After months of trying to get a Countrywide loan officer to return calls on a senior couple's loan with no success, CIOP staged an action to encourage negotiations. On June 19, 2008, over 100 CIOP members and friends came out to support Senior Citizens Vernell and Valeria Armour who were facing home foreclosure from Countrywide.

CIOP invited Countrywide to the public meeting in front of the Armour's home. When Countrywide failed to show up, CIOP leaders boarded a school bus and assorted vans and cars and took the meeting to the local Countrywide office. The office manager refused to meet with us. Leaders distributed the phone numbers of three Countrywide Vice Presidents. Participants called the VPs with CIOP's demands: 1) Forgive the Armour's loan, 2)Halt the foreclosure proceedings, 3) meet with CIOP.

Participants in the action came from four central Illinois metro areas: Bloomington-Normal, Peoria, Springfield and Decatur. Participants included a broad array of faiths, races and ages. Participants represented Christian, Jewish and Hindu faiths; seven clergy participated in the action. Participants included African Americans, Latinos and Caucasians. All ages were represented with the majority of participants being seniors who came out to support fellow seniors facing foreclosure.

Within one hour, CIOP had received a call from Angie Lathrop, Senior Vice President of Community Relations at Countrywide who agreed to halt the foreclosure and engage in negotiations. CIOP and Countrywide are currently negotiating an organizational agreement to address foreclosures, increase affordable lending to low and moderate income individuals and persons of color, and provide funding to CIOP member groups.

The Central Illinois Organizing Project has been organizing on predatory lending since 1998. The organization worked to get the first anti-predatory lending regulations and subsequent legislation passed in the state of Illinois. As lenders found ways to bypass the law, CIOP advocated for policy and practice changes to protect citizens. The organization has an active senior anti-predatory campaign which includes education, advocacy and organizing for policy change. The June 19 action was part of that campaign. - by Dawn Dannenbring

The Central Illinois Organizing Project attended the National People's Action (NPA) conference and foreclosed on the White House - Washington, DC April 14-16. See more pictures from the trip.

Predatory lending is the practice of offering individuals home refinance mortgage loans with conditions the individual cannot afford. Predatory lending is essentially loan-sharking. Predatory loans typically involve very high interest rates (>11%), prepayment penalties, deceptive practices often hidden in the "fine print," and a failure on the part of the lender to consider the borrower's ability to afford the monthly payments. Predatory lenders tend to target the elderly and minority populations. The elderly are targeted because this population is housing rich but cash poor. Minority populations fall prey to predatory lenders as a result of institutional racism; even today, traditional lenders may redline minority neighborhoods making predatory lending institutions the only source of capital in the neighborhood.