[IMC-Boston-Dispatch] sept 24: dorchester eviction blockade

[Sofia JarrinT]

Press Advisory
  Deutsche Bank tenants and City Life 
  plan to physically block eviction of Gustave family
   
  When: 48 hours after receipt of constables notice
  Where: 11 Edwin St., Dorchester (off Dorchester Ave.)
   
  Contacts:          Cheryl Lawrence, City Life/Vida Urbana, 617-524-3541 x315
                          Steve Meacham, City Life/Vida Urbana, 617-524-3541 x310
                          Interviews with Gustaves or other Deutsche Bank tenants through above numbers
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  “I have hope for the first time in a long while,” stated Ghislaine Gustave, the former owner of 11 Edwin St.  “I am grateful for the support of other tenants.  I don’t want to lose my home.”  Ms. Gustave is facing eviction by the Deutsche Bank after losing her home to foreclosure.  
  Ms. Gustave lives with her mother (age 85), her daughter (age 22), and two granddaughters in public school.  Her son lives in the rental unit downstairs.  Although she originally accepted a loan that was too high for her income, the family was making ends meet until her daughter got sick and was forced to go on dialysis.  Ms. Gustave lost time on her own job taking care of her daughter.
  The tenant rights group City Life/Vida Urbana plans to physically block the Gustave’s eviction if the Deutsche Bank does not back off.  “We will go to the front of the house and sit in the doorway,” vowed Cheryl Lawrence, a tenant organizer at City Life.  “Can you imagine wanting to evict a family with children, an elderly person, and someone on dialysis?  Give them a rent to pay and let them stay!”  
  The “eviction blockade” will involve dozens of activists and will take place after a constable delivers a “48-hour notice”.  It could come as early as the week of September 24. 
  The Deutsche Bank has issued a public statement urging its agents to reconsider mass evictions.  City Life plans to bring this letter into eviction court to urge Bank agents to back off.
  City Life and tenant activists have held a series of high profile protests since the beginning of August when they became aware of the magnitude of bank post foreclosure evictions.  They are demanding that the banks stop all post-foreclosure, no-fault evictions.  “Let tenants continue to pay their olds rent.  They’ve done nothing wrong,” continued Ms. Lawrence.
  Deutsche Bank as trustee is a major foreclosing entity in Boston – there were 18 new foreclosure deeds listed in the Suffolk Registry of Deeds under Deutsche Bank’s name in the first 3 weeks of August alone.  After foreclosure, Deutsche Bank as trustee evicts all the occupants, both former owners and former tenants.  There are more evictions by Deutsche than any other bank, 5-10 per week.  Many buildings were absentee owned originally and primarily affect tenants.  
  The August protests were heading toward a disruption of the Deutsche Bank golf tournament outside Boston over Labor Day.  To avoid that the Bank issued the public statement cited above.  “This letter does not accept responsibility as it should, but we will take it to the Bank’s agent for 11 Edwin St.,” promised Steve Meacham, another City Life organizer.  “We’ll see if it has an effect.”
  City Life notes the Deutsche Bank’s UN pledge.  “Our business partners and respective business transactions must meet moral and ethical standards deemed to be exemplary.”
  City Life’s main goal immediately is to stop the mass evictions.  Afterwards, they want to set up negotiations between the City, community development corporations and the Bank for a mass sale of foreclosed property to non-profits.  They could then do rehab and resell the buildings as affordable home ownership opportunities, preventing displacement and vacant buildings.

       
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