Published: March 24, 2011
Philly Now Blog

Home Foreclosure Protest At City Hall/HUD Today

The Philadelphia Unemployment Project and the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign organized a rally for those facing foreclosure outside City Hall at noon today. They were joined by Councilpersons Curtis Jones, Jannie Blackwell, Frank Rizzo and Maria Quinones-Sanchez, who were fresh from a unanimous-but-non-binding vote to further delay sheriff’s sales, scheduled to resume April 5 after a months-long moratorium is lifted. Almost 3,000 homes will be up for sale the first Tuesday in April, which Councilman Jones called the largest sheriff sale in the history of Philadelphia.

Councilman Frank Rizzo

The federal government’s Emergency Homeowner’s Loan Program (EHLP) approved over a hundred million dollars last year for Pennsylvania homeowners facing foreclosure as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in October 2010. HUD put out a press release, upon President Obama’s signing of the bill, saying the money – and program – would be ready by the end of 2010. Well, it’s 2011: Republicans control the House, spring is here, flowers are blooming and all that government cash is still lost somewhere in the Washington bureaucratic garbage heap with no end in sight.

Sheila Lloyd, a homeowner facing foreclosure

The rally headed from City Hall to the lobby of the Wanamaker Building, where protesters demanded to speak with HUD. Deputy Director Richard Ott gave a brief statement to the crowd. Then, some homeowners were allowed to speak behind closed doors without media present.

Green Party Sheriff candidate Cheri Honkala

Last time, Judge Pamela D. Dembe, the president judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia helped PUP delay the sales, which took place on Christmas Eve. Whether or not this will again come down to the wire is yet to be seen, but all signs point to HUD’s main office having yet to prop up EHLP.