On Monday, July 27, over 600 people packed the State House CORI Hearing as part of an extended CORI Day of Action. Organized by the Commonwealth CORI Coalition, supporters demonstrated the severity of the CORI crisis and raised the need for immediate reforms.

"Today was supposed to be a very sad day," said a member of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) to begin the press conference at Rosemary Williams's house this afternoon.  The sheriff had arrived at nine in the morning with an eviction notice.  Ms. Wiliams was packing.  Her son, his wife and their two small children had gone to their other grandmother's house.  Plans had been made for emergency foreclosure resistance.  "We were ready to go to jail," said Cheri Honkala of PPEHRC.  But twenty minutes before the press conference was to begin, one phone call changed everything.

Low-income and Sec. 8 tenants held an informational picket Friday morning at 10am (corporate media invited, none attended) against so-called nonprofit slumlord Central City Concern.

With signs that read, "Defend Tenant Rights" and "Greg Must Go!" tenant organizers picketed the $33,000,000 per year, so-called nonprofit landlord, Central City Concern. For a year, tenants have protested, written and organized against CCC management practices. CCC has persistent pest control problems in many buildings (cockroaches, mice, bedbugs), crime and kickbacks inside the buildings to/by CCC staff (prostitution, drugs, etc.), sexual harassment of tenants by managers (the "Greg" in question, above), and lack of transparency and accountability: it is an 'oral preference' that CCC board meetings outlaw tenants attending, or speaking at, CCC board meetings -- and the board minutes are secret.

Today's picket was prompted by the reinstatement after suspension of Greg Green, a building manager who is accused by tenants of sexual harassment of tenants, along with promoting/getting kickbacks on drugs and prostitution inside the buildings. Read More | Related from Colorado IMC: Green Valley Ranch Citizens Confront Corrupt HOA Board

On July 22, 2009 approximately 300 members of the Green Valley Ranch community showed up in force to oppose a special assessment being levied against them by their Home Owners Association (HOA) Board. They also took that time to demand the resignation of long-time president T.J. Stone and all his cronies.

The HOA Board banned everyone, including members of the community and journalists, from covering the meeting. One community member however refused and took this footage clandestinely. read more & video

The national housing crisis has led to thousands of families losing their homes. The rise in homelessness has contributed to the increase in tent communities across the United States as a grassroots solution to the problem.

On Monday June 29th, the City of Grand Junction tried to pass two emergency ordinances outlawing "soliciting," also known as flying a sign or spanging. What stopped the city from moving forward with these laws was a strong, large, and loud group of homeless people and younger radicals.

No one came to support the law, and over a hundred people came to oppose it. Solidarity Not Charity (our FNB out here in GJ) provided food and water serving on the city halls lawn. Live tunes were provided by, local band Fast Food Kings, and out-of-towners Chicken Little, who were hell a cool about relocating from the infoshop to city hall to play. Read more>>

RELATED: CU Tent Community! (Urbana-Champaign)

Casinos are cool places, but in the wrong places, too close to communities, they can be a bad thing. Casino Free Philadelphia is fighting to keep a casino from opening right on Market St.

As Portland's Sit/Lie ordinance is deemed as unconstitutional, there is evidence all over Portland of underground actions protesting the law. (Some popped up all over the city before the circuit court decision).
The signs the figures are holding have some of the following statements on them:

* "This city wide ordinance has been deemed unconstitutional by circuit court. Sit/Lie in unity to the supreme court. FREEDOM FOR ALL."

* "SIT LIE LAW IS A GVNMENT CURSE - Homeless Front"

Some that I spotted before the circuit court decision simply stated, "SIT LIE" and appeared to be attached with metal to what they were sitting on.

“Neoliberalism is the root cause of rampaging gentrification and displacement, from New York to New Orleans to Atenco, Mexico.” Keen observers of political-economy would agree with this assessment from Zapatista-inspired community activists in Spanish Harlem, who recently organized an “encuentro” with similar minded Black and Asian activists. All concluded that the issue is bigger than Harlem: “This displacement is created by the greed, ambition and violence of a global empire of money that seeks to take total control of all the land, labor and life on earth.”

