SNELLVILLE, Ga.,None — Occupy Atlanta organizers plan to turn over their occupation of a Gwinnett County home to local protesters as they hope their movement will grow into the Metro Atlanta suburbs.
"Our goal is, by tomorrow when we leave, that Occupy Gwinnett will be taking over this space and also have the information they need to find other homes that are being wrongly foreclosed," said Occupy Atlanta organizer Tim Franzen.
Occupy protesters have set up camp in the front yard of Tawanna Rorey's modest two story home in the middle of an unassuming Snellville neighborhood. Rorey's husband is a DeKalb County police officer.
http://bcove.me/frxnaucn
A bank foreclosed on their home last week after Rorey said they failed to get a loan modification and lost several court battles. Rorey said, at one point, attorney John Harris of New Life Granted offered to assist them with a loan modification and, if that failed, promised to buy the house and rent it back to them. She said they paid him $3,000.
Rorey said her husband realized something wasn't right, canceled the deal and demanded their money back. She said they got $1,500 back.
Cobb County police arrested Harris last month on charges he broke into foreclosed homes, changed the locks, then, without permission or authorization, rented them to people. He remains in the Cobb County Jail.
Channel 2's Craig Lucie broke that story more than two weeks ago and interviewed Harris.
"While we are not the owner, we do have the authority to rent the house out," Harris told Lucie. "We've made a deal with the owner who has given us that authority. Maybe I'm not using the law in a way that it was intended for. I'm not certain, but I can tell you this, I'm not doing anything unethical to the people in the properties."
While a bank still foreclosed on Rorey's home, she thinks things could have been even worse if they hadn't walked away from Harris.
"We were like, wow," she said. "It could've been worse than what it was because (my husband) did catch it before it got to the point of exactly no return."
WSBTV
