[Peace] CALL TO ACTION! Tuesday 7PM (Gateway Evicitions)

[Randall Cotton]

Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice is asking for folks to
turn out in solidarity with and to help advocate for those being summarily
evicted from the Gateway Studios apartment complex.

TUESDAY 7PM
CHAMPAIGN CITY COUNCIL MEETING
COUNCIL CHAMBERS on the ground floor of the Champaign City Building
102 N. Neil St.

As reported on in the Saturday News-Gazette article on this issue (see:
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/business/2009/05/09/gateway_studios_tells_residents_they_must_move_out )
, residents of this complex (the old Holiday Inn on Neil St.) were told in
a meeting on Friday that the power will be turned off Tuesday (residents
now say it will be turned off TOMORROW, Monday), and that the city will
subsequently condemn the property, forcing eviction. The reason the power
is being cut off (by Ameren) is that the building's owners have not been
paying the property's power bills, amassing a $44,000 debt. But the
residents there pay rent that INCLUDES utilities. According to the
News-Gazette the meeting was conducted by the property's management and
ATTENDED BY CHAMPAIGN CITY OFFICIALS, who apparently saw nothing wrong
with the power being cut to these residents with such short notice,
effectively forcing them to abandon their home in 3 days or less, with
some of them having absolutely nowhere else to go. This amounts to a 3 day
notice for what is effectively a summary eviction, though the failure of
the owners to pay the power bill is certainly no fault of the residents.

10 local activists, myself included, teamed up earlier today to visit
residents, confirm what is happening to them, asking whether and how
they'll be able to cope and pledging advocacy and solidarity. A few
residents have agreed to come to the Champaign City Council meeting to
tell their story and we are urging everyone we can to attend TUESDAY 7PM
to support them, advocate for them and stand in solidarity with them as we
object to and demand that the city address this injustice visited upon
them through no fault of their own

The 10 activists canvassed the complex initially in 5 teams of 2. My team
personally spoke with one woman who has been staying at Gateway for over a
year, who has a job, always pays her rent, but must support 4 school-age
children. She explained to us how she absolutely has nowhere else to go,
especially with the ludicrously short notice and hopes she can at least
find someone who will take her children in while she anticipates having to
live in her car. She bravely plans to come on Tuesday to tell her story
(along with others), even though by then she and her children will
probably already be homeless.

WHY ADDRESS THE CITY?

1. I think I can speak for all the activists involved and I would hope
most people in the community in saying that this incident is grossly
unjust (so much so that it should be patently illegal).

2. Rather than going along with this as if it's routine, our government
should be taking every possible action to prevent what is effectively a
3-day notice of eviction brought upon some of the most vulnerable citizens
in our community due to negligence and/or intentional deception by the
property owners and also the callous heartlessness Ameren, should they
choose to go through with the power cut.

3. It stands to reason that the City could take direct, persuasive and
perhaps even legal action to influence Ameren to preserve power to the
residents that need more time to find another place to stay, say, at least
until the end of the month.

4. The City MUST find a way to address this issue and PREVENT it from ever
happening again (in this economy, it seems likely this won't be first such
incident and it's already happened recently in nearby Rantoul). This might
be done through legal action or the threat of legal action against Ameren
and/or the owners (setting an influential precedent), or if no legal route
is possible, establishing new law at the City level that would preclude
this from ever happening again.

But in my opinion, it's unlikely *any* of the above will be considered
seriously by the Champaign City Council unless there is strong public
pressure for them to do so.

SO ONCE AGAIN, PLEASE JOIN US IF YOU POSSIBLY CAN

TUESDAY 7PM
CHAMPAIGN CITY COUNCIL MEETING
COUNCIL CHAMBERS on the ground floor of the Champaign City Building
102 N. Neil St.