Occupy Your Home

[Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) ] has been one of the leading homeless advocates in Congress, going so far as to call for people facing foreclosure to squat in their own homes and demand their bank produce the home’s title before kicking them out.

She’s advocated a strategy known as “produce the note,” which challenges foreclosing banks to prove that they own the mortgage. During the years leading up to the financial crash of 2008, most mortgages were bundled up into debt-based derivative investment schemes, then sold and resold again. This has led to an epidemic of missing or improperly completed paperwork, something that many people can leverage in order to stay in their homes longer.

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She told them to stay in their homes and get legal help. If they couldn’t afford an attorney, call legal aid. If they still had problems finding an attorney, call her office and we would help them find help.

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A vote by “Occupy Oakland” earlier this week called on homeless Americans to begin occupying foreclosed and abandoned structures as squatters.

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The call from “Occupy Oakland” [...] is only the most recent movement against bank-owned properties sitting vacant. The advocacy group Homes Not Jails recently teamed up with “Occupy San Francisco” to begin occupying hundreds of empty homes, giving homeless people places to stay and asserting the rights of squatters across the city in an effort to build it into a real political movement. A similar effort has been ongoing in Portland, as well.

  Raw Story

At the least it may convince banks to work with people to allow them to stay in their homes. At least I’m guessing they’d rather have the original owners in them than homeless squatters. Congress – or better yet, somebody capable - needs to take a stab at the homeless problem in this country. It’s huge and growing.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.