Tag Archives: Wells Fargo

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Richmond, CA struggling families 2 – Wall Street criminals 0!


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Richmond, CA 2 – Wall Street 0.


Richmond, CA struggling families 2 – Wall Street criminals 0! With your help, we did it! We beat back the Wall Street-led campaign of threats, litigation, and a full-scale election-style campaign to end Richmond, CA’s program to help underwater homeowners in that city, using eminent domain if necessary.

On Tuesday night (well, really Wednesday morning), the City Council voted 4-3 to move forward with the Richmond CARES program despite the huge attacks from Wall Street bankers against it. That was the first victory this week and it is a really big deal.
The importance of this victory cannot be overstated. If the lies and fear mongering of Wall Street bankers had been allowed to intimidate Richmond’s City Council into backing down, the entire Local Principal Reduction idea would have collapsed. Instead, the movement is spreading. This week, San Francisco Supervisor Campos announced a resolution standing in solidarity with Richmond and exploring a similar program there. And in Seattle, more than 30 groups came together in the Reset Seattle Coalition and packed the Seattle City Council to launch an LPR campaign there, too.
For the first time since they destroyed our economy, Wall Street bankers have had a significant defeat and more cities are gearing up to join in. The Home Defenders League has set up a page to raise funds for these fights. Can you chip in $20 to help us take this fight to new cities around the country?

The second big victory from this week came on Thursday, when US District Court Judge Charles Breyer declined to grant an injunction – filed by Well Fargo and Deutsche Bank – to stop Richmond CARES before it even got started.
Your help in this fight has been critical. Nearly 25,000 of you signed petitions supporting LPR and Richmond and over 250 of you called Wells Fargo’s CEO to tell him to drop his lawsuit against the city. 300 people showed up at the vote on Tuesday, including over 150 from Action for the Common Good and HDL partner the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), and the vast majority of them praised the Council for taking this bold step and urged them to move forward with the program.
Can you chip in $20 so we can work with other cities ready to stand up for their struggling families as well?
We’re really proud of how you, the Home Defenders League and ACCE were able to beat back the bankers’ attack and ensure that Richmond did the right thing. Thank you for standing up to Wall Street and being a part of this historic week of victories.
In Solidarity,

Brian Kettenring, Executive Director, Action for the Common Good

PS. Here’s a great description of the City Council vote and victory from Prof. Peter Drier writing in the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/california-defies-wall-st_b_3909022.html
And here’s the Los Angeles Times on the court case: http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-eminent-domain-20130912,0,5887953.story
http://www.campaignforfairsettlement.org/

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Stand with the people of Richmond


Campaign for a Fair Settlement a project of Action for the Common Good

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Get more people involved in fighting back against Wall Street bullies by sharing this image or sharing the petition to Stand with Richmond.

Impressive.
We’re getting reports from our partners in California that this is how the people fighting for Local Principal Reduction (LPR) in Richmond are describing all the support and media attention that’s been focused on them since that city started using that policy to move towards helping struggling families stay in their homes.

Thanks to the efforts of supporters like you, 20,000 people have signed on to support Local Principal Reduction and over 6500 have signed on to support Richmond, CA, efforts in particular. Activists at the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) and the Home Defenders League delivered those signatures directly to Wells Fargo branches the same week the Wells CEO, John Stumpf led the charge of the Wall Street criminals in trying to stop Richmond’s efforts by suing the city the week after Richmond announced its policy. Just last week over 200 of you also called Stumpf’s office to tell him to stop suing and start negotiating.
Another thing that’s impressive is how important this support is in fighting back against Wall Street’s bullying of cities like Richmond. The lawsuit isn’t just about stopping Richmond, it’s about stopping ANY city from trying this common sense solution to fixing what Wall Street broke. The more people standing up the more likely we are to win! Can you help find more fighters by forwarding the Stand with Richmond petition with 5 friends? http://www.homedefendersleague.org/stand_with_richmond_ca You can also share it on Facebook here or on Twitter here.

