Occupy movement targets foreclosures
Occupy Wall Street activist carry house-warming gifts to a party during a tour of foreclosed homes in the East New York neighborhood of the Brooklyn. (Dec. 6, 2011) Credit: AP
Occupy Wall Street protesters marched through a Brooklyn neighborhood to claim a foreclosed property for a local family as part of a nationwide day of demonstrations against home seizures.
Behind a banner that said "Foreclose on banks, not people," about 300 people made their way to a house on Vermont Street in Brooklyn's East New York section, where Alfredo Carrasquillo plans to live with his wife, Tasha Glasgow, and their two children.
The property had been vacant for three years and is owned by Bank of America Corp., according to a statement by Occupy Wall Street.
The East New York neighborhood had the highest foreclosure rate in New York City last year, with 16.8 per 1,000 homes receiving filings, according to a city comptroller's office analysis of data from RealtyTrac Inc.
Similar demonstrations were scheduled at more than 20 American cities as the Occupy movement turned its attention to the U.S. housing crisis.
More than 4 million homes in the United States have been taken over by banks since 2006, according to RealtyTrac, a real estate data firm in Irvine, Calif.
In Brooklyn, demonstrators made several stops before arriving at the Vermont Street home, tearing away the yellow tape that blocked the entrance to one vacant property.
Carrasquillo, a community organizer for VOCAL-NY, and his family were at the Vermont Street house when the marchers arrived. The crowd passed "housewarming gifts" to the family as volunteers began cleaning the house.
Gail Miller, a retired social worker, said she joined the march to bring attention to policies that are "bailing out banks, not people."
"I have a home, I have a family, and I believe that having a home and having a family ought to be a right for everybody," said Miller, a 70-year-old grandmother of nine who was born in Brooklyn and lives in Manhattan.
East New York suffered disproportionately during the housing crisis because its black and Latino communities were targeted by predatory subprime lenders, according to the statement from the Occupy group.
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