Category Archives: action

Occupy the Auctions to Save the Home of Washington and Maria Davila

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Occupy Bernal Media Advisory
For Immediate Release

Contact: Occupy Bernal, Julien Ball, 415-483-9138, press@occupybernal.org

Occupy the Auctions to Save the Home of Washington and Maria Davila

Stop Wells Fargo From Selling Our Neighbors’ Home

What: Save the Home of Washington and Maria Davila
When: Friday, May 4, 1:45 pm
Where: City Hall sidewalk, rear side (400 Van Ness Ave.)

Occupy Bernal and supporters will protest today the foreclosure auction to stop the eviction of our neighbors Washington and Maria Davila. We will also leaflet potential home buyers, calling on them not to buy the Davila’s home.

Washington and Maria Davila have been living in a house they have been renting in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood for the past seven years. Because their Las Vegas landlord Felisa Yambao — who is suffering from cancer — is in foreclosure, Wells Fargo is planning to sell their house at auction today. A new owner-occupant of the house could evict the Davilas and the Davilas would like to continue renting from Ms. Yambao.

Last January 20, Wells Fargo canceled an auction date after Occupy Bernal planned a protest. But the bank hasn’t learned its lesson.

Wells Fargo plans to auction Ms. Yambao and the Davilas’ home on May 4 despite:

  • San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ unanimous vote for a moratorium on foreclosures until the state legislature passes a Homeowner Bill of Rights
  • The Mayor’s request for a “pause” until the state legislature passes a Homeowner Bill of Rights
  • California State Attorney General Kamala Harris’ request for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to suspend foreclosure activity
  • The report from San Francisco Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting that shows that 84% of a sample of San Francisco foreclosures contain at least one legal violation

To sign up for the Occupy Bernal press list and/or obtain photos and video of the actions, see http://www.occupybernal.org/press.

Organizations and Campaigns:

Occupy Bernal is a neighborhood-based Occupy currently focusing on preventing the banks from throwing our neighbors out of their homes. Web: http://www.occupybernal.org

Occupy the Auctions/Evictions is a campaign to halt for-profit and predatory evictions, foreclosures, and foreclosure auctions in San Francisco and beyond. Web: http://www.occupytheauctions.org and http://www.occupyevictions.org

URGENT Action Alert: Save the Bernal Home of Ted Harvey and His Disabled Daughter

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Update as of 7:59am on April 30: Wells Fargo has postponed the foreclosure auction of Ted Harvey’s home until May 30. We will work with Ted to get a fair deal from the bank. The auction action for today is postponed unless you feel like coming down to check it out anyway.

Wells Fargo plans to auction off the home of Bernal neighbor Ted Harvey and his disabled daughter TOMORROW.

Please take action with three steps to save their 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, richard.m.sintchak@wellsfargo.com, eric.tang@wellsfargo.com
Cc: action@occupybernal.org
Subject: Postpone Auction of James Theodore Harvey’s Home at 137 Faith St, San Francisco (loan #708-0154783435)

Dear Wells Fargo staff,

Please take IMMEDIATE action to postpone the auction of James Theodore “Ted” Harvey’s Home at 137 Faith St, San Francisco (loan #708-0154783435).

He has signed and is making payments for a trial payment plan on a loan modification, yet Wells has scheduled his home for auction at 2:00pm, April 30, 2012.

Once Wells Fargo has postponed the auction of Ted Harvey’s home, offer him a fair deal for a loan modification on terms that are sustainable so he and his disabled daughter can continue to live in their home.

This is an URGENT request, so please respond right away to postpone the auction.

