King's Chef Chinese restaurant is facing potential foreclosure

The Voice is starting a new feature several times a week. As foreclosures continue unabated across the nation, the Voice will be profiling the foreclosures that happen every week right here in the five boroughs. We'll be looking closely at the properties facing foreclosure, the public auctions where those buildings are sold to the highest bidder, and the individuals facing eviction in the process.

Eight properties are set to be sold Thursday at Brooklyn Supreme Court's weekly foreclosure sale. And as usual, we knocked on a few doors to see who lives/works there and, more importantly, if they are aware of the foreclosure sale.

Residents near Flatbush Avenue in Prospect Park who are into Chinese may have to find another spot, as King's Chef Chinese Food, a very popular joint located at 681 Flatbush Avenue, is set to be sold.

And judging from the reaction of the staff, they are well aware of it.

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​The Voice is starting a new feature several times a week. As foreclosures continue unabated across the nation, the Voice will be profiling the foreclosures that happen every week right here in the five boroughs. We'll be looking closely at the properties facing foreclosure, the public auctions where those buildings are sold to the highest bidder, and the individuals facing eviction in the process.

As foreclosures continue to swarm US homeowners, investors are taking advantage by snapping up foreclosed home in bulk (sales of home to investors soared 64.5% in 2011). Today, The Voice visited 191 Classon Avenue in Brooklyn, a three-story apartment that is set to be sold, along with seven other properties, tomorrow at the Brooklyn Supreme Court.

Mrs Ortiz, a Hispanic housewife who lives on the first floor apartment, said she's aware of the looming eviction, but not from the landlord and owner of the property.

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The Voice is starting a new feature several times a week. As foreclosures continue unabated across the nation, the Voice will be profiling the foreclosures that happen every week right here in the five boroughs. We'll be looking closely at the properties facing foreclosure, the public auctions where those buildings are sold to the highest bidder, and the individuals facing eviction in the process.

At yesterday afternoon's foreclosure auction at the King's County Supreme Court, two of three properties we highlighted here were sold--for way below market value.

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​The Voice is starting a new feature several times a week. As foreclosures continue unabated across the nation, the Voice will be profiling the foreclosures that happen every week right here in the five boroughs. We'll be looking closely at the properties facing foreclosure, the public auctions where those buildings are sold to the highest bidder, and the individuals facing eviction in the process.

Mrs Johnson, looking out from her window

"You from the bank?" asked Louise, a middle-aged black woman with a thick Jamaican accent standing outside a beaten-down, three-story apartment building located on 357 Linden Street in Bushwick.

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The Voice is starting a new feature several times a week. As foreclosures continue unabated across the nation, the Voice will be profiling the foreclosures that happen every week right here in the five boroughs. We'll be looking closely at the properties facing foreclosure, the public auctions where those buildings are sold to the highest bidder, and the individuals facing eviction in the process.

Every Wednesday at 3pm, a group of mostly Jewish investors gather at the King's County Supreme Court to snap up properties that have been seized for foreclosure. Over the past few weeks, The Voice has been keeping tabs on the process, attending the court sales and then trekking out to the properties to try to speak to the tenants for their side of the story.

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This law office was one of the properties sold at last Friday's Queen's auction

​The Voice is starting a new feature several times a week. As foreclosures continue unabated across the nation, the Voice will be profiling the foreclosures that happen every week right here in the five boroughs. We'll be looking closely at the properties facing foreclosure, the public auctions where those buildings are sold to the highest bidder, and the individuals facing eviction in the process.

As reported last week, a third generation home-dweller named Debbie Hailey was frantically trying to stop her home from being auctioned off at a foreclosure sale at the King's County Supreme Court--which takes place every Thursday at 3pm--and she succeeded.

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Ben Sin

Debbie Hailey's property at 876 Greene Avenue, which will be sold soon

The Voice is starting a new feature several times a week. As foreclosures continue unabated across the nation, the Voice will be profiling the foreclosures that happen every week right here in the five boroughs. We'll be looking closely at the properties facing foreclosure, the public auctions where those buildings are sold to the highest bidder, and the individuals facing eviction in the process.

Last Friday, the Voice wrote about a singing protest at the Queen's Supreme Court by activist group Organizing For Occupation that tried to prevent the foreclosure auctions of three Queens properties. Swift arrests by court guards ended the protests, and sales proceeded as usual with the three properties -- 138-55 233 Street, 99-11 193 Road, and 187-16 Linden Boulevard -- going for $345,000, $240,000, and $255,000, respectively.

Well, the cycle continues today, as seven Brooklyn properties are going on sale this afternoon at the Kings County Supreme Court at 3 p.m. As we found out last October, sometimes those being foreclosed on sometimes have no idea of their impending evictions -- they could be innocent renters unaware of murky court procedures or the landlord's financial troubles.

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The third "People's Bailout", a series of singing protests organized by activist group Organizing for Occupation that aims to disrupt the court foreclosure proceedings, took place this morning at 11am at the Queens Supreme Court. Forty-two people showed up for the movement and, in three separate batches, interrupted the auction process by standing and singing "Mr. Auctioneer".

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Mia Yoo, Artistic Director of La MaMa E.T.C. (Experimental Theatre Club), responded to our story about Millenium Film Workshop being served an eviction notice from La MaMa on Wednesday night with this statement:

Since December 2010 La MaMa has been talking and meeting with Millennium Film to try and understand how we can help them as they continue to find ways to stablize their organization. We will continue to do so. We believe and support the mission of Millennium Film and consider it a very important cultural institution.

Tamara Greenfield, the Executive Director of Fourth Arts Block who has been mediating between Millenium and La MaMa over the past many months (including a long meeting yesterday) explained what the process has been like for the two non-profits, her belief that La MaMa wants to keep Millenium in its home (under a different configuration, where some of their current real estate can be rented out to increase revenue), and why she thinks there may have been an "overreaction" from Millenium to the eviction notice.

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Activists took up song to protest a "public" foreclosure auction in Brooklyn Supreme Court this afternoon. Many of those gathered (from FUREE, Housing Is a Human Right, Organizing for Occupation, and a new group called Occupied Real Estate) had taken part in another singing act of protest last October to temporarily halt foreclosure proceedings and bring attention to the fact that every week, week after week, foreclosure auctions take place which leave families homeless when members of the "public" successfully buy the homes.

But this time was rather different. Far more people participated, with the courtroom being filled with about 60 people initially, according to Michael Premo of Housing is a Human Right; we personally saw over 20 people arrested, and organizers say approximately 35 were taken into custody.

And, since after court resumed and everyone but people the guards thought were buyers were barred from the courtroom (including members of the press), it couldn't really be called a "public" auction at all.

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