ACORN News

Tue Jan 8 11:12:01 CST 2002

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

ACORN News
January 7, 2001

1. Baltimore Battles Citifinancial
2. Household International to Pay $12 Million in Penalties and 
Refunds
3. Colorado Goes After Predatory Lending
4. Albuquerque Opens New School
5. Albuquerque Keeps Residents' Utilities on and Affordable
6. Arkansas Effort Gets Gas Heat Restored to 7,430 Homes
7. Arkansas Pushes State to Stop Housing Discrimination
8. Sacramento Closes in on Sprawl
9. Bridgeport Helps Win Union Recognition for Laundry Workers
10. New ACORN Chapter in Prince George's County, Md.

1. BALTIMORE BATTLES CITIFINANCIAL - For months Baltimore 
ACORN members have
protested Citifinancial's predatory lending and sought to block the 
City
Council from bestowing corporate welfare on this subprime branch 
of
Citigroup.  Dozens of members have testified against Citifi at City 
Council
hearings and Board of Estimates meetings, as well as staging 
protests at its
headquarters.  On Dec. 5, two executives of Citibank, a prime-
lending branch
of Citigroup, came to breakfast with a dozen ACORN members at 
the  Park
Heights home of ACORN leader Willie Ray.  Ray took the 
executives on a tour
of the neighborhood, where they saw the results of disinvestment 
by prime
lenders and predatory lending by their subprime colleagues: block 
after
block marred by vacant houses and trash.  As a result of ACORN's 
pressure,
Citifi has agreed to make Park Heights the location for a new pilot 
project,
to provide more low-cost loans in Baltimore's poorer communities, 
and to cut
ties to Baltimore brokers whom federal authorities say engage in 
unethical
real-estate practices that target low-income borrowers.  ACORN 
has vowed not
to ease the pressure on Citifi until it ceases all predatory lending 
and
compensates its victims, but ACORN welcomes these positive 
steps from a
lender it has steadily denounced since releasing a report on its 
lending
practices in November 2000.  For more information, link to this 
newspaper
article:
http://www.acorn.org/acorn10/predatorylending/plclips2002/a_new.h
tm or
contact Mitch Klein at mdacorn at acorn.org or 410-752-2228.

2. HOUSEHOLD INTERNATIONAL TO PAY $12 MILLION IN 
PENALTIES AND REFUNDS - On
Jan. 4, Household agreed to pay nearly $12 million in penalties and 
refunds
to settle a suit by the state of California, which charged it with
deliberately overcharging thousands of borrowers.  The state 
"maintains the
position ... that Household and Beneficial were engaged in a joint,
pervasive pattern of abusive lending practices, consisting of 
routine,
statewide imposition of excessive and improper fees, penalties, 
interest and
charges," says the agreement.  Household maintains that the 
60,000
violations found by the state were accidental.  ACORN continues to 
pursue
additional complaints about Household's lending practices with 
state
regulators in California and around the country.  For more 
information, link
to
http://www.acorn.org/acorn10/household/household_main.htm or 
contact Lisa
Donner at acorncampaign at acorn.org or 718-246-7900.

3. COLORADO GOES AFTER PREDATORY LENDING - Colorado 
State Sen. Doug
Linkhart, D-Denver, announced that he will introduce anti-predatory 
lending
legislation supported by ACORN and the AARP.  Linkhart made the 
announcement
at an ACORN rally on December 21, which was held at the home of 
an elderly
member whose loan had been refinanced four times with additional 
fees added.
Along with announcing the legislation, the event was a plea to save 
the
borrower's home.  Her payment had risen to over $900 per month, 
while her
income was about $1,000.  As a result of the media attention that 
ACORN
generated, Wells Fargo offered to refinance the loan at 7 percent 
and the
good citizens of Denver gave $1,300 to help out.  For more 
information, link
to this newspaper article:
http://www.acorn.org/acorn10/predatorylending/plclips/woman.htm 
or contact
Carolyn Siegel at coacorn at acorn.org or 303-393-0773.

4. ALBUQUERQUE OPENS NEW SCHOOL -- Albuquerque 
ACORN members this past
summer won approval from Albuquerque Public Schools to open a 
new "School on
Wheels" in ACORN's Westgate neighborhood, as part of an 
alternative program
for drop-outs.  West Mesa High and Truman Middle School, which 
serves
Westgate, have had 600 dropouts over the last two years.  Now 
Albuquerque's
new mayor, Martin Chavez, has met with Westgate ACORN 
members and agreed to
provide temporary space for the new school in the Westgate fire 
station, so
that it can open immediately this semester.  The new school will 
look for a
permanent location to move to next fall.  For more information, 
contact
Matthew Henderson at nmacorn at aorn.org or 505-244-1086.

