Protests Against Foreclosures are Increasing
Protests against foreclosures are increasing. About 50 persons, most of whom were tenants, staged a demonstration outside a branch of Bank of America on Broad Street on Friday 8th May 2009. They were being evicted from their apartments because of the landlords being foreclosed upon. They demanded the bank to stop the process and put it on hold.
One of the worst sufferers was Jose Gonsalez who had been once evicted together with his wife and disabled daughter. This time hardly had the family started lighting the cooking fire when they found that the landlord was facing foreclosure. The first time he had been offered $1,000 but he never saw the green bucks. He was speaking to a crowd with the help of an interpreter. “Now, they want us to move again, but we don’t have the money and don’t have the strength to move.”
Rhode Island Bank Tenant & Homeowner Association had organized the demonstration. It had been set up when the foreclosures had just started to increase. It came to be supported by similar other organizations like Housing Action Coalition, Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, Jobs with Justice as well as DARE. Senator Juan Pichardo (Democrat/Providence) has given his personal support. He opined that if tenants are also thrown out then the city will be saddled with a growing problem of homelessness. The tenants are innocent victims of this cruel game between borrowers and lenders.
The demonstrators chanted “They get bailed out, we get thrown out” while putting up the cardboard replica of a house in front of the bank to underline the plight of the sufferers. One of the participants Rosalina Collazo bemoaned that the banks were throwing out of homes the poor, the sick and the elderly. Families are being destroyed. She gave out a strident call, “They have to stop it now.”
One of the members of Housing Action Coalition of Rhode Island said they are trying to put pressure to have the House Bill 5933 passed. It has been named the Just Cause Bill as it would make it legally possible for tenants to continue residing in Repo homes if they remained current in their rental payments.
The association also wanted the banks to consider the cases of those loans that had gone underwater. The fall in real estate prices had caused the loan amount to be higher than the worth of the properties. This has led to an impasse between the lenders and borrowers. The banks do not want to alter these loans.
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