Rookie Mistake, Or Bad Aldering?

Wow. I’m blown away by the following press release that Alder Lisa Subeck, former advocate for the homeless and affordable housing and the poor turned politician, put out earlier today.

First here’s the statement from the Take Back the Land folks:

In the face of a local and national housing crisis, M&I Bank has received $1.7 Billion in taxpayer bailouts, has promised $70 million in bonuses and golden parachutes to their executives, and has continued to foreclose on homeowners and evict renters from foreclosed properties. Alisha Muhammad, with the support of Take Back the Land-Madison has recently moved into a vacant foreclosed home owned by M&I Bank and has been living there since.

Alisha, who has been homeless for over a year, has cleaned up the property, taken care of it, and brought life to it for the past 2 weeks. We believe she should be allowed to stay there and that the property be turned over to the Madison Area Community Land Trust so it can be maintained as affordable housing.

We think it is time to come out and publicly tell M&I and the community what they already know: There is an overwhelming surplus of vacant foreclosed houses and an increasingly overwhelming number of homeless people in Madison, and Dane County. We are offering a simple solution to the problem by matching homeless people with people-less homes.

Please join Take Back the Land-Madison at 1:30 pm on Madison’s West side to show support for Alisha staying in this newly liberated home. We will be meeting at 6304 Hammersley Rd.

Alisha is 19 years old and first became homeless over a year ago because her parents didn’t accept her as an LGBTQ person. Although she has multiple part time jobs she hasn’t been able to secure her own housing. In addition to bringing awareness to the foreclosure crisis here in Madison, Alisha said she believes in the Take Back the Land Movement and wants to raise awareness about the disproportionate amount of LGBTQ youth of color who are homeless.

Alisha’s situation only highlights a much broader story. It is one about finding reasonable solutions to the housing crisis that is effecting many families and single people and youth in our community. It is about holding banks like M&I accountable for their irresponsibility with our taxpayer money. It is about standing together and creating the world that we want to see, where people are respected over profit and housing is recognized as a human right.

Please spread the word and hope to see you tomorrow!

Take Back the Land-Madison

The event was changed to Thursday at 4:30. My guess is the police will be there well before then.

And here is the video from their last action (sorry this is the whole thing, I didn’t quite finish the highlights reel – will try to do that tonight and add it here):

Here’s the still draft shorter version. (Got distracted last night)

And here is Subeck’s statement:

For Immediate Release:
May 11, 2011

For More Information Contact:
Ald. Lisa Subeck, District 1
(608) 358-7090
District 1 Alderwoman Lisa Subeck’s Statement on Take Back the Land Action on Hammersley Road

Madison, WI – District 1 Alderwoman Lisa Subeck made the following statement in response to an announcement from Take Back the Land that they have assisted a homeless individual to occupy a foreclosed home on Hammersley Road. Take Back the Land is a fringe advocacy group that illegally occupies foreclosed homes in the name of helping the homeless.

“I was disturbed to read today’s announcement from Take Back the Land that they will hold a press conference at a southwest side home that the group has encouraged a homeless individual to occupy illegally. The actions of Take Back the Land serve to exploit homeless individuals in their attempt to garner media attention, while doing nothing to address the very serious problem of homelessness in our community.

The home targeted by Take Back the Land is located in a fragile part of the Prairie Hills Neighborhood, where residents have worked hard to improve neighborhood conditions. It is my hope that vacant homes in the area will eventually be purchased and occupied by responsible residents who will make positive contributions to the neighborhood. The illegal actions of Take Back the Land simply present further challenges to an already struggling area.

We cannot ignore the problem of homelessness in our community. As a city, we must work to ensure economic opportunity and affordable housing are available to all of our residents. I am committed to working toward real solutions to the issues of poverty and homelessness, but I cannot condone the illegal and exploitative actions of Take Back the Land.”

Now, I can understand not agreeing with the tactics. I can understand having concerns. I can also understand that desperate times call for desperate measures and no amount of recalls is going to fix this any time soon – even here in Madison. However, having said that, reasonable people can disagree.

What I don’t understand is the tactics she used. I don’t agree with her completely off base, uninformed, nearly just plain mean statement.

