Stay of Eviction for Elderly Bed-Stuy Resident

A bunch of media outlets covered the protest over the planned eviction of longtime resident Mary Ward from her Bed-Stuy home on Friday, which drew nearly 200 people. The city marshal ended up not evicting Ward, and negotiations will continue this week with the company that bought Ward’s house at a foreclosure auction last year. Ward signed a contract to borrow $80,000 against her house from Delta Funding in 1995 but says she only received around $1,000 from the lender, which was later investigated for predatory lending. In recent years, the loan has bounced from one lender to another and ballooned to $200,000. The writeup in The Times about the protest notes that similar ones have been held elsewhere: “Take Back the Land, a housing activist group founded in Miami, has blockaded houses in Rochester, N.Y. in recent months to delay or prevent evictions. Many of the protesters outside Ms. Ward’s house came in response to a call put out by a coalition of housing advocacy groups, Organizing for Occupation.”
Community Stands Strong to Block an Eviction [City Room]
Great-Grandmother Won’t be Evicted From Brooklyn Home [NY Daily News]
Photos of Mary Ward, Protest [Village Voice]
Eviction Blockade for Longtime Bed-Stuy Resident [Patch]