According to this 12 minute 60 Minutes piece, the current mortgage foreclosure crisis is just the beginning. Over the next 3 years, two types of adjustable rate mortgages (Alt-A and Option B) are due to reset interest rates at a higher level starting this winter. This means that the monthly payments will go up, and its predicted that will produce another massive wave of foreclosures.

Below is a news story from KABC in Carson California of a man who was arrested for staying in his home in protest after it fell into foreclosure. Frank Torres was one of the millions who lost their jobs in this country last year and was not able to keep up with his house payments. He is now working in an oil refinery plant and is trying to negotiate with his bank so that he and his family can keep their home.

Listen to Torres and his family at:
http://www.abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=...

Several weeks ago Jill Porter of the Philadelphia Daily News reported on the death of a man named Roy Parker, a tenant in an illegal boarding house behind the shuttered Ivy Ridge Assisted Living facility in Roxborough. Parker and 9 other low-income residents had been renting 7 rooms at the property, at $450 each, in an effort to rebuild their lives after struggling with poverty, health, and in Parker' case, even homelessness.

Baltimore March 27th-29th, 2009 An upcoming conference will focus on developing a nationwide strategy to organize for cities that work for people not just for capital. There will be a focus on creating conversations between activists, analysts of the current financial crisis, and academics (and of course those who fit more than one label). As short as the left is on funding for think tanks, this event is aimed at a long standing need. We're particularly excited about one of the organizers United Workers out of Baltimore