With many members facing foreclosure themselves, hundreds of ACORN members in 18 cities disrupted Sheriff's sales of foreclosed homes Thursday, Jan. 15, in many cases preventing the houses from being auctioned.

North Carolina ACORN members held a silent protest at the Wake County Courthouse, where the clerks who auction foreclosed properties refused to come downstairs to conduct the sales in front of the families and news cameras. Nearly an hour later, when they thought all ACORN members had left, the clerks proceeded with just seven of the 20 sales scheduled for the day, the other 13 sales having been postponed by the protest.

In St. Louis, 30 ACORN members and allies including the Equal Housing Opportunity Council and SEIU filled the lobby of the court building housing the Sheriff's office. The Sheriff agreed to a meeting with ACORN members within two weeks to discuss possible solutions to the foreclosure crisis locally.

More than 75 ACORN members protested at the courthouse in Baltimore, despite the freezing weather and auctioneers' attempts to change the schedule and threats to call the police. An auctioneer who got word of the protest early cancelled 50 sales. ACORN members delayed the remaining sales for an hour. Although foreclosure sales are supposed to be open to the public, ACORN members were threatened with arrest if they did not leave.

The homes of three of the Baltimore ACORN members protesting were up for auction Thursday, including the house that 62-year-old Edward Robinette has lived in for 12 years. Robinette told WYPR that if his house sold, he would be living under a nearby bridge. His house was sold later that day.

Cleveland ACORN members asked for a meeting with their Sheriff and the head of the Civil Department, which manages evictions. Cleveland's Sheriff's department has recently publicized budget problems so dire that they are releasing criminals from jail to save money. ACORN members suggested that stopping evictions would save money as well, and they will discuss this proposal further in a meeting with officials.

Boston ACORN members and volunteers went out in subzero temperatures to the Land Court to ask the Chief Justice and the Clerk to meet with ACORN members to discuss creating a process for judicial review of foreclosures. In Massachusetts, a non-judicial state, families do not get an opportunity to fight foreclosures in court as they do in most other states, unless they are active members of the military.

In Oakland, 40 ACORN members "moved in" to a Wells Fargo bank, with a cot and sleeping bags, to demand that the bank work with ACORN members Rosa and Juan Rico, who have been trying for months to get the bank to negotiate with them in modifying their loan. With an impending foreclosure, they could be the next family on the street if the bank does not work with them.

On Tuesday, more than 40 New York ACORN members and allies rallied at the Nassau County foreclosure auction and bid $0 on home after home. ACORN member Suzanne Gray was in tears as she explained how happy she was that her family's home, which was supposed to be sold at this auction, had been saved by ACORN. She had come to ACORN the day before, just in time for ACORN Housing to stop the sale.

ACORN members rallied to "Stop the Sales" on Tuesday in New York and Wilmington; and on Thursday in Albany, Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Durham, Flint, Miami, Minnesota, Oakland, Orlando, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Tucson, and St. Louis.