Fall 2009 Financial Justice Workshops

SUN’s Financial Justice Committee is pleased to announce:

Three Fall 2009 workshops designed to help neighborhood residents understand their credit, avoid the predatory loans designed to defraud families and become a first-time homebuyer.

These workshops are sponsored by SUN and run by our good friends at Cooperative Federal Credit Union. All workshops are to be held at the SUN office (1540 S. Salina St.) and run from 6 PM to 8 PM

Thursday September 24th: Understanding Your Credit
Learn the basics of credit–what’s a credit score, how your score is calculated, how you can improve your score. Also get a free credit report and personal consultation with a Cooperative Federal counselor.

Wednesday October 7th: Predatory Lending
Don’t get trapped by high-pressure salesman, pushing high interest rate, high fee loans. Protect yourself and your family’s budget.

Monday November 9th: Understanding Your Credit
Learn the basics of credit–what’s a credit score, how your score is calculated, how you can improve your score. Also get a free credit report and personal consultation with a Cooperative Federal counselor.

Please reserve your seats now–classes are limited to 10 people. Please call SUN at 476-7475 and we will reserve your place and get the information necessary to have your credit report available for your personal consultation after the workshop.

There is a $5 fee that is required before the workshop–it will be refunded when you attend.

Final Victory on 133 South Ave. (and we saved the city $31,500!)

Final Victory on 133 South Ave. (and we saved the city $31,500!)

Originally uploaded by Syracuse United Neighbors

On August 3rd, the city demolished the vacant house at 133 South Ave. As you may remember, SUN members protested at the law office of the owner, James Medcraf, back in October of 2008. We also had to take on the city’s three-part historic house review process: losing at the Preservation Committee and Planning Commission levels and then prevailing at the Common Council, when they declared the property not historic.

The owner ignored a Supreme Court order to demolish the building
issued in 2006–and Judge James Tormey was none too pleased when
informed of this fact at his regularly scheduled monthly hearing on
vacant house demolition. The combination of the loss of the house’s
historical status and the threat of contempt of court proceedings
made lawyer James Medcraf go through with the demolition, as well as
pay for it out of his own pocket. SUN got rid of a nuisance property that attracted trash, loitering and drug dealing–and saved the city taxpayers $31,500 to boot.