ACORN news

[colist-admin at comm-org.utoledo.edu]

From: "David Swanson" <acornnews at acorn.org>

Status: RO

ACORN News
Issue 9, June 25, 2001

1. Los Angeles Wins on Affordable Housing
2. ACORN Files Complaints Against Household
3. ACORN Holds National Neighborhood Cleanup Day
4. Minnesota Fights Predatory Lending
5. ACORN Lobbies for Anti-Predatory-Lending Bill
6. Pennsylvania State Legislature Blocks Philadelphia Ordinance
7. ACORN Opposes First Union Merger
8. Boston Holds Rally for Wages and Lending
9. Baltimore Testifies to Save Schools
10. San Diego Opposes Utility Rate Hikes
11. Montana Releases Job Study

1. LA WINS ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING - On June 19, a Los Angeles City Council
committee unanimously supported an appeal by ACORN and upheld a City law
requiring that at least 15 percent of the units in new residential
developments near downtown be set aside for low-income residents.  On June
20, the full Council voted in favor of the committee's recommendation.
Luxury apartment builder Geoff Palmer had sought an exemption from the rule,
and ACORN had protested for months, blocking streets and staging sit-ins at
which members were arrested.  A lengthy article on ACORN's protests appeared
in the LA Times on June 12.  On June 20, ACORN members crowded into Council
Chambers for a public hearing before the vote.  Three Council Members
praised ACORN and denounced the developer.  One said this was "a new era for
housing policy in LA," that we were taking the first step toward a citywide
inclusionary zoning policy, and gave credit to "my brothers and sisters from
ACORN."  For more information contact Amy Schur at CAacornLA at ACORN.org or
(213) 747-4211.

2. ACORN FILES COMPLAINTS AGAINST HOUSEHOLD - Having already filed formal
complaints with state regulatory agencies against Household Finance's
predatory lending practices in New York, Missouri, and Minnesota, on June 20
ACORN filed similar complaints in Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and the District of Columbia.  On the 22nd ACORN
filed complaints in California.  In each case, the complaints have included
accounts of abusive and unfair loans made to specific borrowers in the
state, and demands that action be taken against Household.  In Missouri, the
state Attorney General and the Banking Commissioner have begun looking into
the matter.  For more information, contact Lisa Donner at
AcornCampaign at ACORN.org or (718) 246-7900.

3. ACORN HOLDS NATIONAL NEIGHBORHOOD CLEANUP DAY - On June 16, ACORN held
its first annual National Neighborhood Cleanup Day.  ACORN members in 25
cities, with the support of their neighbors, local businesses, and city
governments, cleaned up their neighborhoods and urged their governments to
provide more of the city services needed to maintain cleanliness,
attractiveness, and safety in central urban areas.
In San Diego, members cleaned up six neighborhoods, using dumpsters provided
by businesses, and hauling services provided by the City.  In Chicago, West
Side ACORN members cleaned up three areas and got the City to put new
garbage bins on main streets and tow abandoned cars; the Southside cleaned
up two sites; and Little Village cleaned up 28 blocks.  In New Orleans,
members boarded up and cleaned three houses.  Oregon ACORN cleaned bus stops
and a park, and trimmed trees.  Rhode Island ACORN cleaned up a City-owned
lot that it had previously persuaded the City to clean but which the City
had not yet started on.  A TV station called the mayor, who sent the head of
the Dept. of Public Works.  He supplied a truck and committed to starting
cleanup of the whole area the next Monday.  Members then delivered some of
the trash to City Hall, in protest of the Mayor's failure to fully fund a
rat abatement program.

4. MINNESOTA FIGHTS PREDATORY LENDING - On June 14, Minnesota ACORN and
ACORN Housing Corporation held an event to announce a Twin Cities Campaign
to End Predatory Mortgage Lending, which will involve outreach and education
to warn borrowers, assistance to homeowners trapped in unfair loans, and
research into the damage done by predatory loans.  The event was held at the
home of a couple victimized by Household.  In a related move, the
Minneapolis City Council is considering an ACORN-sponsored resolution to
divest funds from Household.  For more information, contact Kevin Whelan at
MNacorn at ACORN.org or (651) 642-9639.

5. ACORN LOBBIES FOR ANTI-PREDATORY-LENDING BILL - With the Democrats now
controlling the U.S. Senate and Sen. Paul Sarbanes of Maryland the new chair
of the Senate Banking Committee, the possibility of seeing legislation
enacted against predatory lending is greatly improved.  Sen. Sarbanes will
soon introduce a bill, and ACORN has been lobbying senators to cosponsor it.
The earliest cosponsors were: Chris Dodd (D., Conn.), Jon Corzine (D.,
N.J.), John Kerry (D., Mass.), and Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.).  Following
lobby visits by ACORN, five more senators have signed on, and others are
considering doing so.  For more information contact Chris Saffert at
LegNatACORN at ACORN.org or (202) 547-2500.

