Boston Community Organizers Fight Foreclosure and Eviction—Successfully!

In a Boston neighborhood, a nonprofit called City Life/Vida Urbana is fighting foreclosure and eviction, home by home.  Staffed largely by volunteers, including lawyers, organizers and ordinary homeowners who have been threatened with home loss, CLVU has one of the most successful rates of retaining homes for both tenants and owners in Boston’s poorest neighborhoods.
How do they do it? By shaming the banks. 

Tenant Organizer Steve Meacham explains the tactics. Boston is the only place in the country where banks are selling homes back to their owners post-foreclosure at their actual value. The process of pressuring the banks to do the right thing begins with a weekly Bank Tenant Association Meeting, where those threatened with home loss gather and are counseled and encouraged to advocate for themselves by the CLVU staff, and volunteer lawyers. They learn their rights, develop solidarity, and are taught about the political nature of the problem, so that they don’t blame themselves. Protests and public actions are planned.  The weekly meetings of the Bank Tenant Association are now often as large as 100 people.

Meacham talks about creating the “moral space for people to feel like they have the right to resist {eviction}.”  His organization has an extraordinary track-record: 95% of the tenants who come to them for assistance are not evicted, while just the opposite is true for those who receive no help.  “Faced with a combination of long drawn-out legal defense and public protest, the banks are very often choosing to negotiate and settle with us,” says Meacham.

When CLVU threatens a public protest, called an Eviction Blockade, the owner, tenants and supporters risk arrest to call attention to the eviction. Local politicians begin calling the bank (owner of the foreclosed property) to encourage them to negotiate and avoid the bad publicity.  Most of the time, a deal is made and the residents get to stay in the home. Increasingly, banks have been willing to negotiate deal with former owners to sell them back their properties at their real value—which is usually about 35% of the loan value.
Watch Steve and his team of staff, volunteers and tenants go through the process of defending homes here on Bill Moyer’s Journal {link here}.

By Sam Pizzigati

In closely knit communities, people care about each other and help each other, too. But healthy “social fabrics,” as the expression goes, can tear. Inequality can tear them. The wider the income gaps between us, the less we share in common, the less we care about those around us.

Over time, in a deeply unequal society, we come to feel almost totally on our own — and unprotected. Our society becomes a place where people don’t help each. They fear each other.

This past summer, many Americans saw that fear — in TV footage of angry protestors at congressional “town hall” meetings — and wondered whether our deeply divided society is sliding toward a future where hateful demagogues are essentially calling the shots.

But small bands of other Americans weren’t wondering and worrying. They were busily building an infrastructure for an alternate future. The building block for this infrastructure: the “Common Security Club.”

This fledgling Common Security Club organizing, after spending the last nine months pilot-testing and fine-tuning mobilizing materials and strategies, is now ratcheting up to a new and higher level of activity.

Local Common Security Clubs have already started up in over four dozen communities. The clubs typically bring from 15 to 20 people together for face-to-face sessions where they can grapple with their personal financial stresses, learn more about why our economy isn’t working, and explore what people can do, through mutual aid and shared action, to increase our economic security.

“It’s important we learn together,” says Chuck Collins, the director of the Institute for Policy Studies Program on Inequality and the Common Good and an organizer of the Common Security Club network. “We ceded too much power to the experts — and now it’s time for us to think for ourselves.”

Common Security Clubs are drawing participants from a variety of sources. Some have formed out of church congregations or union locals, others from neighborhoods.

To help all these groups get up and running, a small national staff, assembled by the Institute for Policy Studies and the Massachusetts-based Grassroots Policy Project, has prepared a facilitator’s manual and made all sorts of other resource materials available.

What are the clubs doing? Their efforts vary.

In the spirit of mutual aid, clubs are helping people deal with immediate personal crises — like foreclosures. They’re also raising issues around long-term family financial planning, through a club network relationship with Vicki Robin and Monique Tilford, co-authors of Your Money or Your Life, a widely respected program that helps people rethink how they relate to money matters.

These mutual-aid activities, says club organizer Andrée Collier Zaleska, are helping create “tremendous energy for local and community responses.”

