LET PEOPLE STAY!

“Stop foreclosures and evictions” will be the rallying call during a protest set for Saturday, June 13, in Minneapolis.

The protest, initiated by the Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout, will call on banks and mortgage companies to stop foreclosures and the displacement of homeowners and to stop evicting tenants from rental properties that have been foreclosed.

Protesters will gather on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Clinton Avenue and Lake Street. A march starting at 11:15 a.m. will end with a rally and picket outside the US Bank branch office at 908 East Lake Street.
US Bank has received $6.6 billion in TARP, the federal bank bailout, yet continues to foreclose and evict local citizens.

On May 8, the Minneapolis City Council passed a resolution urging banks and mortgage companies foreclosing properties in Minn-eapolis to:
•Allow foreclosed homeowners to remain in their homes after the foreclosure, and
•Allow tenants in foreclosed rental properties to remain in their rental homes.
The City Council resolution states, “Minneapolis homeowners, tenants, and neighborhoods have suffered a growing number of foreclosed and vacant homes. These foreclosures destabilize families and neighborhoods in many ways.”

A statement issued by organizers explains: “The economic crisis is not the fault of working and low-income people. Banks and mortgage companies sold mortgages with escalating interest rates and penalties that were doomed to fail. Increasing layoffs and the economic crisis will lead to more people falling behind on mortgage payments. Working people and low-income people need a bailout. We need time to get through this economic crisis and to save our homes.”
For more information, contact the Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout at 612-822-8020 or e-mail mn-peoples-bailout.org.