Beltway Area Indymedia

On Monday, June 4th, HUD tenants and allies from across the US came together to fight for affordable housing and dignity. Rallying in front of the Washington DC office of Deutsche Bank, at 1339 New York Avenue NW, one of the largest investors in AIMCO (a major owner/manager of housing units, including public housing, in the United States), the tenants demanded that Deutsche Bank use its shareholder power within AIMCO to make AIMCO abide by the United Nations Global Compact for Responsible Conduct. Deutsche Bank has proclaimed support the Compact. AIMCO, the Apartment Investment Management Company, has treated tenants with utter contempt, including evicting tenants from subsidized housing in order to construct more profitable market rate homes.

A delegation from the group also went into the building to meet with representatives from Deutsche Bank, and share their stories of how AIMCO had made their lives miserable. When the group had sought to arrange a meeting by phone, they were told Deutsche Bank didn't have an office in DC. Today's representative of Deutsche Bank, however, promised to pass the message along, and to look into the tenants' allegations.

Today's rally was organized by the National Alliance of HUD Tenants, (NAHT) and supported by local groups, including Empower DC. Members of the Mobilization for Global Justice were also present to show their support for the tenants' fight for the human right of housing. Today's rally also coincided with the meeting of the G8 in Germany, where the world's 8 richest countries come together to further make plans to profit off of the world's poor. Today in Germany, tenants will be rallying behind the same message; that housing is a human right, and that corporate greed at the expense of the poor is unacceptable. Both protests demand that governments and businesses, “stop the privatization and destruction of affordable housing and affirm the universal right to housing worldwide.”

(Audio 5 min 11 sec, courtesy of WSQT Guerrilla Radio 87.9 FM)

For more information, please see http://saveourhomes.org .