Abandoned homes being occupied in Belmont Cragin and Auburn Gresham on Tuesday – part of a national day of action called by Occupy Our Homes – underscore the failure of banks to deal with the foreclosure crisis.

In Belmont Cragin, Communities United Against Foreclosure and Eviction are moving two homeless sisters and their children into a single family home that was abandoned sometime after foreclosure was filed in 2009.  The group couldn’t determine whether a final disposition has been made on the property.

They think it could be one of the thousands of “red flag” properties, where banks and loan servicers “may choose to reduce the costs associated with a long-term vacant home by walking away from the foreclosure process instead of completing it” in order to evade the costs and legal reponsibilities of ownership, according to a Woodstock Institute report (see earlier post).

In Auburn-Gresham, kicking off its “Homes for the Holidays” drive, the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign is moving a family which lost its home to foreclosure into a home that was abandoned by a longtime resident after JP Morgan Chase refused to consider a loan modification.  The owner gave the keys to AEC, which like CAUFE has done signficant repairs on the building.

Foreclosures have continued to climb over the past two years, since the Obama administration promised to help millions of troubled homeowners.  But because their program allowed for voluntary participation by banks – instead of requiring institutions that had been bailed out to give affordable modifications to qualifying homeowners – it has helped only a small portion of those initially targeted.

Meanwhile lenders widely noted for being unresponsive to homeowners have now acknowledged extensive fraud in foreclosure filings.

In Austin, South Austin Coalition is taking over and boarding up an abandoned building that’s hosted extensive criminal activity less than a block from May Elementary School.  The building was foreclosed on by Citibank, said Elce Redmond of SAC.

“We’re going to go after the bank to pay for the boardup,” Redmond said.  “Longterm we want to pressure the banks to turn these homes over to community organizations and churches so we can rehab them and put families in them.”

“We have so many unemployed people and so many vacant properties,” said Willie JR Fleming of AEC.  “It’s obvious we need to put people to work rehabbing them so we can put families back in them.”

Fleming emphasizes that “we are enforcing the human right to housing.  We are not asking for human rights.  We are enforcing them.”

Occupy Our Homes reports similar actions “to stop and reverse foreclosures” in 25 cities on Tuesday, as “the Occupy movement joins with homeowners and people fighting for a place to live.”

Two families facing eviction due to foreclosure – one scheduled for eviction the day after Thanksgiving – are refusing to leave, and Communities United Against Foreclosure and Eviction is mounting a public campaign to pressure their lenders to give them mortgage modifications.

CUAFE has posted Youtube videos asking people to call lawyers for HSBC Bank and IndyMac/OneWest Bank to consider offers the group says banks have ignored.

Arturo Martinez and Remedios Sanchez have lived for 25 years in their Albany Park home, now shared with a daughter and several grandchildren.  Martinez began struggling with his mortgage after his hours were cut at work; because of a mix-up when court papers were served, he didn’t know his home was in foreclosure until after it was sold, according to Chris Poulos of CUAFE.

They were recently informed that they’re scheduled for eviction Friday.

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Occupy Austin and Occupy Bronzeville, joined by people from Occupy Chicago, will begin a new drive to occupy foreclosures at actions on the West and South Sides tomorrow.

They’ll rally with tenants of a foreclosed building who are resisting what they say are illegal attempts to evict them from a 12-unit rental building, just two weeks after foreclosure.

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It’s been a remarkable week in Chicago, a nonstop whirl of protests targeting the financial industry and government collusion with corporations, and demanding action on jobs, housing, and schools.

Coming Friday:  a rally for “jobs not cuts,” with MoveOn, Stand Up Chicago, Chicago Jobs With Justice and Occupy Chicago joining forces, at noon at the Federal Plaza.

Occupy Chicago gets much credit for capturing the public’s imagination – and for their 24-7 commitment and important organizational innovations.  But it was community groups and unions that staged some of the most dramatic and creative actions here this week.

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Banks caused the housing crisis — and the financial crash which threw millions out of their jobs — and they can fix it, according to a new report.

By writing down underwater mortgages to market value – using a relatively small portion of bailout financing they’ve received – banks could put a floor on the housing market, stem spiraling foreclosures, and provide the economy with a badly-needed second stimulus, creating millions of jobs over the next decade, the New Bottom Line Campaign argues in a new analysis.

It was released in Chicago last week at a vacant home on the West Side that’s being rehabbed under a new program — which demonstrates how community pressure can force banks to step up and take responsibility, organizers say.

(And it came out the same day Mayor Rahm  Emanuel announced a foreclosure recovery program that includes not one single community on the hard-hit West Side.)

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A Lawndale activist who was arrested Tuesday while calling on Bank of America to follow the law – and fix code violations in foreclosed properties – has posted her comments at Action Now’s blog.

“I was in shock,” says Marsha Godard, 52, a mother and a Bank of America account holder.  “How can my own bank arrest me for trying to speak to them about vacant properties that are in my neighborhood and all over the city of Chicago?

“Bank of America is not only ruining the lives of homeowners, the safety of communities and America’s economy, they are now arresting people like me that question their destructive actions.”

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Banks routinely violate state and federal laws protecting tenants in rental buildings in foreclosure, particularly in a “foreclosure belt” stretching across the South and West Sides, according to a new report.

Lenders and their agents “willfully ignore” laws that protect tenants in foreclosures and have “institutionalized in their practices the wholesale violation of tenants’ [legal] rights,” according to a report (pdf) from the Lawyers Committee for Better Housing.

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Englewood residents spearheaded by Action Now members will march down Peoria Avenue from 55th to 61st Streets (Saturday, June 4, starting at noon) to protest the city’s failure to allocate funds to rehab foreclosed properties in that community.

Englewood is one of the Chicago communities hardest hit by foreclosures, with hundreds of vacant properties — just about every block has several, said Aileen Kelleher of Action Now.

But only one census tract in Englewood has been included in the city’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program – and no properties are being rehabbed there, she said.  One building is slated for demolition.

State Senator Mattie Hunter, Alderman Toni Foulkes and Alderman Roderick Sawyer will join residents at a 1 p.m. press conference, calling on the city to spend some of the $58 million remaining in Chicago’s NSP funds in Englewood.

With $166 million in federal funds allocated to Chicago for NSP since 2009, only four renovations have been completed, said Kelleher.

“The city hasn’t been spending the money,” and what it is spending, “it’s not spending it in the right places,” she said.

“We all wish it was moving along faster,” said Rachel Johnston of the Chicago Rehab Network.

She said other municipalities have gotten NSP programs up more quickly by working with existing community development corporations.

CRN has argued that HUD has recently expanded definitions of “foreclosed” and “abandoned” properties eligible for NSP – including properties where owners are 60 days delinquent on their mortgage – and that the rehab funds could now be used on occupied properties to keep families in their homes.