Sincerely,

your name here
——-

2) Starting at 8:00am on April 30, 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 Richard Sintchak at 415-396-7970
  • 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 James Theodore ‘Ted’ Harvey’s Home at 137 Faith St, San Francisco (loan #708-0154783435). He has signed and is making payments for a trial payment plan on a loan modification, yet Wells has scheduled his home for auction at 2:00pm, April 30, 2012. Once Wells Fargo has postponed the auction of Ted Harvey’s home, offer him a fair deal for a loan modification on terms that are sustainable so he and his disabled daughter can continue to live in their home. This is an URGENT request, so please respond right away to postpone the auction.”
——-

3) Show up at 1:45pm (auction starts promptly at 2:00pm and the auctioneers can sell off a house in less than a minute) on the sidewalk in front of City Hall, 400 Van Ness Ave, in San Francisco, to protest Wells Fargo auctioning off Ted Harvey’s home.

Bring a loud voice, a whistle, earplugs, and signs to let Wells Fargo know we won’t stand for it anymore… stop illegally selling off our neighbors homes!

Background:

Ted Harvey — carpenter, musician, and father — bought his Bernal Heights home in 2005 and made regular payments for over five years.

Two years ago, after a work injury and his 11 year old daughter’s two month hospitalization, Ted fell behind in house payments. He’s been trying to modify his Wells-Fargo loan and believed he had — Wells Fargo cashed his two recent checks!

Now Wells Fargo plans to auction Ted’s home on April 30 despite:

  • San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ unanimous vote for a moratorium on foreclosures until the state legislature passes a Homeowner Bill of Rights
  • The Mayor’s request for a “pause” until the state legislature passes a Homeowner Bill of Rights
  • California State Attorney General Kamala Harris’ request for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to suspend foreclosure activity
  • The report from San Francisco Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting that shows that 84% of a sample of San Francisco foreclosures contain at least one legal violation

For more information, see http://occupybernal.org/wordpress/?p=1276 or http://occupytheauctions.org/wordpress/?p=1012

Please forward this alert right away to others who may be interested.

Save Eric’s Home – Occupy the Auction Dance Party on Friday

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UPDATE 4:30pm on April 27, 2012: City Hall Building Manager Robert Reiter tells foreclosure auctioneers they can no longer hold foreclosure auctions on City Hall Steps. For photos of the action, see http://occupytheauctions.org/wordpress/?p=876.

Thanks to Peter Menchini for the great video of the Occupy the Auctions Dance Party action below:

UPDATE as of the morning of April 27, 2012: Wells Fargo has postponed the auction of Eric and John’s home, so we are going ahead as planned with celebrating by dancing away the other foreclosure auctions scheduled for today.

At 1:45pm this Friday, April 27, please come to an Occupy the Auction Dance Party to stop Wells Fargo from auctioning off the home of Eric and his partner John.

San Francisco foreclosure auctions take place on City Hall steps at 400 Van Ness Ave. (unless the weather is very bad).

Eric and John live in Bernal and Eric is a Foreclosure and Eviction Fighter and active member of Occupy Bernal. They went through a difficult financial time, but are now both employed and have the funds to make regular payments on a renegotiated loan, which Wells Fargo has refused to provide.

Please arrive on time and bring loud whistles and earplugs.

The action will go ahead as a celebration even if the bank postpones Eric and John’s auction.

Link: RSVP on Facebook event

Video outside Wells Fargo Shareholder meeting with event invite (thanks to Carol Harvey):

Occupy Bernal, ACCE, Occupy SF Housing Demand Banks End Foreclosure Auctions and Comply With San Francisco Foreclosure Moratorium

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OCCUPY BERNAL MEDIA ADVISORY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Occupy Bernal: Julien Ball, +1 (415) 483-9138, press@occupybernal.org

ACCE: Vivian Richardson, +1 (415) 994-2778, vivan.richardson@yahoo.com

Occupy SF Housing: Stardust, +1 (415) 425-3936, press@occupysfhousing.org

Occupy Bernal, ACCE, Occupy SF Housing Demand Banks End Foreclosure Auctions and Comply With San Francisco Foreclosure Moratorium

Occupy the Auction Dance Party to Celebrate Wells Fargo Bank Postponing Auction of Bernal Neighbor’s Home

San Francisco, April 27, 2012 – San Francisco Occupy activists and supporters invited the 99% to attend an Occupy the Auction Dance Party at 1:45pm today at City Hall. Occupy Bernal, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), and the Occupy SF Housing Coalition will celebrate Wells Fargo’s postponement of the auction of the home of Bernal neighbor Eric and his partner John by dancing away the remaining foreclosure auctions taking place on City Hall steps tomorrow.

