Steve Meacham, tenant-organizing coordinator for City Life/Vida Urbana, leads a rally of protesters voicing frustration about post-foreclosure evictions. The event took place Tuesday in Boston’s Downtown Crossing.
Protesters marched through downtown Boston last Tuesday to urge lenders and other companies to stop evicting tenants from foreclosed properties.
The protest is the latest in a string of similar rallies that City Life/Vida Urbana, a Jamaica Plain-based community group, has organized in the last few months as foreclosure activity has ballooned.
Tenants and labor union members marched to 225 Franklin St., a building owned by New York-based The Blackstone Group, where Deutsche Bank has offices.
The Community Labor United Coalition wants The Blackstone Group, one of the largest owners of commercial real estate in Boston, to set up a $12 million fund to address foreclosure issues, youth violence and jobs in the city’s neighborhoods. The Blackstone Group acquired a large commercial real estate portfolio last year that includes the 34-story office tower on Franklin Street and One Post Office Square.
“They’ve made huge amounts of profit in downtown real estate, so now we’re asking that they give back to the neighborhoods,” said Steve Meacham, City Life’s tenant-organizing coordinator.
When contacted last week by Banker & Tradesman, John A. Ford, Blackstone’s senior vice president of global corporate communications, declined to comment.
City Life’s Meacham said two families are facing eviction from properties in Dorchester’s Codman Square. One of the families operates a licensed day care center in a three-family home located at 200 Norfolk St.
Alicia Meyers and her two sisters and brother rented the property from their stepmother, Joyce P. Meyers. Joyce didn’t live in the home.
Alicia said she has rented the second-floor unit with her older sister, Arita, for $1,200 a month. They live in the apartment with Alicia’s 9-month-old baby and Arita’s 8-year-old son. Another sister lives on the first floor with four young children, and her brother lives on the third floor.
Alicia said the family didn’t know that the property had been foreclosed until they received a letter last year from the bank’s Realtor offering them cash to move.
The family offered about $240,000 to purchase the property but the lender rejected the offer. They went to Housing Court in November and again in February to request more time to stay in the house.
As of last week, the Meyerses didn’t know what was going to happen. “It’s just hard right now, not having somewhere to live and constantly thinking about where your kids are going to go to school,” Alicia said.
Joyce P. Meyers purchased the home in 1996 for $70,000 with a $119,300 mortgage from Merrimac Mortgage Co., according to Suffolk County Registry of Deeds records. Meyers obtained a series of loans from 2000 to 2005. Her last two loans, from Credit Suisse First Boston, totaled over $525,000. U.S. Bank finally foreclosed and took ownership of the property in October 2007. Ownership of the property was transferred to HSBC Bank USA on Jan. 28.
“It’s an interesting case from our point of view because of the kind of ripple effect of this. Joyce [took] out the loans but here are three families that are being evicted even though they had nothing to do [with the loans],” Meacham said.
During the protest, tenants and property owners chanted “keep constables from our doors!” and held signs that read, “Tenant Power” and “Got Foreclosures? Get Blackstone.”
They entered the Franklin Street building and presented an eviction notice to Deutsche Bank. Groups like City Life have targeted the bank; Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. typically acts as a trustee for securitization trusts and in some cases as custodian for the mortgage documents.
Deutsche Bank representatives have said in the past that it doesn’t have an ownership stake in the properties and doesn’t control foreclosures and evictions. The foreclosures typically are handled by mortgage servicing companies.
