Two weeks ago, a group of Occupy Wall Street protesters in Portland, Ore., set up shop in a foreclosed home as a show of solidarity against bank-owned properties. Today marks the National Day of Action for Occupy Our Homes—an OWS spinoff that's championing "standing up to Wall Street banks and demanding they negotiate with homeowners instead of fraudulently foreclosing on them" by, say, taking over empty homes and interrupting foreclosure auctions. (The Occupy Our Homes pledge includes lines such as "I will support homeowners resisting wrongful foreclosure evictions" and "I will resist any attempt by the bank to take my home.") More than 20 American cities are participating in various events and demonstrations, including Detroit, which has seen 250,000 people flee or become evicted in the last five years, San Francisco, which has six organized events alone, and Brooklyn, whose East New York nabe has been hard hit. As one organizer told Salon's Justin Elliott, “[The goal is to] not only force the banks to allow the family to stay in the home. But also then force policy changes that would help thousands of other people for whom we’re not doing eviction defenses.” Full list of events over here.
· Occupy Wall Street Officially Turns Into Occupy Foreclosure [Curbed National]
· Background [Occupy Our Homes]
· Occupy's next frontier: foreclosed homes [Salon]
· Occupy Detroit Protests Foreclosures At Detroit And Southgate Homes [HuffPo]
· Occupy Wall Street takes on the housing crisis [CNN]
· Events [Occupy Our Homes]