You can also share this great Facebook graphic that the Home Defenders League created about the LPR fight between Richmond and the criminal bankers led by Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf (it’s the one in the picture at the top of the email).
This campaign is really heating up because there’s finally a way to fix what Wall Street broke and it doesn’t have anything to do with coddling Wall Street criminals; its main priority is keeping struggling families in their homes. Naturally, Wall Street bankers are desperate to stop it. If you want to stay up-to-date on these fights, the HDL has set up a special section of their website with information, updates, and ways to take action: http://www.homedefendersleague.org/local_principal_reduction
Thanks for standing up and fighting back in support of Local Principal Reduction!

In Solidarity,
Brian Kettenring, Executive Director, Action for the Common Good

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Action for Fair Settlement


Campaign for a Fair Settlement a project of Action for the Common Good

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We need to make sure local communities can decide their economic futures.

Full scale Wall Street freak out.

Five years after Wall Street criminals destroyed our economy there are still millions of underwater homeowners and millions more foreclosures in the pipeline.

The good news is that Home Defenders and local elected officials have figured out an innovative way – called Local Principal Reduction – to deal with this problem. The bad news is that Wall Street criminals are in in full attack mode fighting as hard as they can to stop us.

Tell Wall Street bankers: Stop bullying communities advancing local principal reduction and cooperate in keeping struggling families in their homes.

Here’s what’s happening. We have figured out a way to purchase certain underwater loans, reset them to fair market value, and then get the homeowners into new, sustainable mortgages. The costs of the program are borne by the private funders who the cities are partnering with and the beneficiaries are the homeowners, with affordable mortgages and new equity, and our communities, with greater economic activity.

The key to making this program work for everyone is the use of eminent domain – the ability of a government to take property for the public benefit – to acquire the underwater mortgages if the Wall Street investors refuse to make a fair deal. And that’s what’s freaking Wall Street out.[3]

Tell Wall Street: End your outrageous efforts to block local principal reduction programs that will keep families in their homes and rebuild local economies.

We are facing a stark choice. Either we and our elected officials control our economic future, or Wall Street criminals and their banks do. It’s clear where Wall Street bankers stand. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), made up same old Wall Street bankers that brought you the foreclosure crisis, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, US Bank, etc., is bullying and threatening cities that are exploring local principal reduction programs including El Monte, La Puente, and Richmond, CA; and North Las Vegas, NV. [4]

But that’s not stopping us. Stand up and tell Wall Street criminals to keep their hands off of Main Street and help struggling homeowners rebuild their lives and their wealth.

This fight is just starting; Wall Street and SIFMA are committed to fighting as dirty as they can to keep this from happening. With your help Home Defenders and our cities will take bold and courageous action to build a future that works for all of us, starting with the struggling underwater homeowners in our own back yards.

In solidarity, Brian, Campaign for a Fair Settlement
http://www.campaignforfairsettlement.org/

[1] http://www.marketwatch.com/story/underwater-mortgage-percentage-falls-below-20-2013-06-12

[2] http://www.newbottomline.com/underwater_mortgages_and_1_million_jobs

[3] Robert Kuttner “Seize the mortgages, save the neighborhood” Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jun/29/opinion/la-oe-kuttner-eminent-domain-mortgages-20130630

[4] Peter Dreier “To Rescue Local Economies, Cities Seize Underwater Mortgages Through Eminent Domain” Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/to-rescue-local-economies_b_3614326.html

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Wells Fargo


Wells Fargo vs. Bernetta Adolph

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Bernetta Adolph taking action against Wells Fargo.

CFS Logo Connect with the Campaign for a Fair Settlement

Bernetta Adolph is a member of CFS partner Home Defenders League. We thought you’d want to hear about her story and help her and thousands of others fight back against Wells Fargo.
–Brian, Campaign for a Fair Settlement

