Dahan: “I am not in the business of helping people”

The first few days after the New Year  often feel slow and uneventful.  Some people are just getting back to work, others are waking up from a big party, some barely remember their New Year’s resolution.   But thousands of Miami Dade residents facing foreclosure and eviction have only one resolution: to avoid being homeless.  This morning, just two days after the New Year, members of 1Miami, Occupy Miami, the Miami Worker Center,  Foreclosure Hamlet and several other local organizations descended by the dozens on the home of 1Miami member Angela Samuels to make sure that escaping homelessness was one resolution she wouldn’t have to make.

Joseph & Simone Dahan of Greatest Enterprises, the company that bought Angela’s home at an auction, have made evicting her a looming possibility during virtually every holiday-from Thanksgiving to the New Year.  This is inspite of the fact that Angela has lived in her home for 40 years, made her home into a community institution, and possibly lost it through an act of fraud.  After weeks of negotiating whether or not they would do the right thing and allow her to prove that she lost her house through fraud, the Dahan brothers figured that it was easier to just kick her out.  An eviction was set for early Tuesday afternoon.  The Sheriff’s office was notified and a locksmith was on stand-by.  What the Dahan’s didn’t realize is that the community was on stand-by as well, holding vigil in front of her house and rushing paperwork to the courthouse.  As the Dahan’s arrived to Angela’s house to talk to the Sheriff and the locksmith, they were surprised to see a crowd of at least 70 community members shouting “Hell no!  We won’t go!” and “Housing is a human right!”

After the Sheriff’s office assured the crowd that the eviction was put on hold, the crowd surrounded the Dahan brothers demanding answers, “how can you evict a woman from her home of 40 years?” ”why won’t you let her prove that she lost her house through fraud?” Angela confronted the brothers herself saying “you said that you like to help people, but you are just hurting me!”  One of the brothers by looked her dead in the eye and said “I am not in the business of helping people.”  What they didn’t count on is that the community is,  and no one was going to let the brothers help themselves to Angela’s house…not today…not any day.