Friday, February 5, 2009

As the foreclosure crisis continues to displace hundreds of people resulting in the destabilization of our communities, much of the attention, legislation and relief has gone towards bailing out banks and educating homeowners. Tenants however are the hidden victims of the foreclosure crisis as good, rent-paying tenants are made invisible and evicted from their homes due to their landlord’s financial mistakes. In August, the Tenant Congress voted to add foreclosure to its platform and to immediately begin discussing solutions. Building off of the September and October Tenant Congress meetings, MTO is working to create a comprehensive response to the foreclosure crisis including outreach and education, tenant involvement, and coalition building.

Regardless of what laws exist or what resources are made available, tenants and homeowners cannot enforce their rights unless they are educated about them. Partnering with the Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing, the City of Chicago, the Legal Assistance Foundation, the Spanish Coalition for Housing, MTO is also mounting a foreclosure education and outreach campaign on the West Side. Based out of MTO’s East Garfield Park Renters’ Rights Center (RRC), teams of organizers and volunteers have been working in the community knocking on doors and distributing information at schools and other centers to educate residents about foreclosures, what their rights are and most importantly the resources available to them. Tenants who need individual advice are directed to the RRC where they can speak to a counselor on the phone or in person. Homeowners are directed to the Spanish Coalition and the Legal Assistance Foundation.

To begin the process of reforming the law, tenants from foreclosed buildings all over the city gathered together at MTO on November 12th, for the first meeting of the Tenant Congress Foreclosure Committee, to share their experiences and to discuss solutions to the crisis. The committee set a list of priorities for reforming the laws that govern tenants in foreclosure. The list included strengthening the disclosure ordinance requiring that landlords notify their tenants at the beginning of the foreclosure process, closing loopholes in the eviction procedure and encouraging banks to keep tenants in buildings, increasing protections against security deposits theft, and ensuring that owners and banks maintain the building during and after the foreclosure process. The committee also plans to set up a comprehensive resource list for renters in foreclosure that would provide them with the information and contacts they need to be aware of in order to survive a foreclosure. The committee also brainstormed a number of possible actions in order to bring these issues to the attention of and to send a message to offenders that their behavior will no longer be tolerated. These actions will be discussed further at the next meeting on December 4th.

Organizers from MTO have also been meeting with community organizations, policy groups, community development corporations and legal aid groups looking at forming a coalition to change the laws on foreclosure. Groups discussed ways that they could better coordinate their services including referring smaller buildings to community organizations so that their organizers can outreach to the tenants, and setting up an email list for groups to communicate with each other about initiatives and actions related to the foreclosure crisis. The participants also began a discussion about creating a comprehensive platform such as a foreclosure moratorium banning predatory laws and tenant protections.

For more information regarding MTO’s responses to the foreclosure crisis, please contact Jerett Yan at (773) 292-4980.