But the clubs take that energy further.

“We can’t ignore,” says Zaleska, “how larger economic policy failures wrecked the economy — and the need for ordinary citizens to weigh in on the direction of future economic policy.”

Local Common Security Clubs are starting to do that weighing in. They’re campaigning, for instance, to beat back the Wall Street blitz against the proposed national Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

The club network currently extends from Massachusetts, where the first club formed in Boston, to Washington State, and the press is just beginning to take notice. Organizers see a steady expansion ahead. Want to learn more — and maybe start a Common Security Club within your neighborhood or organization? The Common Security Club Web site covers all the basics.

The current recession, club organizers note, will eventually fade. But the economic ground beneath us has shifted. We can’t return, they note, to the cheap energy and unlimited fossil fuels that used to “grow” our economy — and we don’t want to return to the “bubble” economics that grew our vast inequalities of income and wealth and triggered last fall’s crash.

“We need to prepare ourselves and our communities,” sums up organizer Chuck Collins, “for more fundamental changes and a new economic model.”

Too Much is published by the Council on International and Public Affairs, a nonprofit research and education group founded in 1954. Office: Suite 3C, 777 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017. E-mail: editor@toomuchonline.org.

By Chuck Collins

When the financial world hit full-blown crisis mode last fall, it seemed there was little for ordinary people to do but helplessly watch their savings and their jobs melt away, victims of risky speculation by a poorly regulated industry.

But in the midst of the meltdown, people throughout the U.S. were joining with their neighbors to weather the economic crisis. Last winter, more than 50 Common Security Clubs formed in communities around the country: a mini-movement of people coming together in religious congregations, community centers, and union halls to help each other understand and cope with the the collapsing economy. The clubs soon moved past the goal of simply weathering the crisis and began to work toward reforms—both nationally and in their communities—that would prevent a repeat of the devastation.

Responding to the flood of fear and isolation in the immediate aftermath of the collapse, organizers  used the free facilitator’s guide developed by the Common Security Club network to design mutual aid exchanges, educational events, and even worship services as a response to financial instability.

The clubs’ original goals were to learn together about the causes of the economic crisis, to build networks of mutual support within communities, and to engage in social action to press for changes in economic policy in order to prevent future economic meltdowns. Six months later, club members are reporting a number of other benefits, as well.

Overcoming isolation and shame

We can’t underestimate the value of breaking down the isolation and shame that many of us feel facing this economic upheaval alone. Even though there has been a widely shared experience of economic meltdown, many people still blame themselves for circumstances beyond their control. By educating ourselves about the root causes of the crisis, clubs are able to devote time to developing productive solutions rather than self-blame.

We need “Reality Support Groups”

Recent news coverage about the crisis includes rosy predictions that the economy is rebounding. One member of a Common Security Club described her club as a “reality support group” because members unflinchingly look at the real signs of the times. Unemployment is still climbing, people are losing their houses, poverty is deepening. The economic meltdown wasn’t just the result of a few bad actors, but of a deeper system failure. The experts, politicians and media all failed to keep a critical eye on the economy. For many members of Common Security Clubs, this is one of the reasons it is important that we learn together. We ceded too much power to the experts—and now it is time for us to think for ourselves. What is real in the economy? What is real wealth and what is phantom wealth? We don’t need to be experts to begin to trust our common sense judgment about what will be good for the economy.

Getting our mutual aid muscles back in shape

After two generations of “you are on your own” economics, it is really hard for people to ask for and receive help from their neighbors. We understand charity, but genuine reciprocity is harder. This is less true in some communities of color and among new immigrants that depend on strong mutual support networks to survive. But for many communities and congregations, we need practice in mutual aid. One lesson is to start small with bartering exchanges, unemployment support groups, and “get out of debt” pacts.

Common security clubs have helped members network about jobs, strategize personal budgets, and find ways to be more frugal. Several clubs have done “weatherization barn-raisings,” helping one another insulate their homes for the winter in order to save hundreds of dollars in fuel costs. Some have bartered for services among themselves, swapping yard work for childcare or computer skills for language lessons.

