Friends rally to help Minneapolis woman, 60, fighting eviction

Flanked by two prominent activist attorneys and backed by a throng of supporters, Minneapolis resident Rosemary Williams spent her 60th birthday in court Wednesday, resisting a lender's attempt to evict her from her foreclosed house.

She and supporters vowed that if she loses in court, they will use non-violent civil disobedience to try to block authorities from removing her from the south Minneapolis house where she's lived for 23 years.

"My mother was an activist before she died," said Williams. "My grandfather was one when he came out of Decatur, Alabama. It's in my blood."

Williams, a civil rights activist in the 1960s, has lately become a local poster child for protest groups and community organizations concerned about the foreclosure crisis.

They say an epidemic of foreclosures has turned good Minneapolis neighborhoods into crime-ridden wastelands, though some city officials contend that the city has weathered the problems better than many others around the country.

Foreclosures soared to 3,007 in Minneapolis in 2008, a 91 percent increase over 2006. However, the city saw a 31 percent drop in foreclosures in the first three months of 2009 compared with the same period last year, according to city statistics.

Williams, a divorced mother of three, has lived in the same block of Clinton Avenue S. for 55 years and moved into her newly built home 23 years ago.

She took out an adjustable-rate mortgage a few years ago to get $12,000 to pay some bills. Eventually, her monthly payment jumped from $1,200 to $2,200. Meanwhile, she lost her job with an African American women's advocacy group.

She stopped making house payments, and the house went into foreclosure. It was sold at a sheriff's auction Sept. 30.

However, she declined to leave the property by March 30 as ordered. The new owner, GMAC Mortgage, filed a motion in Hennepin County housing court to have her evicted. That prompted Wednesday's hearing.

At the hearing, her attorneys asked for a trial, which a court referee scheduled for next Tuesday.

Outside the courthouse at a protest rally, Williams and her allies said they want a two-year moratorium on foreclosures and a bailout for homeowners instead of for the banks and corporations they blame for her plight.

Decrying "predatory mortgage lenders," her attorney Jordan Kushner told the crowd, "This has to stop."

In court papers, Kushner argued that evicting her would create a nuisance property and harm neighborhood property values. He also said depriving her of housing would be an international human rights violation.

In another document, the Central Neighborhood Development Organization, joined by some of Williams' neighbors and other groups, asked to intervene in the case on her behalf. They contend that a vacant home would hurt the neighborhood.

Court referee Mark Labine sounded doubtful that Kushner and co-counsel Bruce Nestor will be allowed to make such claims in court.

Eric Cook, an attorney with Wilford & Geske, the firm representing GMAC Mortgage, said Congress is the place to address such issues.

"We do really empathize with Ms. Williams because she, like a number of people in our community, are going through some tough times," Cook said.

He added that while he understood the complaints of "potential interveners ... about the circumstances in their neighborhood ... we don't believe the defenses they are raising have merit in this action and go far beyond the scope of issues that are relevant in this eviction action."

Williams' supporters include the Minnesota Coalition for a People's Bailout and the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, whose activist, Cheri Honkala, said:

"We love her, and we want her to stay in her home."

Randy Furst • 612-673-7382