Major investors have created enormous economic and political pressures on LSU to build its $1.2 billion hospital in lower Mid-City

Casual observers might think that the pro-Charity vs. LSU teaching hospital conflict is an argument over two competing plans to bring health care back online in New Orleans. It is not. The difference between the two camps is in fact much more fundamental with the pro-Charity coalition valuing health as a human right versus LSU and its supporters valuing health care as a business anchor around which an industry can grow, land values can inflate, and hospitals can make money. No set of facts better illustrates this divide and fleshes out the LSU camp's motivations than the machinations of major real estate developers in Mid-City. In spite of the post-Katrina rise in mortality and morbidity rates — due to the local health care system's bedraggled state — LSU and its allies have stubbornly refused to entertain the notion of reopening Charity, favoring their economic development centered plans over what pro-Charity advocates define as an issue of the human right to medical care.

Into this conflict numerous journalists have intervened with facts and analysis. We (“A. Caritas” is a pen name for several researchers) reported in December about real estate acquisitions of several developers in and around lower Mid-City, questioning the for-profit motivations driving the LSU-VA project. New information about these developers and biotech boosters has compelled us to chime in again, especially in response to Times Picayune reporter Kate Moran's glowing profile of one Mid-City developer published in April.

By Linden Gawboy

This past Sunday, June 7th, 2009 in zapatista East Harlem known as El Barrio, the Second New York City Encuentro for Dignity and Against Displacement, with the participation of 38 organizations representing the resistance against neoliberalism in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. This second encuentro, just as the first one — held two years ago — was inspired by the encuentros of the Zapatistas in Mexico from below and to the left, in order to get know each other and recognize one another in our struggles for a world where many worlds fit and against neoliberal exclusion.

This document is a collective effort of the Tent Community and of its supporters!

A small tent community has formed in Champaign, and with it, a growing constituency of support from the citizens of Champaign County. The tent community arose in response to a practical need for a livable solution to the housing crisis in the local area. The members of the group and their supporters aim to address the housing problem from the position of people living in homelessness. This group has banded together out of the need to provide respect, security, and wellbeing for each other.

Early Saturday morning the homeless residents of Nicklesville left Renton. Shortly after 5 AM in the morning, they arrived at a place near where they had been kicked out last September. As a northwest mist greeted the day, they unloaded three trucks of camping gear and personal belongings. The tent city is in South Seattle near 2nd Avenue SW and Highland Park Way SW. Rather than settle on city land, they are camping on state land. Will the state and Governor Gregoire show more mercy than Seattle Mayor Nickels has? Time will tell. The Nicklesville folks want to build a shanty town on the unused state land. They are asking supporters to contact the Governor and the State Transportation Secretary. Read More & Pics | Related from Urbana-Champaign IMC: A Call To Action: Standing Up For Tenants Facing Eviction When Landlords Fail To Pay Utilities | CU TENT COMMUNITY!

In reporting for the housing group at the June Peoples Potluck Sunday night Danielle Chynoweth discussed the recent evictions which took place at Gateway Studios. Chynoweth describes how tenants lived in squalor due to the neglect of the landlords to maintain the building and, when the landlord failed to pay the power bill, the city condemned the building and tenants were evicted. In this instance, many of the residents had been paying over 600 dollars a month and utilities were supposed to be included in their rent. VIDEO: Danielle Chynoweth speaks on Gateway

Last Friday, May 29th over 50 people testified at a hearing of the Council’s Committee on Government Operations & the Environment in support of Bill 18-0076, aimed at reforming the city’s laws concerning the re-purposing and disposition of public property. Many more submitted written testimony in support of the legislation. The committee is chaired by Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh.

"This is a real victory for the citizens of Medford,” Holen said. “It just doesn’t make good sense that Wal-Mart should be allowed to create traffic gridlock near the South Gateway and dump the costs of fixing it all on the backs of the taxpayer."

Holen added, "I would also like to say that I was really deeply disappointed in the way the city SPAC treated MCRD and other citizens who testified before them on this Wal-Mart matter over the years. We were never treated with respect or common civility, and felt belittled by them. I hope that this decision will not only change the way the codes are interpreted, but will also serve to remind this Commission that it needs to treat all those who come before it, not just the developers and power brokers, with dignity and courtesy.

