Livinglies's Weblog

By Erica Bryant

 

Elizabeth McGriff got her house back.

She always believed in her right to 618 Cedarwood Terrace, which was lost in a foreclosure many called unjust. Now — after years of bank negotiations, eviction blockades, public rallies, acts of civil disobedience, prayer services, lockouts and a sustained “live-in” —  she has the deed.

And Take Back the Land, an organization that says housing should be a human right, has added another victory to its tally sheet.

“We have never lost a house,” said Ryan Acuff, of Take Back the Land. “Anybody who has followed our model of nonviolent action has always won.”

McGriff can’t talk about the deal she made with MidFirst Bank because of a nondisclosure agreement. Property records show she bought the three-bedroom house for a final $15,000 on Jan. 31. That’s much less than the $129,720.45 in cash the bank had asked of her before taking the house — which is assessed at $73,000 — in foreclosure.

McGriff bought her home in 2001, taking out a loan to cover the $53,000 purchase price.  She made the $635 monthly payments until 2008, when she lost her job as a U.S. postal worker. After getting back on her feet, she tried to catch up on her payments and to take advantage of laws that require banks to make several specific efforts to help homeowners keep their property.

She hoped MidFirst Bank, which is based in Oklahoma, would allow her to make up the debt by extending the term of her mortgage. Instead, it offered her a higher monthly payment that was not affordable.

After the bank initiated foreclosure proceedings, McGriff’s troubles were registered at the County Clerk’s Office. Take Back the Land monitors foreclosure filings sent outreach volunteers to knock on her door. They encouraged McGriff to see the fight to keep her home as part of a social movement. “From our perspective, it is a moral issue,” said Acuff. “What would it mean to change how we think about housing? We need a different system that is resident-controlled and permanently affordable.”

McGriff began going to Take Back the Land meetings and met people who had successfully kept their homes using the organization’s methods of nonviolent resistance. She met Catherine Griffin-Lennon, for example, who had gotten her Ravenwood Avenue home back from Bank of America after losing it in a foreclosure she considered unjust. Take Back the Land protesters, some of them chained to Griffin-Lennon’s porch, twice dissuaded a city marshal who had come to evict her. Eventually she was evicted, but Griffin-Lennon moved back into the home in a defiant and public manner. After years of uncertainty, Bank of America ended up deeding her the home back for $1.

As McGriff’s foreclosure proceedings progressed, MidFirst Bank told McGriff she could buy the house back for $129,720.45. She had already paid several years worth of mortgage payments for the home, which was assessed at $73,000 in 2015. The bank’s request was “just totally crazy,” Acuff said. She could not come up with this money and lost the home in foreclosure, but she didn’t consider the fight over.

When McGriff got her first eviction notice, Take Back the Land mobilized its eviction blockade team. When the team learned that law enforcement was trying to enforce the eviction order, “there would be a protest and people would be chained to the front porch,” said Acuff, who recalled that blockades dissuaded law enforcement at least four times. “It was a constant showdown.”

On April 5, 2016, sheriff’s deputies removed McGriff’s belongings from the house despite the protesters. Two of the protesters were arrested. About a month after being evicted, McGriff returned to the home. “It was open,” she said. “I just moved back in.”

This method of civil disobedience is called a “live-in” and is named after the illegal “sit-ins” of the civil rights movement. When MidFirst Bank hired property managers to remove her property from 618 Cedarwood Terrace, Take Back the Land volunteers showed up and moved her couches and dressers right back in.

“Each time they changed the locks, miraculously the locks got changed again,” said Julie Gelfand, a Take Back The Land activist who documented McGriff’s efforts to keep her house.

The Rochester Police Department told property managers they needed a new court order of eviction. This was served on August 1, 2017. In response, McGriff’s  supporters tied a massive red, black and green Take Back the Land banner to the front of the house. “Housing is a human right” and “Greedy banks love vacant homes.”

Supporters launched a letter-writing campaign and made a video asking Oklahoma City Thunder basketball player Russell Westbrook to try to intervene with MidFirst Bank.  They hosted a week of religious services on the front lawn to pray for McGriff to keep her home and for homeless people around the world. One was led by Spiritus Christi’s the Rev. Myra Brown who had tweeted at MidFirst Bank to encourage them to negotiate a fair solution. Father Robert Reiser, president of McQuaid Jesuit High School, said a mass on the lawn. “A home is something much much more than a building,” he said. “There is always that element of God’s love that includes’ justice.”

A rotation of “house sitters” watched for deputies when McGriff was at work. Mayoral candidate Alex White, House of Mercy founder Sister Grace Miller and Nazareth College professor Harry Murray were among those prepared to put out the call for an eviction blockade.

Mike Connelly, who had been arrested and charged with trespassing when he wouldn’t leave McGriff’s porch during the eviction, was in charge of keeping the house sitters schedule. Getting arrested was easy compared with the logistics of an extended home defense, he said, but the hard work was worth it. “Change doesn’t happened because people are wishful and show up to a demonstration here and there,” he said.

The sheriff’s deputies did not come.

One issue was manpower, said Paul Gombatto, chief of the civil bureau of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. Knowing that Take Back the Land was planning eviction blockades with dozens of people, they needed to plan for officer and citizen safety. “Normally we would have two or three deputies,” he said. “On this one, we were planning at least 30 or 40 deputies to be safe.”

McGriff met with Gombatto and asked him to ask the bank to agree to a reasonable payoff amount that would allow her to keep the home. He passed along the request to MidFirst’s attorney and postponed the lockout date to wait for a response. On Nov. 8 he got a message from the bank asking the sheriff to hold off on the eviction. An online fundraiser was started to raise $15,000 to allow McGriff to buy her house. By January 31 the house was back in McGriff’s name.

Gombatto said he was glad that McGriff and the bank came to an agreement. “We are glad she is able to stay,” he said. “Obviously the sheriff doesn’t like doing evictions.”

MidFirst Bank did not respond to requests for comment so we can only guess what led to its change of heart.

Acuff said the victory shows that more homeowners should stand their ground. “Real power always rests with the people,” said Acuff. “Whenever we are organized we can change any situation.”

Having fought so hard to keep her home, McGriff now plans to sell the land underneath it to the City Roots Community Land Trust. The organization, founded in 2016, seeks to permanently preserve housing affordability in Rochester through a community owned and managed land model.  McGriff will maintain ownership of the home and rent the land under it from the Land Trust, which will ensure that when the house is sold, it is sold at an affordable price. “She is a pioneer in inaugurating this process in Rochester,” said Acuff. “To reorient ourselves around permanent affordability and resident control.”

Having won her house back, McGriff has moved on to become a leader in Take Back the Land’s City Wide Tenant Union, which tries to protect people against eviction and poor living conditions. The union made news this past week for organizing a rent strike in a 48-unit apartment building on Thurston Road that has 38 code violations, including sewage falling into apartments. The residents hope to force the landlord to make improvements. McGriff’s success, driven by the united efforts of a committed group, can provide them with hope.

“It took a community coming together to make one change,” she said. “I hope to continue, so that there will be a change in policies to benefit the whole community. I wish there were more victories.”

Erica Bryant is the pay it forward columnist. Contact her at ebryant@gannett.com. 

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