Taking National action

Once people start looking at things they can do together, there is tremendous energy for local and community responses. Yet we can’t ignore that larger economic policy failures actually wrecked the economy, or that now is the time for ordinary citizens to weigh in on the direction of future policy. How can we ensure that stimulus funds will reach our communities and create good jobs? How can we push back against the powerful Wall Street interests that are limiting health care or trying to undermine basic financial oversight?

Clubs have recently lobbied Congress to pass legislation to stop foreclosures, protect consumers, and rein in the unregulated financial operators on Wall Street. They have transitioned from offering support to taking action.

Once there is trust, there are few limits

For clubs that have been together for several months, there are wonderful benefits. People are able to share financial information and challenges at a deeper and more useful level. The group develops a shared understanding of the economic system that informs social action.

These clubs have been a place where we hold each other as we face change together. It is a place where we both take responsibility for our own complicity in the economic crisis —perhaps with blind trust in experts or borrowing beyond our means. But these clubs are also a foundation for increased social action to press for a solidarity economy that works for everyone.

Today, they seem more relevant than ever. Two million more people lost their jobs this year. While politicians and pundits fixate on the stock market’s rebound as a sign of recovery, ordinary folks—who know first-hand how vulnerable we still are—are recognizing the urgent need to come together at a local level to take care of one another.

Chuck Collins wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Chuck is a member of a common security club in Boston, Mass and has helped coordinate a network of clubs. He’s also a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive multi-issue think tank. To learn more about Common Security Clubs, visit www.commonsecurityclubs.org. A different version of this article appeared in Sojourners.

By Chuck Collins

Earlier this year, I wrote an article in Sojourners about Common Security Clubs: a mini-movement of people coming together in churches, community centers, and union halls to help each other understand and cope with the economic crisis.

By Chuck Collins

The U.S. economy has lost more than 2 million jobs this year, ratcheting the unemployment rate to 9.7 percent, the highest level since 1983.

But the politicians and pundits didn’t seem to notice. They’re fixating instead on the stock market’s rebound as a sign of recovery. While that might mean a boost for Wall Street, it hasn’t helped the rest of us very much.

We’re rooting for President Barack Obama and Congress to fix the economy, hoping they’ll find a way to compensate for the 7.4 million jobs that have disappeared since 2007 and assist the 1.7 million people who have lost their homes. But we also need to take responsibility for our debt, build real security, and press for accountability.

Some people have realized this and are coming together on a local level, organizing to take care of one another in this new economy. They’re part of a quintessentially American self-help movement that has emerged over the last year called “common security clubs.” These clubs are part study group, part mutual aid and part social action. They’re a living example of the independent voluntary associations that French observer Alexis de Tocqueville admired about Americans in the 19^th century.

In church basements, community centers, and union halls, people are coming together to learn what caused the economic meltdown, help one another, and identify actions they can take together to press for a healthy economy.

Participants have been able to reduce anxiety about our finances — and see the abundance that still exists in our communities. Unfortunately, most of us are sorely out of practice when it comes to mutual aid, giving and receiving help from our neighbors. But what we’ve discovered by coming together is that we can’t face the changing economy in isolation.

At this time last year, millions of people were asking, “How did this economic meltdown happen?” By watching videos, reading articles and engaging in face-to-face discussions, common security club members have been exploring the roots of the economic crisis. Members have also reflected on the deeper challenges facing our economy, such as wealth inequality, stagnant wages, and dizzying amounts of personal and public debt.

Common security clubs have helped members network about jobs, strategize personal budgets and find ways to be more frugal. Members have made pacts to get out of debt. Several clubs have done “weatherization barn-raisings,” helping one another insulate their New England homes for the winter in order to save hundreds of dollars in fuel costs. Some have bartered for services among themselves, swapping yard work for childcare, computer skills for language lessons.

These clubs are a place where participants face the facts and prepare for the future. Participants realize we can’t go back to some glory economy of the past based on endless borrowing, unchallenged greed and cheap oil and energy. Everything is changing, regardless of what Wall Street and the cable networks are telling us.

