Quarterly Newsletter

SEC Spring Quarterly Meeting - March 12th
The Foreclosure Crisis: Opportunities for a New Economy

For our next Social Equity Caucus quarterly meeting, we will be broadening our understanding of the foreclosure crisis to illuminate strategies by which community groups and the public sector can work together to move from reaction to action, seizing the moment to make concrete gains in economic equity for the most burdened communities in the Bay Area.

Our emphasis is on the ways that cross-sector work can restructure the economy; therefore, this meeting will be useful for both community groups working on issues related to economic justice and for city and county electeds, staff, and commissioners from around the Bay. Though we will be sharing specific campaigns and strategies from the East Bay, we invite folks from around the region to attend and to share their work. READ MORE

If you plan on attending, please RSVP to

laurie@urbanhabitat.org.

We hope to see you there!

CCISCO and PICO Leaders Attend Bank of America Shareholders Meeting to Demand a Halt to Foreclosures

On Tuesday, February 23, a delegation of PICO and CCISCO leaders, together with allies from other faith-based and consumer advocacy organizations, met with Barbara Desoer, President of Home Loans, Mortgage and Insurance at Bank of America, to discuss concrete strategies that the bank can take to prevent more of its borrowers from needlessly losing their homes. READ MORE.

ACCE Members Celebrate the Launch of the Oakland Community Land Trust

Two years ago, many Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) members got involved in a campaign to get the homes left vacant from the foreclosure crisis cleaned up in East and West Oakland. Today, they saw the result of their work, as the Oakland Community Land Trust hosted their Launch Event at 8000 Olive St, the first OakCLT home. READ MORE

Statewide Organization Expands Foreclosure Hotline -- for Tenants

Due to overwhelming demand, Tenants Together, California's Statewide Organization for Renters' Rights, is expanding its hotline for tenants in foreclosure situations. Since emerging in March, 2009, the hotline has served nearly 2,000 tenants, mitigating the impact of the foreclosure crisis on tenants by helping them learn and assert their rights. READ MORE

Resources

Tenant Foreclosure Resource Center - Tenants Together
Foreclosure Response Resources - Enterprise Community Partners
Foreclosed Properties Toolkit - PolicyLink
Transforming the Housing Crisis in Richmond - Richmond Equitable Development Initiative

Foreclosure Articles in
Race, Poverty & the Environment
Predatory Lending and Foreclosure
By Kevin Smith
Mortgage Meltdown: Solutions stop the Foreclosure Crisis
By Kevin Stein and Tram Nguyen
The Financial Crash and the Right to the City: An interview with David Harvey
An Interview by Amy Goodman
Richmond Residents are REDI for Housing Rights
By Michael Katz

Other SEC News

Urban Habitat´s Title VI Complaint against the Oakland Airport Connector Has National Implications. READ MORE.

Oakland To Start Using Instant Runoff Voting. READ MORE.

Book Release - Breakthrough Communities: Sustainability and Justice in the Next American Metropolis READ MORE.