On Monday, July 27, over 600 people packed the State House CORI Hearing as part of an extended CORI Day of Action. Organized by the Commonwealth CORI Coalition, supporters demonstrated the severity of the CORI crisis and raised the need for immediate reforms.

"Today was supposed to be a very sad day," said a member of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) to begin the press conference at Rosemary Williams's house this afternoon.  The sheriff had arrived at nine in the morning with an eviction notice.  Ms. Wiliams was packing.  Her son, his wife and their two small children had gone to their other grandmother's house.  Plans had been made for emergency foreclosure resistance.  "We were ready to go to jail," said Cheri Honkala of PPEHRC.  But twenty minutes before the press conference was to begin, one phone call changed everything.

Low-income and Sec. 8 tenants held an informational picket Friday morning at 10am (corporate media invited, none attended) against so-called nonprofit slumlord Central City Concern.

With signs that read, "Defend Tenant Rights" and "Greg Must Go!" tenant organizers picketed the $33,000,000 per year, so-called nonprofit landlord, Central City Concern. For a year, tenants have protested, written and organized against CCC management practices. CCC has persistent pest control problems in many buildings (cockroaches, mice, bedbugs), crime and kickbacks inside the buildings to/by CCC staff (prostitution, drugs, etc.), sexual harassment of tenants by managers (the "Greg" in question, above), and lack of transparency and accountability: it is an 'oral preference' that CCC board meetings outlaw tenants attending, or speaking at, CCC board meetings -- and the board minutes are secret.

Today's picket was prompted by the reinstatement after suspension of Greg Green, a building manager who is accused by tenants of sexual harassment of tenants, along with promoting/getting kickbacks on drugs and prostitution inside the buildings. Read More | Related from Colorado IMC: Green Valley Ranch Citizens Confront Corrupt HOA Board

On July 22, 2009 approximately 300 members of the Green Valley Ranch community showed up in force to oppose a special assessment being levied against them by their Home Owners Association (HOA) Board. They also took that time to demand the resignation of long-time president T.J. Stone and all his cronies.

The HOA Board banned everyone, including members of the community and journalists, from covering the meeting. One community member however refused and took this footage clandestinely. read more & video

The national housing crisis has led to thousands of families losing their homes. The rise in homelessness has contributed to the increase in tent communities across the United States as a grassroots solution to the problem.

On Monday June 29th, the City of Grand Junction tried to pass two emergency ordinances outlawing "soliciting," also known as flying a sign or spanging. What stopped the city from moving forward with these laws was a strong, large, and loud group of homeless people and younger radicals.

No one came to support the law, and over a hundred people came to oppose it. Solidarity Not Charity (our FNB out here in GJ) provided food and water serving on the city halls lawn. Live tunes were provided by, local band Fast Food Kings, and out-of-towners Chicken Little, who were hell a cool about relocating from the infoshop to city hall to play. Read more>>

RELATED: CU Tent Community! (Urbana-Champaign)

Casinos are cool places, but in the wrong places, too close to communities, they can be a bad thing. Casino Free Philadelphia is fighting to keep a casino from opening right on Market St.

As Portland's Sit/Lie ordinance is deemed as unconstitutional, there is evidence all over Portland of underground actions protesting the law. (Some popped up all over the city before the circuit court decision).
The signs the figures are holding have some of the following statements on them:

* "This city wide ordinance has been deemed unconstitutional by circuit court. Sit/Lie in unity to the supreme court. FREEDOM FOR ALL."

* "SIT LIE LAW IS A GVNMENT CURSE - Homeless Front"

Some that I spotted before the circuit court decision simply stated, "SIT LIE" and appeared to be attached with metal to what they were sitting on.

“Neoliberalism is the root cause of rampaging gentrification and displacement, from New York to New Orleans to Atenco, Mexico.” Keen observers of political-economy would agree with this assessment from Zapatista-inspired community activists in Spanish Harlem, who recently organized an “encuentro” with similar minded Black and Asian activists. All concluded that the issue is bigger than Harlem: “This displacement is created by the greed, ambition and violence of a global empire of money that seeks to take total control of all the land, labor and life on earth.”

Major investors have created enormous economic and political pressures on LSU to build its $1.2 billion hospital in lower Mid-City

Casual observers might think that the pro-Charity vs. LSU teaching hospital conflict is an argument over two competing plans to bring health care back online in New Orleans. It is not. The difference between the two camps is in fact much more fundamental with the pro-Charity coalition valuing health as a human right versus LSU and its supporters valuing health care as a business anchor around which an industry can grow, land values can inflate, and hospitals can make money. No set of facts better illustrates this divide and fleshes out the LSU camp's motivations than the machinations of major real estate developers in Mid-City. In spite of the post-Katrina rise in mortality and morbidity rates — due to the local health care system's bedraggled state — LSU and its allies have stubbornly refused to entertain the notion of reopening Charity, favoring their economic development centered plans over what pro-Charity advocates define as an issue of the human right to medical care.

Into this conflict numerous journalists have intervened with facts and analysis. We (“A. Caritas” is a pen name for several researchers) reported in December about real estate acquisitions of several developers in and around lower Mid-City, questioning the for-profit motivations driving the LSU-VA project. New information about these developers and biotech boosters has compelled us to chime in again, especially in response to Times Picayune reporter Kate Moran's glowing profile of one Mid-City developer published in April.

By Linden Gawboy

This past Sunday, June 7th, 2009 in zapatista East Harlem known as El Barrio, the Second New York City Encuentro for Dignity and Against Displacement, with the participation of 38 organizations representing the resistance against neoliberalism in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. This second encuentro, just as the first one — held two years ago — was inspired by the encuentros of the Zapatistas in Mexico from below and to the left, in order to get know each other and recognize one another in our struggles for a world where many worlds fit and against neoliberal exclusion.

This document is a collective effort of the Tent Community and of its supporters!

A small tent community has formed in Champaign, and with it, a growing constituency of support from the citizens of Champaign County. The tent community arose in response to a practical need for a livable solution to the housing crisis in the local area. The members of the group and their supporters aim to address the housing problem from the position of people living in homelessness. This group has banded together out of the need to provide respect, security, and wellbeing for each other.

Early Saturday morning the homeless residents of Nicklesville left Renton. Shortly after 5 AM in the morning, they arrived at a place near where they had been kicked out last September. As a northwest mist greeted the day, they unloaded three trucks of camping gear and personal belongings. The tent city is in South Seattle near 2nd Avenue SW and Highland Park Way SW. Rather than settle on city land, they are camping on state land. Will the state and Governor Gregoire show more mercy than Seattle Mayor Nickels has? Time will tell. The Nicklesville folks want to build a shanty town on the unused state land. They are asking supporters to contact the Governor and the State Transportation Secretary. Read More & Pics | Related from Urbana-Champaign IMC: A Call To Action: Standing Up For Tenants Facing Eviction When Landlords Fail To Pay Utilities | CU TENT COMMUNITY!

In reporting for the housing group at the June Peoples Potluck Sunday night Danielle Chynoweth discussed the recent evictions which took place at Gateway Studios. Chynoweth describes how tenants lived in squalor due to the neglect of the landlords to maintain the building and, when the landlord failed to pay the power bill, the city condemned the building and tenants were evicted. In this instance, many of the residents had been paying over 600 dollars a month and utilities were supposed to be included in their rent. VIDEO: Danielle Chynoweth speaks on Gateway