That said, club members have also recognized the limits of self-help: Some of the problems they’ve identified demand more formal social action. They’ve been motivated to engage in the democratic process to fix the economy in a way that helps them and lifts everyone up. Clubs have pressed state governments to ensure that stimulus funds reach their neighborhoods; they have lobbied Congress to pass legislation to stop foreclosures, protect consumers, and rein in the unregulated financial operators on Wall Street.

The big banks have gotten their trillions in aid from the Bush and Obama administrations. Wall Street is happy: Its definition of a recovery is booming stock prices and multi-million dollar CEO paychecks. But that has little meaning for the majority of working people. We need to come together to ensure that the rest of us find recovery.

While we’re waiting for the big fix, maybe these clubs are the right medicine.

Chuck Collins is a member of a common security club in Boston and has helped coordinate a network of clubs. He’s also a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive multi-issue think tank. To learn more about Common Security Clubs, visit www.commonsecurityclub.org.

This article was originally published in Common Dreams on Oct 7, 2009. It was also published in the Bell Gardens Sun.

Eileen had to escape from an abusive relationship, but felt overwhelmed and afraid.  She consented to her friend Donna pulling together a “personal safety net” team, starting with a practical Excel spreadsheet of names and contact information of friends who would help her with the transition.

“I was in tears as we met to compile a list of who could commit to doing what and when,” said Eileen.  “These folks provided dinner to my front porch, care for my two young sons, help around the house and yard, listening ears, and more. Donna sent email to everyone about what was going on in my world legally and emotionally. I think they did a lot of collective prayer as well, and I know that worked. I never felt alone as my world went upside down.”

This is just one of dozens of stories from the emerging network of “personal safety nets.” In explaining the concept, co-founder Judy Pigott asks four questions:  “Who has got your back?  Are they ready?  Have you told them you are counting on them? Do they know how to reach each other?”

How prepared are we in the event of a sudden death, health crisis, divorce or job loss? For people living apart from extended family –or in our sometimes fragmented communities — we may not have people immediately around us. “We need to created extended families with people we don’t always have a biological connection to,” says Pigott. “Each family does what it can, and each family can do different things.”

For those who can’t quickly answer the “who’s got your back” question, by listing at least three informed people, it may make sense to explore creating a personal safety net.  A personal safety net includes “the resources we weave together to create a more caring, connected, and community-minded circle for ourselves, our friends, family, and workplace.”
A Common Security Club might be the place to meet people who also want to create a more intentional “personal safety net” among members.  Pigott advises people to form teams during “good times,” and make sure we’ve got one another’s contact information, medical information and family phone numbers.  “We need to know one another’s desires and intentions.”

For Pigott, who co-authored with John Gibson the book Personal Safety Nets: Getting Ready for Life’s Inevitable Changes and Challenges, her own life experience shaped her view about the benefits of such a net.  At the age of twelve, her father died leaving her mother to run a family business and raise several small children outside Bellingham, WA.  “My mother was working 16 hours a day and juggling parenting.  She reached out to everyone for help, including the local sheriff.  He connected us with a 16-year old girl who had been banished from her family home for shoplifting.  This young woman needed a home, some part-time work, and the stability to finish high school.  We became part of each others’ safety net.”

“We live in a culture that preys upon people’s fear and isolation,” observed Pigott.  “We find it hard to ask for help.  And we’re not always good at accepting help or realizing the reciprocity does not have to be in the moment.  Every one of us has something that we must offer the world.  They lend us their car –and we will take their mom (or someone else’s) shopping another day.”

“There are some practical skills we all need to be effective in supporting one another,” said Pigott, based on years of encouraging safety net teams.  “We need to know how to build a team, communicate, deal with feelings such as of resentment.  We need to know how to think critically, not take things personally, to disband and end things.  All things that begin do end.”  One recent feature on the web site was an article, “Five Tips to Using Kindness and Avoiding Resentment.”

The web site and resources offered by the Personal Safety Net organization includes stories, examples, books, workbooks and other resources for people interested in strengthening the circle around them.