First, as another activist put it “”Fringe.” Marginalizing the marginalized (or kicking people while they are down, or pouring water on a drowning wo/man). Nice. Of course homeless people are “fringe,’ because the mainstream is full of Subeck’s.” To me its Dave Cieslewicz politics at its worst – don’t address the issues, just the personalities and help to further marginalize them instead of dealing with the important issues they are bringing up.

I don’t understand why she chose to use some of the words she used to talk about poor people. She sounds more like David Blaska than a Democrat.

And I really, really, really don’t understand why she didn’t show the leadership she is capable of and try to reach some sort of solution. I understand she might have concerns, but issuing this type of press release just seems to be the kind of politics Thuy Pham-Remmele engaged in. No solutions, just press releases and whining about people writing press releases.

Finally, those who engaged in civil disobedience during the civil rights struggles broke the law, getting attention of the press and were treated in much the same way. Were they wrong?

Now, to the substance of the statement.

I was disturbed to read today’s announcement from Take Back the Land that they will hold a press conference at a southwest side home that the group has encouraged a homeless individual to occupy illegally. The actions of Take Back the Land serve to exploit homeless individuals in their attempt to garner media attention, while doing nothing to address the very serious problem of homelessness in our community.

First of all, it would have been great if she’d be disturbed about the number of houses being foreclosed on and the number of homeless people and all the bank bail out money that doesn’t seem to be helping any of the folks it should be helping, even if she disagreed on the tactics. She seemed to have missed the main point.

Second, Alicia is a member of Take Back the Land. See the video above. I’m quite certain she did this on her own. Assuming that a homeless person can’t make their own choices without being exploited is really disturbing. I don’t think anyone was exploiting her, certainly not the group of which she is a member.

Third, this is a group that is doing what they can with the resources they have. To say they are doing nothing to address the serious problem of homelessness is a complete lie. Subeck clearly doesn’t know who these folks are or what they are doing. Many of them have raised money to rent a home to put homeless people in and support them in many ways every month. Many of them also participated in the People’s Affordable Housing Vision, have lobbied the former mayor and county executive for things they think are necessary to help the homeless and get more affordable housing in the community and generally work on a weekly or daily basis with the homeless. They’ve also actually accomplished two of the points on the 12 point agenda.

The home targeted by Take Back the Land is located in a fragile part of the Prairie Hills Neighborhood, where residents have worked hard to improve neighborhood conditions. It is my hope that vacant homes in the area will eventually be purchased and occupied by responsible residents who will make positive contributions to the neighborhood. The illegal actions of Take Back the Land simply present further challenges to an already struggling area.

First, a “fragile neighborhood”? So what? What is she saying about the person who is living there that she doesn’t even know, that cleaned up the place, and is taking care of it? This person is working hard to improve the neighborhood conditions and to have a place to live. Does Subeck prefer an abandoned property that is not being taken care of? How is this hurting the neighborhood? What is the risk? A black woman moved in and cleaned up the place, what is the “challenge” this presents to the neighborhood?

Second, “hope”? It’s going to take a helluva lot more than “hope”. We need elected officials that aren’t relying on “hope”. That’s not working out so well for us.

Third, it needs to happen sooner than “eventually”. It needs to happen now. Justice delayed and all that.

We cannot ignore the problem of homelessness in our community. As a city, we must work to ensure economic opportunity and affordable housing are available to all of our residents. I am committed to working toward real solutions to the issues of poverty and homelessness, but I cannot condone the illegal and exploitative actions of Take Back the Land.

Ok, what are those “real” solutions?

See above on the “exploitative actions” and the civil rights movement and illegal actions they took.

What I think would have been more effective for a leader to do would be to:
1) Call attention to the problem with foreclosures and how it impacts people, even right here in Madison. Talk about the crisis and potential solutions to the foreclosure crisis. List what steps the city could take. She’s no stranger to affordable housing and homelessness, she knows solutions.
2) Call the people involved instead of the press. Ask for M&I Bank to meet with the Take Back the Land people and city leaders to see if there is some kind of middle ground.
3) Call for action and promise to work on specific issues.
4) Not dismiss this group of earnest people who are working on homeless issues daily and weekly. Work with them instead.

As an activist, Subeck would expect no less from any other elected official. As an elected official, she either made a rookie mistake or . . .