Occupy the Auctions Dance Party:
1:45pm, Friday, April 27, at City Hall Steps, 400 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco

“Wells Fargo Bank postponed the auction of our home, but my partner and I are still living with the looming threat that they will sell our home out from under us,” said Occupy Bernal Foreclosure and Eviction Fighter Eric L. “We went through some tough times, but now we can afford to pay if the bank will just negotiate for us and all those who are seeking a fair deal to stay in their homes.”

“The banks continue selling off the homes of San Franciscans every weekday despite the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ passage of a foreclosure moratorium resolution and the Mayor’s request for a pause in bank foreclosures,” said ACCE Foreclosure and Eviction Fighter Vivian Richardson. “Let’s tell the predatory banks we need a fair deal for every home owner and renter in San Francisco.”

Occupy Bernal, ACCE, and other community organizations in the Occupy SF Housing Coalition have organized an Occupy the Auctions/Evictions direct action campaign to invite the 99% to halt the dozens of foreclosure auctions that take place on City Hall steps each weekday.

Background:

California Attorney General Kamala Harris on February 27, 2012, asked lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to halt foreclosures statewide and for principal reductions for those facing foreclosure.

An audit commissioned by San Francisco Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting on nearly 400 San Francisco foreclosures over the past three years reveals that “fully 84 percent of the foreclosure files contained at least one clear legal violation and more than 66 percent of the files contained multiple violations”. This report confirms what many have suspected and provides the evidence required for issuing a moratorium on all predatory or for-profit evictions, foreclosures, and foreclosure auctions until such time as the law violations mentioned in the report are resolved and mechanisms are put in place to prevent further bank abuses of homeowners and renters.

The recent deal between banks and the Attorneys General of 49 of 50 states is woefully inadequate and does little for the Californians hardest hit by the crisis. Foreclosures have cost the state $650 billion in lost home values, property taxes, and foreclosure-related costs, according to a report released last December by California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC) and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE). The top banks – Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Ally Financial – pay only $18 billion in this sweetheart deal, which amounts to only $150 per foreclosure statewide. About 750,000 families will receive up to $2,000, a pittance compared with even the depressed value of their homes. The largest chunk – more than $12 billion – will in part go to pressure even more homeowners to sell their homes for less than what they owe, in real estate transactions called short sales that are nothing more than an easy way for banks to make money and save time evicting homeowners, while leaving more and more neighbors without homes. To summarize, the 1% are profiting off the economic distress of the 99% to finagle the largest land grab since the Depression era or earlier.

In a city that has seen 12,000 or more foreclosures in the past three years, Occupy Bernal started organizing in December 2011 to stop the evictions and foreclosures of our neighbors, joining a community of housing rights organizations who have long been fighting for tenant’s and home owners’ rights. In response to public protest in January 2012, Wells Fargo Bank postponed auctions of the Bernal homes of Washington and Maria Davila and the Alberto Del Rio family, but the bank also rescheduled the auctions. Despite meeting with six foreclosure fighters from the Bernal Heights neighborhood and another from Bayview-Hunters Point, Wells Fargo executives have refused to allow any to refinance their homes or modify their loans, and have continued plans to sell off their homes.

This Occupy the Auctions action follows on successful protests that protested the Wells Fargo Shareholder Meeting on April 24, 2012, occupied the home of Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf on February 25, 2012, and shut down Wells Fargo headquarters on January 20, 2012, and Wells Fargo bank branches in the Bernal, Excelsior, and Noe Valley neighborhoods on January 5, January 7, and March 24 respectively.