Tenants living in rent-regulated apartments lost their homes two weeks ago when New York City deemed the building’s structure unsafe from a collapsing façade. Unfortunately for the tenants – who have been in homeless shelters, staying at friends and given shelter by the Red Cross – the city ordered the front facade completely removed and won’t let the tenants move back in until the owner replaces the façade, which he won't immediately do.

Signs have been showing up on foreclosed properties around Richmond, VA recently, advertising that the houses are available for free to anyone who needs a home. Though they look like ordinary real estate signs at first glance, they're actually the work of "Squat 2 Own Realty", a group of activists who are helping people take over vacant foreclosed houses without permission from the banks.

On April 30, 2009, a family of Section 8 landlords in Contra Costa County filed suit against the City of Antioch and several members of its Police Department for violating their civil rights. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco's U.S. District Court for Northern California, alleges that members of the Antioch Police Department used rough and illegal tactics to force the landlords to evict their Section 8 tenants, many of whom are African-Americans.

A motley crew of 35-40 pissed-off Portlanders disrupted the auction of foreclosed homes by bank-fraudsters [Monday] morning at the Multnomah County Courthouse before being removed by Sheriff's deputies from the lobby of the courthouse, some violently. Attendees shouted slogans and made "bids" on properties (e.g., "I bid that you keep people in their homes").

The law-unenforcers outrageously claimed that the courthouse lobby and steps were not "public space", and that they therefore were entitled to grab and shove members of the group away from the building. One deputy said, "I'm the judge" of what's public space.

The banking industry has been obstructing attempts by activists to require pre-foreclosure mediation between themselves and homeowners because such mediation has been shown to keep people in their homes rather than out on the streets, where "unnecessary" people should apparently be. [ Read More | forclosure resistance in portland | Fight the Banks: Foreclosure Prevention Direct actions ]

On May 14, Mayor Fenty appeared at the "Hinckley Hilton" to receive a lifetime achievement award from the DC Building Industry Association, a developer group. He had to run a gauntlet set up by Empower DC to get into the hotel to receive his award. Empower DC distributed fliers giving this list of public property giveaways from Fenty to his campaign contributors:

*PN hoffman got 16 axcres of SW Waterfront land on a 99 year lease for $1 a year.
*Donatelli and Klein(where the Mayor's fundraiser/birthday party was held) is getting two properties on Georgia Avenue worth over $1 million for only ONE DOLLAR!
*Lowe Enterprises got 9 acres at Riggs Rd and S Dakota Ave NE,worth over $6M for only $500,000.
*Argos Group got Old Engine House #10 on Capitol Hill, worth about $2M, for only $260,000.

Read More | VIDEO

The employment and housing crisis has impacted central Illinois workers and there is an urgent need for working class solidarity based on two different situations.

Autumn Glen, an apartment complex in Rantoul, Illinois made news in March when the municipally owned electric company cut power to a number of apartments for non-payment of bills. As community activists mobilized to aid the tenants, it was discovered that many tenants paid utilities as an extra fee in their rent. However, the landlord was not using the money to pay the bills. Despite these tenants dutifully paying their rent, the City threatened eviction within 36 hours originally. The City quickly extended the deadline to three days after receiving notice that the landlord never notified the tenants about the potential evictions. After being confronted with applicable state law that required a 10-day notice for potential eviction, the City was successfully pressured by concerned citizens to work out an agreement to receive payment from the landlord (a company of investors located in California) and keep many residents in their homes.

At least 15 children, 3 elderly women and a dozen adults, will be homelessness in Champaign in less than 48 hours.  The shelters are full.  The residents, most of whom work, just paid May rent and have no savings.  And the City of Champaign seems to have washed their hands of the problem.

The "Funk Fenty" speakout and funk concert was reported to be clearly audible (every word) throughout the Wilson Building! Speakers ripped into Fenty for funding stadiums and developer giveaways while closing schools, shelters-and almost everything else real people use. WSQT Broadfast Audio