Former homeowners push to stop foreclosures

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It was a busy day outside the Norwalk County Courthouse Tuesday, where former homeowners pushing to end foreclosures were just a few feet from a foreclosure auction.

Protesters from various groups, including the International Action Center, Mexicana Transnacional and the Service Employees International Union chanted "stop the auction, stop the sale, send the bankers off to jail."

They were walking up and down Norwalk Boulevard in an attempt to put a two-year moratorium on foreclosures and stop home evictions. Rosie Martinez came out today because she doesn't think the banks are treating homeowners fairly.

"The homeowner is not allowed to buy the home for 40,000 but these investors are here buying up the homes and where are the homeowners? They're out in the street with family and children and all. Yet the banks have already gotten their money," Martinez said.

The sign-holders also urged for a reduction in all state mortgages as well as a mandatory payment reduction for all unemployed California homeowners. But the protests didn't drown out the sounds of the bidding a few steps away, where men and women with earphones in and cell phones at the ready were handing out checks to purchase cheap homes outside the courthouse. One of the bidders, Julian, said he wasn't phased by the disgruntled picketers.

"They're probably mad that they're getting their houses taken away or they're getting a free lunch out of it," he said.

One member of the Stop Foreclosures and Evictions California group, Luis Garcia, said he believes Obama should end foreclosures like Franklin Delano Roosevelt did during the Great Depression.

"People should be bailed out the way the bankers and the financial industry was bailed out. They were too big to fail and we were too small to fail. And we should be treated equally," Garcia said.

According to the "Stop Foreclosures and Evictions California" Facebook, the group has already protested in Oakland, and plan to visit other California cities in the future.