To sign up for the Occupy Bernal press list and/or obtain photos and video of the actions, see http://www.occupybernal.org/press

Organizations and Campaigns:

Occupy Bernal is a neighborhood-based Occupy currently focusing on preventing the banks from throwing our neighbors out of their homes. Web: http://www.occupybernal.org

Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) is raising up the voices of low income, immigrant and working families across California. Web: http://www.calorganize.org

Occupy SF Housing is a coalition which includes OccupySF, SF Tenants Union, Housing Rights Committee of SF, Causa Justa :: Just Cause, Eviction Defense Collaborative, ACCE, Homes Not Jails, Occupy Bernal, and other community groups and individuals. The coalition came together to stop banks from evicting tenants and homeowners through foreclosures or through their partnerships with real estate speculators. Web: http://www.occupysfhousing.org

Occupy the Auctions/Evictions is a campaign to halt for-profit and predatory evictions, foreclosures, and foreclosure auctions in San Francisco and beyond. Web: http://www.occupytheauctions.org and http://www.occupyevictions.org

Protest the Wells Fargo Shareholders’ Meeting

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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

Banking Videos for April 23rd’s Movie Showing about Wells Fargo

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These video links are courtesy of Peter Menchini, Occupy SF Media
http://www.youtube.com/user/MayaMediated
https://picasaweb.google.com/110351006045593232796

These are for the lead-up to the
Protest the Wells Fargo Shareholders’ Meeting on Tuesday, April 24, 2012.

Videos about Wells Fargo

Videos about banks, foreclosures, and even education

Ross Rhodes Speaks at SF City Hall Rally Before Supervisors Committee Hear Foreclosure Moratorium Resolution

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Thanks to Carol Harvey for this video of Occupy Bernal Foreclosure and Eviction Fighter Ross Rhodes speaking at a San Francisco City Hall rally just before the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Land Use Committee heard a Foreclosure Moratorium Resolution which passed the committee unanimously on to the full board, probably on April 10.

Carol’s full article appears here.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors Committee Passes Foreclosure Moratorium Resolution

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After a rousing protest on the steps of City Hall on April 2, 2012, the Land Use Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors held a hearing on foreclosures and passed unanimously (3-0) a slightly-amended foreclosure moratorium resolution and sent it on to the whole Board of Supervisors for consideration. This means that the Board could pass the resolution as soon as the Board meeting on April 10, 2012.

Speakers at the protest included Occupy Bernal Foreclosure and Eviction Fighter (FEF) Ross Rhodes, ACCE FEF Vivian Richardson, Occupy Bernal organizer and MC Judy Kurtz, and Supervisors David Campos and John Avalos, who sponsored the foreclosure moratorium resolution.

The Supervisors on the Land Use Committee voting in favor of the resolution were Malia Cohen, Eric Mar, and Scott Wiener, which brings the total number of Supervisors who have either co-sponsored or supported the resolution to eight, a super-majority of the Board. Among others, San Francisco Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting, Ed Donaldson of the San Francisco Housing Development Corporation, and representatives of the Mayor’s and State Attorney General’s offices testified at the hearing. Kathryn Galves, who Wells Fargo recently evicted from her Noe Valley home of 40 years, and other FEFs, Home Defenders, and members of the public told their horror stories about foreclosures and related auctions and evictions and spoke in favor of the resolution. Wells Fargo declined to send a representative to the hearing.

Here are some pictures of the protest and the hearing (with more photos from Carol Harvey here:

San Francisco Board of Supervisors Committee to Hear Foreclosure Moratorium

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OCCUPY BERNAL AND OCCUPY SF HOUSING MEDIA ADVISORY

Contact: Christie Hakim, +1 (415) 285-6899, press@occupybernal.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Occupy Bernal, ACCE, and Occupy SF Housing Support Board of Supervisors’ First in the Nation Major City Resolution on Unlawful Foreclosures and Moratorium on Foreclosures and Evictions to be heard in committee April 2, 2012

San Francisco, April 2, 2012 – Occupy Bernal, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), and the Occupy SF Housing Coalition will speak out at the Land Use and Economic Development Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in support of resolutions calling for a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions in San Francisco, demanding an immediate moratorium on predatory bank evictions, fraudulent foreclosures, and foreclosure auctions by all city officials.

