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This Wednesday, November 13, TruthToTell returns to the Minneapolis Urban League to bring you the 9th in its Community Connections series of on-location public forums. This month TTT looks at the ripple effects of still ever-present foreclosures in the Twin Cities Metro and solutions for community stabilization in the wake storm (click here to see our video preview). While we keep hearing about the “improving” economy, dropping unemployment rates, and a rising Dow Jones average, the rate of home foreclosures is still much higher than we ever saw before the crash in 2007-2008, and these rates remain highest among low-wealth communities and communities of color. Why are banks still throwing so many people out of their houses and on to the streets? Why do banks refuse to re-negotiate mortgages with homeowners based on current market rate rather than demanding exorbitant amounts of money from them to stay in their home, especially when the next step after the home owner can’t pay is usually to auction off that home at a fraction of what the bank was demanding?
As a result of these foreclosures and subsequent evictions, we see an unfortunate correlation between the rise in demand for rental properties and an increase in rental rates, as well as an increase in boarded up vacant houses and rise in homelessness. We’ll talk to our panelists, who are all organizers trying to mitigate the effects of this housing bubble. Please join us this Wednesday, when we’ll focus on policies that have already been passed and policies that are still needed to bring stability back to the communities that have been most affected. Our panelists will be:
ED GOETZ- Director, CURA Housing Forum at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs
VIC ROSENTHAL- Executive Director, Jewish Community Action
JAYMIE KELLY- Home-owner facing foreclosure in South Minneapolis, recent mayoral candidate
ANTHONY NEWBY- Executive Director, Neighborhoods Organizing for Change
In the spirit of this Wednesday’s conversation, Monday, November 11 we bring you an encore presentation of our February 4 conversation about the ripple effects of foreclosures on the health and well being of homeowners. We spoke with Gayle Lindsey, who at the time she appeared on our show was facing foreclosure on her mortgage with M&T Bank. Shortly after her appearance on TruthToTell, Gayle was contacted by the Senior Vice President of the Loss Mitigation department at M&T Bank about renegotiating her mortgage.
We also had Rachel Fang, who was using an online survey to write her PhD dissertation on the role housing plays in our lives and the toll foreclosure takes on us. Fang says, our home is “…a place of refuge, personal security, identity and freedom, offering individuals a sense of order, continuity and place of physical belonging.
And we also had with us Chris Gray of Occupy Homes MN, talking about the scope of the foreclosure problem and the actions that Occupy Homes MN was and still is taking to mitigate the effects of foreclosures locally.
Join us for this encore presentation, and then come on down to the Minneapolis Urban League this Wednesday, November 13 for this important community conversation. TruthToTell: Community Connections events are free and open to the public. You can RSVP for the event on Facebook here.
TruthToTell: Community Connections is made possible by a generous grant from the Bush Foundation, which has enabled TruthToTell to partner with KFAI Fresh Air Radio, St. Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN), and selected community partners to present these discussions and dialogues on important issues like education, the environment, health care, politics and elections, transportation, Native concerns, youth issues and more, into the key communities affected by these respective topics for radio, television and online distribution.