Occupy Gwinnett Moves Forward, Aims to Change Eviction Laws

On November 10, 2011, Tawanna and Christopher Rorey were evicted -- their belongings strewn all over the front lawn, a life up-ended.

That evening Deborah Storm went over to the Shoreside Circle home in Snellville, picked up the family's belongings in a pickup truck and kept their things until the Roreys could come get them.

Storm is a member of Occupy Gwinnett, a recently formed group working to fight social injustice in the area as an offshoot of Occupy Atlanta. The groups swooped into Snellville to

It was a story that began months earlier when the couple met a shady businessman who promised to help them get reduced mortage payments.

The entire experience brought clarity to Occupy Gwinnett. The group has since moved its meeting location to Lawrenceville, and the organizers now plan to help resident Kenneth Glover as he faces eviction.

A Mission

“Apparently,” said John Goodroe, Conyers resident with Occupy Gwinnett, “the Georgia law is that once the family is evicted, all their stuff can be thrown in the front yard, and it’s considered abandoned property.”

Occupy Gwinnett is in the process of trying to get that law changed. 

After an eviction, following a foreclosure, the homeowner becomes a “tenant in sufferance.”  The mortgage holder, in effect, becomes the landlord. After the proper foreclosure proceedings, the family can be forcibly evicted if they have not left willingly. 

According to Johnson and Freedman, LLC, if any property is left in the home in Georgia, it will be “set out” on the curb. In most cases, the property gets dumped and often broken.

In some states, like North Carolina, the sheriff must place the belongings in a storage facility for a certain number of days.  If the owners do not come to pick it up, it can be sold or discarded. 

Besides attempting to change the laws regarding personal property, Occupy Gwinnett is researching methods of securing the property.

“Basically, we’ll have some vehicles and a storage facility,” said Goodroe, “find out who got evicted and communicate with them.  If necessary, we will pick up their stuff and take it to a safe place until they can pick it up.” 

A Petition

Doraville resident Mitch Lindsey has been a participant in Occupy Atlanta since the third night. He has also been in involved with Occupy Gwinnett since its inception.

Occupy Gwinnett is a smaller group, according to Lindsey, age 50, and not as focused on civil disobedience.

“Gwinnett is unique because of having the fourth highest foreclosure rate in the country,” he said.  “We definitely have chosen foreclosure as our number one focus.”

“We’re just trying to bring awareness and see if we can work at it from a different angle,” said Lindsey. “The bigger question is why no one questions why a bank or other lending authority has the right to endanger the personal property and pieces of a life, making it fair game for any looter that happens by.”

Lindsey and other members of Occupy Gwinnett have drafted a petition to change the laws regarding personal property.  Part of the petition reads:

“A change in the law is needed. We ask for a change in the provisions of the law to require the foreclosing authority (that is the bank or other entity initiating the dispossessory warrant) to provide storage for these items at their expense, for a prescribed time (ideally one month minimum), and also to provide the necessary labor to accomplish this, also at their expense.”

In the meantime, they will continue searching for equipment to help the evicted families themselves.

When Occupy Gwinnett camped out at the Rorey home, participants went door-to-door to find out who else might be in foreclosure. Out of the 24 homes on the street, six were in foreclosure proceedings, said Tim Franzen, of Occupy Atlanta, who dons a signature red cap.

Neighbors had no idea that other nearby families were going through the same thing. And, Franzen believes that's one way we have “lost part of America” over the past few decades. 

“In places like Gwinnett,” Franzen said, “we have these subdivisions that give us the illusion of being part of a community, but we don't know the stories of the people in these communities.

"We need to build stronger communities, and that means we need to know each other better, know what's going on in people's lives. We need to not be ashamed of sharing our struggles, and build the kind of communities that lift up folks when they're struggling.”

Occupy Gwinnett meets at the in Lawrenceville every Monday and Thursday evening about 7:30 p.m. You can reach the group through its Facebook page, as well.