Rally Tomorrow for Tenants Screwed by Speculators and Abandoned by Fannie Mae

Back in the days when papers were calling the Bronx the new real estate frontier, a lot of buildings got scooped up by ambitious investors who didn't see why they should provide basic services to the tenants living in them. Ocelot Capital Group was one of those companies and, after fucking up its Bronx buildings, left them for Fannie Mae to foreclose on. This left the residents high and dry, but they hoped Fannie Mae would at least keep up the buildings. But, the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board tells us, Fannie Mae instead washed their hands of the matter and turned the mortgages back over to the original lenders, from whom the tenants can hardly expect relief. Many Bronx apartment buildings share a similar fate, and Congressman Charles Rangel, state senator Bill Perkins and a number of other local politicians are going to join UHAB and tenant organizers representing more than 7,000 apartments in a rally at 1295 Fifth Avenue at 110th Street at 10:45 a.m. to protest Fannie Mae's malfeasance and demand they step in to protect the tenants from the depredations of speculators.