Victory for the Windom Bey Family; Mayor Intervenes and Halts Eviction!
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On Wednesday, June 20, the Windom-Bey family, Take Back the Land-Rochester, and community members held a press conference announcing their victory over finacial and government forces attempting to evict them! See the video report below. A press release is farther down the page. Also, check out Julie Gelfand's photos and report from June 7th and 20th at her article "A Victory for the Windom-Bey Family."
Press Release:
A Victory for All!
Rochester Mayor Reverses Eviction of City Family,
Take Back the Land Eviction Blockade Called Off
June 20, 2012, Rochester NY –
Community and neighbors, including members of Take Back the Land, gathered at the home of the Windom Bey family at 33 Bartlett Street in Rochester yesterday evening, preparing to implement an Eviction Blockade, but arrived to excellent news: the City of Rochester will stay the eviction and the Windom Beys may remain in their home of forty years. The long and complex details of the Windom Bey’s struggle with bureaucratic injustice are outlined in this article: http://rochester.indymedia.org/node/41413.
Assistant to the Mayor Darryl Porter came to see the Windom Beys at their home just before the community gathering was to have taken place, acknowledging the City’s past mistakes and crediting Mayor Richards with finding a solution to the long-standing bureaucratic impasse. Mr. Porter later told the family and supporters at the ensuing City Council meeting (at which Lee Windom Bey and Take Back the Land supporters spoke), “We saw there was injustice here. This administration didn’t cause the problem. But we don’t care if an injustice is one hundred years old, this administration is determined to fix it.”
In undaunted and courageous struggle over many years, Lee and Mary Windom Bey fought to maintain their home against bureaucratic errors and confusion. Among the City's many missteps (see link above), access to their shared driveway was fenced off. The Windom Beys then had no means of removing their car, boats and a trailer on their property and were then repeatedly fined for not moving the vehicles. Disputed accrued fines eventually led to foreclosure on the property.
Ryan Acuff, a member of Take Back the Land, thanked those in the City who turned this case around. He reminded City Council, though, of the ongoing foreclosure crisis in the city, caused both by well-documented corruption in the banking industry and under city tax and code violation enforcement, and by the City’s harsh foreclosure standards for individual residents even as it grants forgiveness and adjustments to large corporations who default on enormous loans.
Take Back the Land calls on the Mayor and city administrators to work with us to find far-reaching solutions, rather than struggling one case at a time, to protect the many Rochester families struggling to stay in their homes, strengthening our neighborhoods.
We call on the City to implement a moratorium on evictions in our region, refusing to support the forced removal of our neighbors with Rochester police, recognizing the reach of predatory lending and other corrupt banking practices in the community. Our shared goal should be stabilizing and enriching our citizens’ lives.
