese translation for flyers, posters, website

Cash donations are also accepted to cover photocopying, Internet, venue reservation, and other organizing costs (no salaries or other overhead).

Social Networking Online

Join us on Facebook at facebook.com/groups/occupybernal.

The Occupy Bernal Twitter feed to follow is @occupybernal.

Minutes of Occupy Bernal General Assembly on December 21, 2011

Here is the digest form of the minutes of the Occupy Bernal General Assembly on December 21, 2011. Thanks to Kat, our notes taker!

OCCUPY BERNAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY

21 December 2011

(Decisions at the top for posting on the website; detail follows for GA email list only)

Decisions:

  • Molly, Steve, and Stardust took photos; no one objected to having their picture taken for use on the web or in media.
  • We approved 80/20 consensus. So…the consensus level of support needed to pass a proposal in the Occupy Bernal General Assembly will be 80 percent in favor. Vote was: 2 stand aside; 1 “disagreeable”; all others in favor of 80/20.
  • Created Housing and Foreclosure Workgroup. Unanimous vote.
  • Created January 20 Action Workgroup. Unanimous vote.
  • Created the following additional Workgroups: Outreach, Education, Coordination, and Communications (including media work and setting up occupybernal.org website, email lists, and email). Vote was 2 stand asides; all the rest in favor. (This vote was taken after most of the group had left at the break.)
  • Next Occupy Bernal Meeting: January 11, 7-9 pm. Location to be determined although intention is to reserve the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center again. Unanimous vote.