ACORN News February 19

Sun Feb 24 15:12:01 CST 2002

[ed:  ACORN news is forwarded with permission.]

From:  "David Swanson" <acornnews at acorn.org>
ACORN News
February 19, 2002

1. ACORN and Borrowers Sue Household International
2. New York Wins City Council Commitments
3. Sacramento Works to Save 500 Families' Homes
4. Jersey City Wins Access to Affordable Housing
5. Bronx Wins City Council Member's Help With Building Repairs
6. ACORN Targets Rapid-Refund Rip-offs
7. Colorado Moves Predatory Lending Bill
8. DC Pushes for Protections from Predatory Lending
9. Maryland Fights Predatory Lending
10. LA Kicks off Campaign for Predatory Lending Law
11. San Diego Holds Candidates Forum

1. ACORN AND BORROWERS SUE HOUSEHOLD 
INTERNATIONAL -- On Feb. 6, ACORN and
two victims of predatory lending filed a class-action suit in 
California
Superior Court accusing Household International and its 
subsidiaries,
Household Finance and Beneficial, of a wide range of fraud and
misrepresentation.  The suit includes all borrowers sold refinance
debt-consolidation loans by Household in the past four years.  It 
asks for
rescission of the loans, and that all profits gained as a result of 
unfair,
unlawful and/or deceptive advertising practices be returned to the
borrowers.  A conservative estimate places the class size in the 
tens of
thousands of borrowers, and the amount of the loans made during 
the period
covered by the suit at over $2 billion.  For a press release on the 
suit,
link to
http://www.acorn.org/acorn10/predatorylending/plreleases/acorn.ht
m.  For
information on ACORN's campaign against Household, link to
http://www.acorn.org/acorn10/household/household_main.htm or 
contact Lisa
Donner at acorncampaign at acorn.org or 718-246-7900.

2. NEW YORK WINS CITY COUNCIL COMMITMENTS - Six 
hundred and fifty New York
ACORN members from Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens 
and Long Island
attended a rally to kick off the new year and present their concerns 
to the
new Speaker of the City Council and 10 other City Council 
Members who
attended.  ACORN member and newly elected Council-Person 
James Sanders spoke
first, followed by each of the other Council Members, including the 
head of
the welfare committee, the head of the education committee, and 
the head of
the economic development committee.  They committed to quickly 
passing ACORN
's legislation on predatory lending, living wage, and the provision of
training and education for welfare recipients.  For more information,
contact Bertha Lewis at nyacornbrkro at acorn.org or 718-246-7900.

3. SACRAMENTO WORKS TO SAVE 500 FAMILIES' HOMES - 
On Feb. 9 and 10 about 500
families in the Sacramento, Calif., region received 30-day eviction 
notices.
Entire neighborhoods of single-family houses owned by Japanese 
billionaire
Gensiro Kawamoto were to be cleared out so that he could sell 
them - never
mind that many of the families would be unable to find anywhere 
else to
live.  Kawamoto headed back to Tokyo to avoid any 
unpleasantness.  But ACORN
jumped into action, held a 200-person meeting on the 12th, held a 
rally on
the state capitol steps and met with the Attorney General on the 
15th, held
a workshop on tenants' rights on the 18th, and is meeting with the 
counsel
to the Japanese Embassy today.  ACORN is demanding that 
Kawamoto not evict
people with only 30 days' notice and that he negotiate an 
alternative
solution with the tenants group that ACORN has helped organize.  
ACORN is
also pursuing other solutions, including a bill being introduced by a 
state
senator that would block the evictions until 2003.  For more 
information,
link to
http://acorn.org/acorn10/affordablehousing/eviction/index.htm or 
contact
Brian Kettenring at caacornsaro at acorn.org or (916) 247-8231.

4. JERSEY CITY WINS ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE HOUSING - 
Jersey City ACORN members
on Feb. 5 visited the surrounding suburban towns to urge them to 
comply with
the New Jersey Supreme Court's Mt. Laurel decision and the 1985 
Fair Housing
Act, which required towns to provide their fair share of affordable 
housing.
Poor compliance with the law has meant the continuation of racial 
and income
housing segregation; 80 percent of the affordable housing units 
constructed
in the suburbs have gone to whites already living in the suburbs.  
ACORN is
demanding that towns build more affordable units, and market 
them to
low-income people.  Already, ACORN has won a commitment from 
the City of
Clifton to work with ACORN before anyone else on marketing 125 
new units.
For more information, link to
http://www.acorn.org/acorn10/affordablehousing/ahreleases/jersey.
htm or
contact Kate Atkins at njacorn at acorn.org or 201-222-0100.

5. BRONX WINS CITY COUNCIL MEMBER'S HELP WITH 
BUILDING REPAIRS - ACORN
Members from the Bronx and Upper Manhattan have won 
commitments from City
Council Member Miguel Martinez to pressure a landlord to meet 
with them, to
take part in any talks with the landlord, and also to contact the 
Department
of Housing, Preservation, and Development regarding over 2,000 
code
violations in two apartment buildings in the Inwood section of 
Manhattan.
On Feb. 15 ACORN members held a rally at the buildings in which 
Martinez
took part.  The ACORN members in the building are suffering from 
cracked
ceilings and walls, bad plumbing, old wiring and frequent short 
circuits,
among other hazards.  For more information, contact Heather 
Appel at
nyacornbrx at acorn.org or 718-292-0070.

