Santa Cruz Branch of the Women's International
League for Peace and Freedom

Welcome to Santa Cruz WILPF!
Our branch was started in the 1960s and now has over 250 peace and freedom loving members, women and men. We are one of the largest, most active branches in U.S. WILPF. For more information, see also the National and International WILPF web sites.

For nearly a century WILPF has been a leader in peace and justice activities around the world. As a member of WILPF you can become an important part of the worldwide struggle for peace and freedom. You will be kept informed regarding programs and actions through our local branch. Join us!

Branch Program - Tuesday, May 15th, 7 p.m.

Stop "Fraudclosures" Here & Now

Did you know that just in the month of April over 53,000 California homes are scheduled for auction? That is 2,500 homes on the auction block every single weekday! And the overwhelming majority of them are actually "fraudclosures", the result of illegal & fraudulent actions by the big banks.

In Santa Cruz there are 192 scheduled auctions just for the month of May. Multiply that by 12 months and you get about 2,300 for the year. Each one entails hardship, stress & expense for families, neigborhoods, counties and State.

What can we do to stop these devastating foreclosures? There is a lot we can, and must, do. Our local WILPF and Occupy Working Group are co-planning strategies & actions we can take to stop fraudulent foreclosures in our County. At our May program local activists will share effective ways we can get involved to stop this injustice.

The featured speaker of the evening is CJ Holmes, creator of the nonprofit Homeowners For Justice. Ms. Holmes is leading a nationwide effort to stop foreclosures and keep people in their homes. (Learn more at her website www.hofj.org) 

As CJ Holmes writes: "The rampant and systematic foreclosures of our family homes is deliberate, and is destroying the very fabric of our society, including persistent unemployment, loss of social services, and decreased money for our children's education."  It is also cheating our cities, counties & states out of millions of dollars from unpaid recording fees and 30% lower home values. Also, every foreclosure actually costs the local economy about $20,000.

"With 8,000-homes in this country already foreclosed, and another 11,000 in the pipeline, much of our country may not belong to citizens by the time it's over unless we stop the foreclosure machine". (That comes to 19 million homes; if each home housed 4 people, that comes to 76 million people facing foreclosure and that means Every Fourth Person In This Country!) "Cash from anywhere in the world can buy our real estate at unbelievably low prices, but right now over 80,000 families in the 11 Bay Area Counties cannot get a loan to buy a home regardless of income, credit score or cash reserves since they lost a home to foreclosure or short sale in the last 3 years."

CJ Holmes is a licensed broker with an extensive background in real estate investing, client representation, and market analysis, who accurately predicted this current home value meltdown in late 2008. Her talk will include detailed information about foreclosures, their affect in our area and how we can get involved to stop "fraudclosures" in a variety of effective ways.

Please join us for this important program. Co-sponsored by Santa Cruz WILPF and OccupySC StopForeclosure Working Group.

WILPF Public Program, 7 – 9 p.m. May 15th, Quaker Meeting House in Santa Cruz.. Free, donations welcomed!  For information, chair@wilpf.got.net or call 457-6797.