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Article courtesy of The Oakland Post.
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Over one hundred people marched and protested in front of the San Francisco Federal Reserve building on Steurt and Market Streets last week, to protest the banks lending policies. The protests were led by the Reverend Jesse Jackson of the Rainbow/Push Coalition, as he tried to help highlight the impact of home foreclosures across the county and specifically in the San Francisco Bay Area.
“We’ve got to find comprehensive solutions to keep people in their homes,” said Jackson. “There is no time to waste.”
Jackson said the Federal Reserve was picked because it bailed out banks, giving them money without any interest rates to help them get through the financial crisis over a year ago. Now these same banks are charging interest on student loans and to people who are losing their houses due to foreclosures. In the month of July, banks repossessed more than 87,000 homes, and 360,000 households or one in every 355 homes received a foreclosure-related notice last month.
“We are facing dramatic unemployment, eight and a half million jobs lost and four and a half million homes in foreclosure across the country,” said Jackson. “We need a structural plan to help people restructure loans so they can stay in their houses.”
Jackson said that this is the start of a national effort to highlight the banking practices of the Federal Reserve, to protest the banks loan practices. He said that pressure needs to be applied to President Barack Obama and US Federal Reserve Chairmen Ben Bernanke, to help set up a program so that people can stay in their houses and avoid home foreclosures. Jackson said that the Federal Reserve needs to put pressure on the various banks across the country to work with homeowners so that they can avoid foreclosure.
“People want to stay in their homes,” said Jackson. “The more public pressure we apply, the more this issue will have to be addressed.”
Nationwide, 23 percent of homeowners are now “under water”, owing more on their mortgage than their house is worth. Jackson’s Rainbow Push group has made a national effort to go to the various Federal Reserves across the country to protest the banks loan practices and highlight the issue. The Reverend Amos Brown of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco says the issue is one of injustice.
“Banks are not giving people any adequate time to restructure loans,” said Brown. We need to have consistency all across the board.”
The San Francisco rally featured over one hundred people and it brought out activists and ministers from various areas of the San Francisco Bay Area, including San Francisco, Oakland and the Contra Costa County areas of Pittsburgh and Antioch, which have been impacted dramatically by foreclosures.
“We are at the point in time when this is important,” said the Reverend Kurt Smith of Grace Bible Fellowship in Antioch. “Contra Costa County is taking one of the strongest hits when it comes to foreclosures in California.”
Smith said people are leaving Antioch and Pittsburgh cities in droves, as they are losing their houses as a result of predatory loans and getting behind in house payments.
“The fed has to do something about this,” continued Smith. “Loans need to be restructured in Contra Costa County.”
Bridgette Leblanc with Black Woman Organized for Political Action says this is an issue that people have to be vigilant about.
“The banks get money for free and then they charge high interest rates for student loans and homes and everything,” said Leblanc.
Jackson said the foreclosure crisis is impacting the black and brown communities especially, as these communities are targeted by banks and become victims of unfair loan practices. He said the protest and pressure needs to be applied to the federal government and the Federal Reserve.
“Jesse James got paid twice,” continued Jackson. “We bailed out the banks, but not the home owners.”
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