BOSTON - Over the weekend, members of the City Life Vida Urbana organization and its affiliated Boston Tenants Association held raucous pickets in front of a hotel and two restaurants owned by developer and restaurateur Paul Roiff.

Activists with the Jamaica Plain based housing justice group were protesting the possible eviction of several families from a residential building owned by Roiff in East Boston.

Protest organizers said they hoped vigils outside Roiff's businesses would pressure him to cancel eviction notices against the residents of 22 Princeton Street.

BOSTON/Hyde Park - A group of over 30 housing advocates - many of them tenants in apartments subsided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development - held a rally in Cleary Square Saturday in support of a raft of proposed legislation and treaties at all levels of government that would help low-income families remain in their current apartments at lower than market rates. The event was organized by the Mass. Alliance of HUD Tenants, a statewide coalition representing tenants in privately-owned, HUD subsidized apartments.

BOSTON/Roxbury - Over 80 people rallied on Cobden and Cardington Sts. on the Roxbury side of Egleston Square Sunday to demand that giant banks that own several properties in the neighborhood stop all post-foreclosure evictions immediately and sell the properties to residents that live there or to a non-profit willing and able to set up a resident's coop. The event was organized by the housing advocacy non-profit City Life/Vida Urbana and the Bank Tenants Association - an organization of residents in foreclosed properties.

Advocates say that they are pursuing a block-wide strategy in the neighborhood to demand that all banks that own property there - including Deutsche, Bank of America, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, HSBC, Guaranty, Aurora and US Bank - sell all their holdings to local residents. Currently they are working on a deal with Wells Fargo and expect other banks to follow suit. If successful, they hope to pursue a similar strategy block by block in other affected Boston neighborhoods.

BOSTON/Roxbury - In this video, Press Pass TV reports on a blind Roxbury mother's battle for fair and safe housing. After being repeatedly robbed, the Boston Police allegedly started ignoring her calls - even as her situation worsened. It took a City Councilor and his staff to help change her life around.

Press Pass TV is a Boston-based youth-adult partnership non-profit whose mission is to produce socially responsible video journalism which promotes a more diverse media, empowers communities, and increases civic engagement.

BOSTON/Back Bay - Continuing an ongoing series of public protests against banks they say are responsible for the unfair evictions of foreclosed owners and tenants living in Boston, about 75 members and supporters of the Jamaica Plain-based City Life/Vida Urbana organization held a loud rally outside the Four Seasons Hotel on Wednesday. Deutsche Bank AG, the transnational financial services corporation based in Frankfurt, Germany, was holding meetings and a dinner party at the hotel in advance of its annual golf tournament this weekend at TPC Boston Golf Club in Norton, MA.

BOSTON/Roxbury – Wanda Castle does just about everything the owner of a Boston triple-decker would do to maintain her property, including basic repairs and paying for water and electricity in common areas of the building.

And if this were a normal situation, Ms. Castle – who has lived in this building on the Roxbury/Jamaica Plain border as a tenant for two and a half years - would be paying a regular, stable, rent to live there.

But the situation is anything but normal. Wanda Castle, her fourteen year old daughter, and her neighbor Inell Mendez, are living in limbo as the banks and mortgage service companies that own the three separate condo units of this triple-decker figure out what to do with these properties sitting on the edge of foreclosure; known in banking parlance as “non-performing assets.”

BOSTON/Government Center - On Tuesday, over 60 housing advocates, tenants and supporters attended a hearing of the City Council's Committee on Government Operations organized by the Massachusetts Alliance Against Predatory Lending to push for a number of reforms to municipal and state housing policy. City Council president Michael Ross and Councilors Turner, Feeney (chair) and Connolly listened to testimony from a panel of housing experts assembled by MAAPL for well over an hour. The speakers stressed the need for a tenant protection law to stop evictions of responsible tenants, a judicial review law that will mandate a court hearing before banks are allowed to foreclose on homeowners, a 6-month moratorium on foreclosures, and a mediation law that would force banks to make a good faith effort to mediate with homeowners and tenants before foreclosing properties and evicting anyone. They also encouraged the City Council to pass home rule petitions to enact such protections in the City of Boston. Advocates hope for passage of the petitions by the full City Council later this year.

BOSTON/Copley Square - NEWS BRIEF - Close to 40 community activists and residents rallied outside a Bank of America branch to kick off "Thursdays-at-the-Bank" afternoon protests that run through March 19 in Copley Square. Organizers are demanding, "No More Bank Bail-outs" and "Homes & Jobs for People!" The action spotlighted residents facing foreclosures.

BOSTON/Mattapan - Less than twelve hours after Barack Obama spoke to the nation, following his historic election as the first black president, an African American family in the Mattapan neighborhood of Boston was evicted from their home.

BOSTON/Downtown Crossing - Over 50 people - including members of the Mass. Alliance of HUD Tenants and allies - attempted to deliver a "Save Our Homes Platform" to McCain Campaign Headquarters on Tremont St. last Saturday after a short march from a rally at nearby Park St. Station. The Platform calls for full federal funding for Section 8 and Public Housing, an end to predatory investments in affordable housing, and 10 other demands.