6. PENN. STATE LEGISLATURE BLOCKS PHILLY ORDINANCE - On June 21, the
Pennsylvania legislature passed a bill overturning Philadelphia's
anti-predatory-lending ordinance, which was passed unanimously in April
after two years' of work by ACORN, and which was due to take effect in July.
The state bill was pushed through by an alliance of mainstream banks and
subprime predators.  Household had 10 lobbyists working on this.  The bill
was written by the lending industry and does nothing to protect a single
consumer.  ACORN members traveled from Philadelphia to Harrisburg to lobby
House members against the bill.  ACORN also worked with the Philadelphia
City Council Member who sponsored the ordinance, Marian Tasco, on lobbying
state representatives.  Philadelphia representatives who had sponsored the
state bill, including the lead sponsor, were persuaded to withdraw their
support.  For more information, contact Jeff Ordower at PAacorn at ACORN.org or
(215) 765-0042.

7. ACORN OPPOSES FIRST UNION MERGER - On June 13, ACORN National President
Maude Hurd sent a six-page letter to the Board of Governors of the Federal
Reserve opposing the proposed merger of First Union and Wachovia and
requesting that public hearings be held.  ACORN members the same day
demonstrated at First Union's office in Baltimore.  First Union has recently
canceled community partnerships and programs that offered affordable loans
to low-income communities, including an ACORN Housing Corporation program
with a delinquency rate below 2 percent..  An examination of First Union's
lending record shows a two-tiered system, where lower income and minority
borrowers are disproportionately being sold higher cost loans through the
banks' subprime subsidiaries.  ACORN urges the Federal Reserve to hold
public hearings on this proposed merger and to block it until First Union
has made a strong commitment to improved lending in lower income and
minority communities.  For more information, contact Bruce Dorpalen at
ahclcdirect at acorn.org or (215) 765-0048.

8. BOSTON HOLDS RALLY FOR WAGES AND LENDING -- On June 20, members of Boston
ACORN and the Greater Boston Labor Council Held a Rally to Support
Legislative Action on indexing the minimum wage and stopping predatory
lending.  ACORN National President Maude Hurd and Massachusetts AFL-CIO
President Robert Haynes spoke at the rally.  ACORN and the AFL-CIO are
backing Senate Bill 1812, which would index the Massachusetts minimum wage
to automatically increase with the cost of living, and Senate Bill 18 and
House Bill 3035, both of which would help curb predatory lending.  For more
information, contact Lisa Clauson at MAacorn at ACORN.org or (617) 436-7100.

9. BALTIMORE TESTIFIES TO SAVE SCHOOLS - On June 20, Baltimore ACORN members
testified at a Maryland State Board of Education hearing on the proposed
closing of nine City schools.  ACORN members with children in the schools
described the importance of the schools to their neighborhoods. The State
Board can overrule the City Board's decision to close the schools, and is
expected to make a decision on whether to do so next month.  For more
information, contact Mitch Klein at MDacorn at ACORN.org or (410) 752-2228.

10. SAN DIEGO OPPOSES UTILITY RATE HIKES - In the latest of a series of
actions directed against proposed utility rate increases, last week ACORN
members protested at the office of the Public Utilities Commission in
downtown San Diego.  Members made it to the fourth floor office, chanting
"Cut your profits, not our power!" until the police showed up in full riot
gear.  San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) has proposed raising rates for
small customers by about 18 percent in order to pay back the California
Department of Water Resources (DWR), which has been paying for power from
SDG&E since February.  SDG&E earned a net income of $52 million in the first
quarter of this year, and its parent company Sempra earned almost $200
million in profits in the same time.  Also, taxpayers already paid once for
the energy bought by DWR.  ACORN is demanding that no one who makes under
$40,000 have their rates increased.  For more information, contact Clare
Crawford at CAacornSD at ACORN.org or (619) 235-9593.

11. MONTANA RELEASES JOBS STUDY - Montana People's Action, a group
affiliated with ACORN, together with the Northwest Policy Center at the
University of Montana, released a "Northwest Job Gap Study," reporting a
shortage of living-wage jobs in Montana.  Defining a living wage as one that
allows families to meet their basic needs without using public assistance,
while also allowing some ability to deal with emergencies and plan ahead,
the study found a living wage for a single person in Montana last year to be
$9.90 per hour.  For a single person with two children, it was $16.24.  In
1996, Montana had 226,000 working-age households but only 173,000 jobs that
paid a living wage for a single person and 74,000 paying enough to support a
single person and two children, according to the report.  For more
information, contact Jen Kern at NatAcornCam at ACORN.org or (202) 547-2500.


ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is the
nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income
families, with over 100,000 member families organized into 500 neighborhood
chapters in 40 cities across the country. Since 1970 ACORN has taken action
and won victories on issues of concern to our members. Our priorities
include: better housing for first time homebuyers and tenants, living wages
for low-wage workers, more investment in our communities from banks and
governments, and better public schools. We achieve these goals by building
community organizations that have the power to win changes -- through direct
action, negotiation, legislation, and voter participation.

Please forward this message in order to build this list.

Check out ACORN's website at www.ACORN.org.

To subscribe to ACORN's Email list send an Email with only the words
"subscribe acornupdates" in the body of the message to MajorDomo at ACORN.org.

To unsubscribe from ACORN's Email list send an Email with only the words
"unsubscribe acornupdates" in the body of the message to
MajorDomo at ACORN.org.

David Swanson, communications coordinator
ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now
739 8th Street SE
Washington, DC 20003
(202) 547-2500 p
(202) 546-2483 f
acornnews at acorn.org
www.acorn.org