What to Do About Housing Foreclosures?

 Boston DSA Forum

Speakers:

Grace Ross, former Green Party gubernatorial candidate, and staffer for the Massachusetts Alliance Against Predatory Lending (MAAPL), and author of the forthcoming book, Main Street Smarts: who got us into this economic mess and how we get through it...

Melonie Griffiths, Tenant and Economy Project Organizer for City Life-Vida Urbana, the Jamaica Plain-based social justice organization which has been organizing community members to resist evictions and save their homes.

Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz (D-Boston), co-sponsor SB1609, of one of the MAAPL-supported bills, which would protect tenants from eviction in fore-closed properties.

President Obama has recently proposed modest tax increases on the bailed out big banks to help fund small business loans from community banks.  This is perhaps a welcome, if belated, improvement over prior administration policy.  Cynics might point out, though, that Obama has appointed his top economic advisors and policy makers almost exclusively from the pro-corporate, neo-liberal, Robert Rubin wing of Clinton Democrats who, along with their Republican colleagues, helped bring on our current economic mess in the first place, when they fought successfully back in the 1990's to deregulate Wall Street.  This contributed to a sub-prime mortgage bubble fueled by predatory loans whose unraveling continues to destroy the savings and even neighborhoods of many Americans today, especially in cities and among people of color.  Our speakers will examine the causes of this crisis and what we can do to resolve it — from community mobilization to legislative action at the State House.

Sponsored by Democratic Socialists of America and Dollars & Sense
Download a pdf flyer for the event here.