To Highlight City's Housing Crisis, Local Residents to Lead Tour & Cleanup of Bank-Owned Properties

Low-Income Residents of Poughkeepsie, Students, Occupiers, and Families March to Demand Affordable Housing Options and Restoration of Vacant Properties

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (06/20/2012)(readMedia)-- Over 50 Poughkeepsie residents will lead a march past three bank-owned, foreclosed homes to highlight the economic crisis caused by irresponsible practices by the big banks. At each stop, community members will clean up the properties while families and individuals who are homeless or in need of decent housing will speak about how they could be housed in the vacant properties. The groups will announce the launch of a campaign for housing low-income residents using tactics of housing takeovers, which have become commonplace nationally since the foreclosure crisis. At the final foreclosed home, marchers will mow the lawn and clean up the property before hosting a cookout for their neighbors.

The march will leave from the back of the Family Partnership Center at 11:30am.

WHO:

Low-income Poughkeepsie residents who are members of Community Voices Heard, a membership-led organization with 25,000 members statewide; Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson, a group that works with families in foreclosure to keep them in their homes; Occupy Poughkeepsie.
WHAT:

The foreclosure crisis caused by some of the big banks that will be targeted on Saturday drove millions of families from their homes nationwide, and Poughkeepsie was not spared. Dozens of foreclosed homes still sit empty around the City of Poughkeepsie, while hundreds of Dutchess County families go homeless every night and thousands more do not have access to quality, affordable housing. The groups will call for the CEOs of specific big banks and local government officials to take action to address the housing and foreclosure crisis.
WHEN: Saturday June 23, 2012 at 11:30AM Eastern Time (US & Canada)
WHERE: Family Partnership Center
29 N. Hamilton St.
Poughkeepsie, New York 12601
NOTES:

Visuals: Local residents, including some currently homeless individuals, cleaning up abandoned, bank-owned properties; Community BBQ; Giant print-outs showing which banks own the abandoned property and how long it has sat vacant along with pictures of that bank’s CEO

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Community Voices Heard (CVH) is an organization of low-income people, predominantly women with experience on welfare, working to build power in New York City and State to improve the lives of our families and communities. More info at www.CVHaction.org, www.Facebook.com/CVHaction or at www.Twitter.com/CVHaction.