NY Communities for Change members and Hempstead homeowners will march through Carolina Ave in Hempstead – one of the villages most affected by foreclosures in the New York State – at noon on Saturday to symbolically re-claim vacant homes for the community and take them back from the banks.
The march will highlight the devastating effects foreclosed homes have on neighborhoods like Hempstead, and why it is better for community members to have control of those properties. Marchers will demand that banks stop foreclosing on families and leaving homes vacant to the detriment of the surrounding community – and will call on the big banks such as Chase to stop foreclosing on homes. Last year the Village of Hempstead and the Village of Freeport divested their money from Chase in protest of their foreclosure practices.
The Village of Hempstead has been particularly hard-hit by the foreclosure crisis: the rate of homeowner who owe more on their loans than their house is worth is more than 2.5 times greater than the county rate, and more almost five times greater than New York State as a whole, according to national mortgage database Corelogic. The foreclosure rate in Hempstead is more than three times greater Nassau County, and more than six times greater than New York State.
The march will be joined by local community elected officals such as Hempstead Mayor Wayne Hall and Hempstead Deputy Mayor Henry Conyers. NY Communities for Change member Maribel Toure -- a homeowner who received a loan modification and was able to stay in her home after the Village of Hempstead closed its $12.5 million Chase account -- will speak about how foreclosures have ravaged her neighborhood.
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