5. ALBUQUERQUE KEEPS RESIDENTS' UTILITIES ON AND 
AFFORDABLE - In October,
ACORN members in Albuquerque convinced PNM, the state gas 
company, to
contract with ACORN for outreach to potential beneficiaries of 
LIHEAP, the
Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.  ACORN has now 
helped 400 people
qualify for LIHEAP and saved scores of people from getting 
disconnected.
For more information, contact Matthew Henderson at 
nmacorn at acorn.org or
505-244-1086.

6. ARKANSAS EFFORT GETS GAS HEAT RESTORED TO 7,430 
HOMES - In November,
Arkansas ACORN won a program from the state Public Service 
Commission to
reconnect residents' gas service.  Utilities waived reconnect fees, 
and
customers who had been shut off agreed to repayment plans for 
overdue bills
as part of the program, which expired December 31.  One out of 
four
Arkansans facing winter without natural gas took advantage of this
unprecedented effort, which was made available only to low-
income customers.
For more information, link to this newspaper article:
http://www.acorn.org/acorn10/utilities/uclips2002/7430.htm or 
contact Neil
Sealy at aracorn at acorn.org or 501-376-7151.

7. ARKANSAS PUSHES STATE TO STOP HOUSING 
DISCRIMINATION - An Arkansas state
panel for addressing complaints of housing discrimination was 
created by
passage of the Fair Housing Act last May, but it has not been put 
into
action.  The state has not yet submitted a copy of the law to the 
U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development and has appointed 
only one
person to the 13-position panel.  ACORN worked to pass the bill 
last year
and is now urging the Governor, the Speaker of the House, and the 
Senate
President Pro Tempore to act on it.  ACORN has pressed for action 
on this
issue for years and released a report in 1995 documenting housing
discrimination in Arkansas.  For more information, link to this 
newspaper
article:
http://www.acorn.org/acorn10/communityreinvestment/PressClips/f
air.htm or
contact Neil Sealy at aracorn at acorn.org or 501-376-7151.

8. SACRAMENTO CLOSES IN ON SPRAWL - ACORN and the 
Sacramento Valley
Residents for Regional Solutions are pushing hard to pass 
California
Assembly Bill 680 by the end of January.  The group has held large 
rallies
in support of this innovative solution to sprawl in the Sacramento 
region,
and has collected 85 letters of support from state-wide 
organizations,
businesses, city and county governments, and elected officials.  
Under the
Sacramento Regional Smart Growth Act of 2002, AB 680 
sponsored by
Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, at least a third of new-growth tax 
revenues
would be distributed among the jurisdictions in the six-county region 
on a
per capita basis, in order to promote smart growth, increase equity 
in the
region, and foster cooperation.  For more information, link to
http://www.acorn.org/acorn10/otheracornwork/sprawl.htm or contact 
Brian
Kettenring at caacornsaro at acorn.org or 916-247-8231.

9. BRIDGEPORT HELPS WIN UNION RECOGNITION FOR 
LAUNDRY WORKERS - ACORN
Members in Bridgeport, Conn., have helped about 70 workers at 
Shelton
Laundry win recognition as members of UNITE (Union of Needle 
Trade and
Industrial Employees).  With pro-union workers getting fired and
intimidated, the organizing effort faced a steep uphill battle.  The 
laundry
had received $160,000 from the GROW Bridgeport Fund, a 
revolving loan fund
started up with mostly state and city money.  ACORN and UNITE, 
two City
Council Members, four State Representatives, and leaders of the 
UFCW and the
Fairfield Labor Council rallied at the offices of the GROW Fund.  
Members of
this coalition met with State Sen. Bill Finch, who agreed to write a 
letter
to the company and set up a meeting with the company.  A week 
later, ACORN
and UNITE visited the home of the laundry's owner to present him 
with a
"Scrooge of the Year" award.  The day after Christmas, the owner 
met with
UNITE and agreed to recognize the union. They also reached an 
agreement on a
framework for a contract, which they believe will include employer-
paid
family health benefits.  For more information, contact Jeff Ordower 
at
ctacorn at acorn.org or 203-333-2676.

10. NEW ACORN CHAPTER IN PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, 
MD. - ACORN is starting a
new chapter in Prince George's County, Md.  For more information, 
contact
Michelle Moore at mdacornpgro at acorn.org or (301) 266-6694.

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 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.

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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