6. ACORN TARGETS RAPID-REFUND RIP-OFFS - ACORN 
chapters have begun a
campaign targeting tax preparers, including H&R Block, for the 
practice of
charging exorbitant fees in exchange for giving people their tax 
refunds a
week or two faster.  These short-term, zero-risk, overpriced loans 
are
funded by Household International and - like the rest of its business 
- prey
on those who can least afford it.  Bridgeport, Ct., ACORN last week 
took
over an H&R Block Office to protest these practices.  For more 
information,
contact Jeff Ordower at ctacorn at acorn.org or 203-333-2676.

7. COLORADO MOVES PREDATORY LENDING BILL -- On Feb. 
11, Colorado ACORN and
allies, including the AARP and the Colorado Credit Union League, 
moved an
anti-predatory-lending bill through the Colorado Senate Business 
Affairs and
Labor Committee by a vote of 6-1.  To clear this hurdle, ACORN 
knocked on a
lot of doors in targeted districts, carrying cell phones to let residents
make calls on the spot.  ACORN members also spoke at a meeting 
for
legislators.  Together with the AARP and other allies, ACORN 
packed the room
on the 11th.  When the bill's sponsor, Sen. Doug Linkhart, asked 
everyone to
stand who supported the bill, almost the whole room rose.  The 
chair asked
those opposed to stand, and six people stood.  Household 
International is
leading the opposition, but ACORN's campaign is gaining 
momentum.  For more
information, contact Carolyn Siegel at coacorn at acorn.org or 303-
393-0773.

8. DC PUSHES FOR PROTECTIONS FROM PREDATORY 
LENDING - The DC City Council
today passed a weak law on predatory lending that ACORN 
expects will do very
little to protect consumers.  DC ACORN had been pushing hard for 
the City
Council to pass significant restrictions on predatory lending, and 
had
flooded council members' offices with calls urging them to support
amendments that would have strengthened a proposed law by 
removing an
exemption for banks and their subsidiaries, by limiting points and 
fees on a
greater number of loans, and by requiring borrowers of high-cost 
loans to
receive loan counseling.  On Feb. 14, ACORN members protested 
at the office
of John Ray, a former City Council Member now lobbying for banks 
and
contributing to City Council Members' campaign funds.  "The 
banking lobby
bought what it wanted," DC ACORN President Katie Fitzgerald said 
today.  "We
are going to shift gears and go after lenders directly, but we will be
holding these City Council Members accountable next November."  
Ray's views
and ACORN's are both printed in this Washington Post article from 
Monday:
http://www.acorn.org/acorn10/predatorylending/plclips2002/lending.
htm.  For
more information, contact Will Ward at dcacorn at acorn.org or 202-
547-9292.

9. MARYLAND FIGHTS PREDATORY LENDING - ACORN has 
been campaigning for
legislation to restrict predatory lending in Baltimore, and has just 
begun
pushing for the same in Prince George's County.  But two state 
delegates,
both of whom have received significant funding from the lending 
industry,
have now introduced a bill (HB649) that would prevent any city or 
county
from passing any laws related to lending.  ACORN members held a 
rally in
Annapolis on Feb. 14 and met with delegates to oppose the bill.  
ACORN
members will testify at hearings on the topic tomorrow.  For more
information, link to:
http://www.acorn.org/acorn10/predatorylending/plclips2002/proteste
rs.htm or
contact Mitch Klein at mdacorn at acorn.org or 410-752-2228.

10. LA KICKS OFF CAMPAIGN FOR PREDATORY LENDING 
LAW - On Feb. 14, Los
Angeles ACORN members lobbied every City Council Member's 
office to convince
them of the need for local legislation against predatory lending.  
While
ACORN won state legislation last year in California, ACORN 
members see a
need for tougher restrictions, and ACORN has already passed a 
strong
ordinance in Oakland.  LA ACORN members gave the City Council 
Members
detailed information and "Have a Heart, Save a Home" Valentine's 
Day cards.
A hearing is scheduled for Thursday.  For more information, 
contact Peter
Kuhns at caacornlaro at acorn.org or 213-747-4211.

11. SAN DIEGO HOLDS CANDIDATES FORUM - On Feb. 5, San 
Diego ACORN held a
candidates forum for eight candidates for a City Council seat.  The 
forum
was well attended and was the first to include Spanish translation in 
a
district where Latinos are the largest ethnic group.  For more 
information,
contact Clare Crawford at caacornsd at acorn.org or 619-235-9593.

DONATE TO ACORN -- Membership dues and chapter-based 
fundraising programs
pay for 75 percent of ACORN's budget. But ACORN also needs 
financial support
from non-member allies, people who do not live in neighborhoods 
with ACORN
chapters but who support the work ACORN is doing. For more 
information, link
to
http://www.acorn.org/donate.htm or contact Steve Kest at
natexdirect at acorn.org or (718) 246-7900.

LINK TO PAST POSTINGS TO THIS LIST AT
http://www.acorn.org/acorn10/pastpostings/index.htm.

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform 
Now, is the
nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-
income
families, with over 120,000 member families organized into 600 
neighborhood
chapters in 45 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.

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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
http://www.acorn.org
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