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Article: A move against foreclosures ; Housing activists' bold tactics pressuring banks
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- September 26, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2009 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Frances Louis last week lugged her belongings into an empty and
unlocked three-story townhouse in Roxbury that she does not own nor
rent, intent on taking over the bank-owned property and making a
statement.
She claims to have a "moral" right to live in the newly renovated
building on Cobden Street, a four-bedroom unit seized in June by a
Wisconsin bank because the owner failed to make mortgage payments.
It's one of many foreclosed and vacant properties in the
neighborhood.
"Now is the time for banks to step up and help families instead
of putting them out," said Louis, 41, who needed a place to live
after losing her home in Mattapan to foreclosure. "There are all
these vacant, empty places ...