The organizations plan a rally on the Polk Street steps of City Hall at 1:30pm. Speakers at the rally include: San Francisco Supervisors John Avalos and David Campos, Occupy Bernal Foreclosure and Eviction Fighter Ross Rhodes and ACCE Foreclosure and Eviction Fighter Vivian Richardson.

After the rally, speakers and other moratorium supporters will attend the Committee meeting at City Hall to present testimony.

Members of several City Departments, including the Assessor-Recorder’s office and the Mayor’s office, will present testimony. A representative from State Attorney General Kamala Harris’s office is expected to attend to address her proposed foreclosure and eviction moratorium and Homeowners’ Bill of Rights currently pending in Sacramento. In addition, counselors who have been working with San Franciscans facing foreclosure and eviction will speak about remedies that will address proposed remedies to the problems their clients face. ACCE and Occupy organizers including FEFs will speak out about the problems they have faced in their attempts to save their homes from foreclosure by Wells Fargo Bank.

Occupy Bernal, ACCE, and the Occupy SF Housing coalition invite the press to hear from San Francisco residents as well as from officials of the City and County of San Francisco.

The recent deal between banks and the Attorneys General of 49 of 50 states is woefully inadequate and does little for the Californians hardest hit by the crisis era or earlier.

“We are fast losing residents from our communities – seniors, families, community leaders, city workers,” said ACCE Foreclosure Fighter Archbishop Franzo King. “The city must do all in its power to pause foreclosures and cease partnering with predatory banks so we can all hold the banks accountable for their crimes.”

“The banks have torn apart our communities and caused a financial and health crisis by unjustly foreclosing and evicting our neighbors from their homes,” commented Occupy Bernal organizer Christie Hakim. “We support those city officials who have joined with the state Attorney General in calling for an immediate halt to predatory and for-profit foreclosures and related auctions and evictions.”

An audit commissioned by San Francisco Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting on nearly 400 San Francisco foreclosures over the past three years reveals that “fully 84 percent of the foreclosure files contained at least one clear legal violation and more than 66 percent of the files contained multiple violations”. This report confirms what many have suspected and provides the evidence required for issuing a moratorium on all predatory or for-profit evictions, foreclosures, and foreclosure auctions.

Both Occupy Bernal and ACCE have recently held successful protests that occupied the home of Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf on February 25, 2012, protested in front of Board of Directors member Lloyd Dean’s Dignity Health office on March 14, 2012, and shut down Wells Fargo headquarters on January 20, 2012 and Wells Fargo bank branches in the Bernal and Excelsior neighborhoods on January 5 and January 7 respectively.

To sign up for the Occupy Bernal press list and/or obtain photos and video of the actions, see http://www.occupybernal.org/press.

Organizations and Campaigns:

Occupy Bernal is a neighborhood-based Occupy currently focusing on preventing the banks from throwing our neighbors out of their homes. Web: http://www.occupybernal.org

Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) is raising up the voices of low income, immigrant and working families across California. Web: http://www.calorganize.org

Occupy SF Housing is a coalition which includes OccupySF, SF Tenants Union, Housing Rights Committee of SF, Causa Justa :: Just Cause, Eviction Defense Collaborative, ACCE, Homes Not Jails, Occupy Bernal, and other community groups and individuals. The coalition came together to stop banks from evicting tenants and homeowners through foreclosures or through their partnerships with real estate speculators. Web: http://www.occupysfhousing.org

Occupy the Auctions/Evictions is a campaign to halt for-profit and predatory evictions, foreclosures, and foreclosure auctions in San Francisco and beyond. Web: http://www.occupytheauctions.org and http://www.occupyevictions.org

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