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Action: Click her to sign ACCE's letter to Freddie Mac CEO Charles Haldeman

On Monday, a disturbing report came out on NPR’s “Morning Edition" that disclosed that Freddie Mac, a taxpayer-owed mortgage company, whose mission is “to expand opportunities for homeownership,” invested millions into mortgage securities that profited when homeowners were unable to refinance.

Freddie Mac CEO Charles Haldeman bet against homeowners such as Arturo de los Santos of Riverside, who last month launched a public campaign to save his home from unfair foreclosure by JP Morgan Chase and Freddie Mac. An ex-Marine, Arturo has lived in the home for about ten years with his wife and four kids. Last month, Art and his family took the courageous step of re-occupying their home after being foreclosed on and he is fighting to get Freddie Mac to negotiate a fair modification with a principal reduction.

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The house had been sitting vacant since Gayla and her three daughters were evicted from their West Oakland home last summer.   Now we have learned that the eviction may have been illegal!

December is bonus time for the Wall Street execs that crashed our economy by recklessly gambling with our homes and jobs.  But for millions of regular people, the 99%, every day is a struggle. Instead of bonuses we get layoff notices and foreclosure evictions. Rather than rewarding themselves for destroying families, 1% bankers like those at JPMorgan Chase need to do the right thing and ensure that Gayla can stay in her home.

Gayla stood up to Chase Bank and told them she's not leaving.  Click here to tell Chase Bank to let her stay and make it official by giving her a permanent, affordable loan modification.

It's been an eventful week since she reclaimed her home with the support of ACCE, Occupy Oakland and her neighbors.  After moving into her home, she led a delegation to Chase to try to work things out. There Chase employees told her they thought that the eviction actions of her 2nd mortage company, Residential Capital Mortgage Income Fund, were potentially fraudulent. In solidarity, 15 people in San Diego visited Residential’s San Diego-based CEO and got a commitment to halt any legal action.

BUT THAT COULD CHANGE AT ANY MOMENT!  JP Morgan Chase has the power to make things right by working with Gayla.

Tell Chase that Gayla is not leaving! Chase can work with both Gayla and Residential to stop the fraudulent eviction and replace it with a fair and permanent loan modification.

Gayla is fighting for herself but also for all of West Oakland, which is ground zero of the foreclosure crisis at the heart of our economic devastation. Foreclosures are so pervasive that one investor has bought up over 170 properties. As I write this, Gayla is working hard to expand her support by talking to faith leaders, elected officials and community members about taking a public stand with her.  With your help, she will keep the pressure mounting on Chase Bank.

Thank you for your continued support for Gayla and for all of us fighting to hold banks accountable.

In Solidarity,

Vivian Richardson, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE)

Have you made the occupy our homes pledge yet?  If not please goto www.occupyourhomes.org

WHO: Disabled and bedridden schoolteacher Lesliane Bouchard, with the support of her synagogue, her neighbors, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, change.org, OccupySanDiego, OccupyTemecula and OccupyOceanside and many others.

WHERE: 40734 Mountain Pride Drive, Murrieta, CA 92562

WHEN: Thursday, December 15, beginning at 3:30pm

Press conference with supporters begins at 3:30pm

General assembly will begin at 5:45pm

Occupiers will be camping out. BRING A TENT!

WHAT :  Lesliane Bouchard has declared that she has joined the Occupy Our Homes movement and is pledging not to leave her home if foreclosed and evicted.  She is hosting a one-night occupation at her home and will be asking the occupy movement to stand by her side to resist eviction if First Mortgage Corporation refuses to work with her.

BACKGROUND: Here is the text of her online petition, created by her daughter, Kristiane Chappell which can be found at http://www.change.org/petitions/first-mortgage-corporation-dont-foreclose-on-a-disabled-schoolteacher

“My mom Lesliane Bouchard, a disabled teacher in California, may lose her home because her mortgage company, First Mortgage Corporation, refuses to participate in some of the federal programs that could keep her in it.

She has been *approved* for the federal government's Hardest Hit State Fund, which would pay down enough of her principal balance enough to keep her in her home. But First Mortgage Corporation refuses to participate in the program, which is only optional for lenders.

Mom is completely bedridden due to a spinal injury that left her in constant excruciating pain. She had to stop teaching last year as a result, and her income dropped by 40%. Programs like the Hardest Hit States Fund exist to help people just like her, but they won't work if lenders won't participate in them.

