Is 'Occupy' Ready to Move Into Foreclosed Homes?

The General Assembly of Occupy Oakland has voted "to encourage the occupation of bank-owned/foreclosed and abandoned properties" across that Northern California city, according to the group's announcement on Twitter. If ever there were 140 characters that spelled "next step," it's those.

Putting homeless and other people in foreclosed homes isn't a new idea among social activists. The Take Back the Land movement, an umbrella organization of community activists involved in the foreclosure and housing crisis, has been doing precisely that for awhile. But the momentum of the day belongs to the Occupiers, and with Occupy Oakland becoming the epicenter of the movement, this message could be huge.

Heidi Sulzdorf of the Occupy LA movement said that the concept of occupying foreclosed homes was discussed at Occupy MN and may have spread from there to Oakland. To her knowledge, it has not been brought up at the general assembly of Occupy LA. Yet.

The housing and foreclosure crisis dovetails with the Occupy movement's focus on what it sees as a corrupt and ruling banking system. Banks were in the Occupiers sights this week with various demonstrations, including a call to withdraw money from the large banks. (Pictured above is the scene at a Wells Fargo branch in Oakland on Wednesday, Nov. 2, where a bank employee looks through windows broken during an Occupy Oakland rally.)

Also see:

'Mortgage Prof': 5 Reasons Banks Would Rather Foreclose
Victims of Robo-Signing: Fight the Machine!

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