Occupy Petaluma's campaign to postpone home foreclosures from Thanksgiving through New Year's is catching on within the city and beyond.
After the Argus-Courier wrote about Occupy's plans to block the entrances to big banks like Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, the regional president of Wells Fargo reached out to Occupy Petaluma, saying he wanted to keep a good line of communication open with the group.
Greg Morgan, who oversees 53 branches north of the Golden Gate bridge as North Coast Valley President, spoke with Occupy Petaluma's Tim Nonn on Monday.
Morgan said that what the group was trying to achieve seemed "very rational," especially during the holiday season. But, he said, Wells Fargo was limited in what it could promise, as much of what happens with foreclosures is dictated at a national level by agencies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But he did give Nonn his phone number and told him to be in touch with any concerns the group had over a Wells Fargo action during the holidays.
Since then, Wells Fargo has issued a statement announcing plans to suspend evictions from Nov. 23 to Nov. 25 and from Dec. 19 to Jan. 2, 2012. "For loans we service for others, foreclosure-related actions may still occur," the statement read, "but Wells Fargo will not evict tenants during these periods."
"It's not everything we're asking for, but at least they're talking with us and collaborating with us," said Nonn.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac typically suspend evictions for a short period during the holidays. Spokespersons for each agency said that will likely happen again, but they have yet to announce such plans.
Councilmember Tiffany Ren? has also been working on postponing home foreclosures through the holidays since Occupy Petaluma brought it to her attention several weeks ago. On Saturday she started an online petition to the Federal Housing Finance Agency advocating for a national holiday moratorium on foreclosures. As of Wednesday morning, Ren?'s petition, located at change.org, had 226 signatures. The goal is 5,000.
On Monday, the council voted unanimously to approve a resolution in support of postponing foreclosures during the holidays and also directed Mayor David Glass to send a letter to Edward DeMarco, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, requesting a national moratorium on foreclosures through Jan. 1, 2012.
Rep. Lynn Woolsey is also writing a letter to the agency and will be urging colleagues in congress to co-sign it, said spokesman Bart Acocella, adding that Occupy Petaluma's Nonn and Ren? were "instrumental" in bringing the issue to Woolsey's attention.
The council also moved for the mayor to send a letter to the Sonoma County Sheriff asking him to not enforce evictions during the holidays, but the city chose on Tuesday not to send that letter after learning that it would ask the sheriff to violate government code.
Sheriff Steve Freitas agreed he would not have been able to act on the request.
"I don't pick and choose what laws to enforce," he said.
Nonn said that, after his conversation with Morgan of Wells Fargo, Occupy Petaluma's plans to block big banks is currently on hold. He said it gave him hope for similar talks with Bank of America and Chase, though so far Occupy Petaluma has not been satisfied with its conversations with those banks.
"We're not ruling out blocking bank entrances, but we're still hoping that (the other big banks) will find someone who will dialogue with us," said Nonn.
Occupy Petaluma is now planning to concentrate on actively assisting families in foreclosure, said Nonn. The group will participate in a national Occupy Wall Street day of action Dec. 6, said Nonn. The group is working with local churches to reach out to families in foreclosure, and may go forward with plans to physically occupy lawns of families facing imminent eviction, if the families wish.
(Contact Jamie Hansen at jamie.hansen@arguscourier.com)
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