Mom's current home is about the same distance from all of her adult children, enabling us to share the responsibility of caring for her. If she loses her home, it will be impossible to split duties, making her care much more difficult, and more expensive.

Her home was in foreclosure until HUD put a 90-day hold on the proceedings. Now the time is just ticking away until mom is once again at risk of losing her home. Lesliane Bouchard should be able to live out her life with access to appropriate care and all her children. Please join me in demanding that First Mortgage Corporation keep her in her home.”

Occupy Our Homes is a movement that supports Americans who stand up to their banks and fight for their homes. We believe everyone has a right to decent, affordable housing. We stand in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement and with community organizations who help the 99% fight for a place to call home. Community members are invited to take the pledge by visiting www.occupyourhomes.org

Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) is a multi-racial, democratic, non-profit community organization building power in low to moderate income neighborhoods to stand and fight for social, economic and racial justice. ACCE has chapters in eleven counties across the State of California. Follow ACCE on twitter @CalOrganize

San Diego: Civic Center Plaza: Saturday, Dec 3 at 11AM - RSVP

Los Angeles: West steps of City Hall: Sat, Dec 3 at 12:30PM - RSVP

San Francisco: 3rd Street and Palou, Sat, Dec 3 at 11AM - RSVP

San Jose: City Hall, Sat, Dec 3 at 12PM - RSVP

Richmond -  Location TBA, Sat, Dec 3 at 11AM - RSVP

Oakland: TBA

Can't make any of these?  Sign up for a phone teach-in.

The focus of the meeting was to address the high volume of abandoned and neglected foreclosed bank-owned properties in Richmond that have contributed to blight and crime in the neighborhoods. In 2008, the city of Richmond passed a "blight ordinance" which allows the city to charge banks up to $1000 a day for neglected or abandoned foreclosed properties. Money from the fines was slated to be used to help clean and maintain abandoned and blighted properties. Banks, however, make it difficult for city staff to identify and access the properties and, in many cases, are ignoring the fines, which then become passed on to the next home buyer. ACCE leaders and Richmond residents said enough is enough.

ACCE members put together a broad platform that included raising revenues by strengthening the local blight ordinance, creating youth jobs, and investing in responsible banks. As part of strengthening the blight ordinance, ACCE called for tools to aid in stronger enforcement of collecting unpaid fines by the banks such as automatic transfer of property to city by court order and seizure of bank assets. "If the banks continue to foreclose on us, then we need to foreclose on the banks," said ACCE leader TeiJae Taylor. The platform also aimed to address blight in key hot spots within the Iron Triangle and North Richmond neighborhoods through the use of mobile cameras, the city's new gated alleyway program, and fencing off residential homes from the train tracks.

Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, Councilmember Jovanka Beckles, and the Chief of Police all supported the platform to ReFund and Rebuild Richmond. The Mayor stated, "if the banks are not maintaining the homes, are not doing what they need to do, and not paying the fines, in order to prevent more fines, we should be able to seize these homes! We can utilize these foreclosed homes for things like a Community Land Trust which is something I know ACCE has been working on." Chief Magnus stated that "when I got into policing, I knew I was going to be dealing with certain members of the community that would be involved in robbing banks but I did not plan on having to deal with certain banks that would be involved in robbing members of the community." He's seen how foreclosed properties are affecting the city even in his neighborhood. He said that "banks are more willing to take title and associate themselves with properties where they can turn a profit, but in other neighborhoods where properties are already distressed or creating health hazards, many banks do everything they can to obscure who the owner is so that no responsibility has to be taken." He also said that "it has taken days, weeks, and even months just to determine who owns these properties." These community policies can help begin to shift the power in Richmond from the banks, back to the people in the community.

The tour highlighted several sites in North Richmond neighborhoods where homes have been left unmaintained and blighted. In many cases, neglected homes contribute to greater problems in these neighborhoods including illegal dumping, crime and violence, health hazards, lower property values, and they deter businesses from locating in these neighborhoods that are already lacking in jobs.

The community leaders presented their priorities to city officials and staff to address this issue. ACCE priorities included immediate cleanup of identified properties in North Richmond and implementing the city's new mobile camera and gated alleyway programs to an illegal dumping "hot spot" in the Iron Triangle Neighborhood. The event was covered by multiple media outlets:

http://univision14.univision.com/noticias/videos-de-noticias/video/2011-07-07/casas-abandonadas-por-bancos-en

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=144098919001056&comments

The 5 workshop series is providing training and leadership devleopment on working together to provide community health education, building a group to organize for changes, and advocating for those changes and changes to other healthcare policies that impact them.