Retired. Cancer survivor. Disabled. Single mother. Senior. And Wells Fargo is about to steal my home.
My name is Bernetta Adolph, a retired employee of the City of San Francisco, and I’ve lived in my home for almost 20 years. My trouble with Wells Fargo started when I took out a loan against my house in order to ensure my only son could afford a good education.
Click here to tell Wells Fargo to keep me in my home and add your voice thousands of others taking dramatic action against Wells Fargo across California and Minnesota on Wednesday the 27th!
It turns out the loan to provide for my son’s future was designed to ruin my own. It was predatory, calculated to strip my equity and set me up for failure. When I tried to work with Wells to fix the loan, they offered a modification so small it didn’t make any difference. Then they started trying to take my house. The stress hastened my blindness and continues to aggravate my health problems.
But I’m far from the only one to have suffered at the hands of Wells Fargo bankers. Here’s what I’ve found out:

  • Wells Fargo is foreclosing on more people in California than any other bank. [1]
  • Wells Fargo paid $175 million to settle a lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice alleging that it targeted African-American and Latino borrowers for high-cost loans. [2]
  • From 2008-2010 Wells Fargo received $17.9 Billion in tax subsidies from you and me. [3]

These reasons plus stopping the theft of my home are why I’m proud that the Campaign for a Fair Settlement is joining with me, the Home Defenders League, and my home-state organization, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, to take on Wells Fargo directly by demonstrating at their branches and headquarters all over the state.You can add your voice to our direct actions by signing the petition here.
Not only that, but we’re also teaming up with Neighborhoods Organizing for Change,Occupy Homes MN, and Minnesotans for a Fair Economy to make the message as powerful as possible. Those groups are leading a huge day of action against Wells in Minneapolis the same time we’ll be taking them on in California. Here’s what we’re demanding:

  • Deliver on promised relief through full implementation of AG settlement and other programs.
  • Broadly implement of loan modifications by resetting mortgages to fair market value.
  • Restore our stolen wealth by ending predatory practices, ending discriminatory lending and paying your fair share of taxes.

Add your voice and tell Wells Fargo to keep me in my home and pay us back!
Since his inauguration in January, we’ve been pushing President Obama to use the first 100 days of his second term to finally hold Wall Street banks like Wells Fargo accountable for breaking our economy. This is the week we broaden the “100 Days to Fix What Wall Street Broke” campaign to Wall Street itself. They are the ones with our savings and our homes. It’s time for them to pay us back. Starting with Wells Fargo.
Click here to tell Wells Fargo it’s time to pay us back!
In solidarity,
Bernetta Adolph, ACCE and Home Defenders League member
 
[1] Based on statistics found in Foreclosure Radar, http://www.foreclosureradar.com [2] http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/July/12-dag-869.html [3] http://www.ctj.org/taxjusticedigest/archive/2011/11/tax_dodger_wells_fargo.php#.USfd0zDWi3w
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Kate Livingston via Change.org


Change.org
                          Wells Fargo: Stop the foreclosure on my friend Cindi — a stage 4 cancer victim’s — home.                        
      Sign Kate’s Petition

 

Cindi Davis is a close friend of mine, and has been for five years. She is one of the most generous people I know, having taken in seven special needs pets over the years. Pretty amazing for someone who is also fighting late stage breast cancer.

My friend Cindi and her husband Kirk have struggled to cover the cost of her cancer treatment and keep up with their mortgage over the years. But when they could no longer make full mortgage payments, Wells Fargo moved foreclosed on their home instead of working with them to adjust their loan.

I’ve heard of other homeowners successfully saving their homes from foreclosure by starting Change.org petitions — and now I’ve started my own to help Cindi. Click here to sign my petition asking Wells Fargo to stop the foreclosure of Cindi and Kirk’s home.

Cindi and her husband work hard to pay for their mortgage and medical treatments.  Together with Cindi and Kirk and many of our friends, we’ve all chipped in to help cover their bills, treatments, and medications. Cindi’s sold some of her quilting work, and friends and neighbors have chipped in by organizing yard sales, raffles, and even selling candy bars.

Cindi says she explained her situation to Wells Fargo, and a bank representative said they would consider a solution — but the next she heard from the bank was a foreclosure notice. Wells Fargo has even refused to accept partial payments, and they’ve added fees and more penalties. They don’t know how to keep up.

Click here to sign my petition asking Wells Fargo to work with Cindi and Kirk and modify their mortgage so they can stay in their home.

Thank you for your support,

Kate Livingston Chaparral, NM