JOIN US for Workshop 2, which focuses on how patients and community members can help to address health issues in the community through communtiy health education.

The Workshop Series:
1. Tuesday, Aug 9th (6pm-8pm): Community Organizing 101
2. Tuesday, Aug 23rd (6pm-8pm): Health Education
3. Tuesday, Sept 13th (6pm-8pm): Building a Group
4. Tuesday, Sept 29th (6pm-8pm): Advocacy 101
5. Tuesday, Oct 4th (6pm-8pm): Building Power for Change

Workshops are being held at the Nevin Community Center, 598 Nevin Ave. Richmond

This initiative is a collaborative project of the Brookside Community Health Clinic, The Community Clinic Consortium, and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE).

This project is part of the Healthy Richmond Initiative, an effort funded by The California Endowment ~ Our Community Working Together

Please RSVP for workshop participation to jadams@calorganize.org
Contact: John Adams 510.866.5032
Dinner, translation, and childcare provided.

and desperate to save her house, when she saw an article about the Home Defenders League in a local Newspaper. She decided to call and see if HDL could help save her home. HDL members did three different actions on Citibank branches in San Francisco and San Jose demanding that the bank give Li Li a Loan Modification. As a result of these actions, in mid-July Li Li was invited to join members of the California Reinvestment Coalition to meet with Bryan Bolton, Citibank's national Director of Loss Mitigation, at Citibank's corporate offices in San Francisco. After the meeting Li Li was able to meet with Bryan one on one to discuss her case. Li Li had recently been put into a trial modification and having made her payments she wanted to make sure she was going to receive a permanent loan modification. Bryan Bolton confirmed that once she made her third payment she would be approved for a permanent modification! Outside Citibank's offices Li Li was excited about the positive outcome. As she said "Now when I come home at night I can just relax and don't have to worry about losing my home. It just shows you that if people come together and fight back we can win!" On July 15, Li Li received a package in the mail informing her that she had indeed been approved for a permanent, affordable loan modification by Citibank! Congratulations Li Li!!

That's why CEPS organizations have been working at the local and national level to
ensure that the parents, students, and community members who are affected by low performing schools have a say in fixing those schools. In 2010, CEPS developed metrics of parent, student, and community engagement to guide district and state implementation of School Improvement Grants.

Based on the recommendation of CEPS, the Department of Education has added new language, throughout the guidance to states for the second round of grants.

This language includes:

* Family and community engagement is a critical component of a successful intervention." Parents and community members should be included in the required consultation with stakeholders. A district could:

• "hold community meetings to discuss the school intervention model it is considering implementing and the reasons it believes that the model is appropriate"
• survey families and the community to gauge their needs;
• or provide updates to families and the community about the application process and status of the [district's] application."

* "It is extremely important to engage families and the school community early in
the process of selecting the appropriate school improvement model, but doing so
is particularly important when considering school closure. It is critical that
[district] officials engage in an open dialogue with families and the school com-
munity early in the closure process to ensure that they understand the data and
reasons supporting the decision to close, have a voice in exploring quality op-
tions, and help plan a smooth transition for students and their families at the re-
ceiving schools."

* A new pre-implementation period before the start of the school year prioritizes
community engagement in designing interventions and preparing for full implementation. A district can:

• "hold community meetings to review school performance, discuss the school intervention model to be implemented, and develop school imimprovement plans
• survey students and parents to gauge their needs
• communicate with parents and the community about school status, improvement plans, choice options, and local service providers
• assist families in transitioning to new schools if their current school is implementing the closure model by providing counseling or holding meetings or open houses."

*Under the Transformation model, a district may conduct a "community-wide
assessment to identify the major factors that significantly affect the academic
achievement of students in the school, including an inventory of the resources
in the community that could be aligned, integrated and coordinated to address
these challenges."

These additions are a victory for CEPS and its member organizations, but we want to see even stronger language and requirements for true family and community engagement. CEPS will continue fighting in Washington, D.C. and in cities across the country to ensure that parents, students, and community members have a seat at the table in the hard work of turning around our struggling schools.

Communities for Excellent Public Schools (CEPS) is a coalition of 35 local, state and national parent, student, and community organizing groups. CEPS has launched a national campaign calling for dramatic action to improve low performing schools by emphasizing research-based education practices and parent, student , and community engagement.

For additional information, please contact Charese Jordan Moore, Director at cjordanmoore@ceps-ourschools.org or (202)464-7373 or check out the website at www.ceps-ourschools.org