PROVIDENCE –– A new coalition of advocacy groups concerned with housing foreclosures rallied noisily outside a bank-owned triple-decker on Potters Avenue late yesterday, promising to “blockade” any efforts to evict renters because the tenement is in foreclosure.

To bilingual chants of “Bail us out” and “We shall not move,” the Rhode Island Bank Tenants and Homeowners Association, along with several other community groups, decried the federal government’s decision to bail out the banking industry –– but not the people who are losing their homes through banks’ actions.

“We call for a people’s economic bailout!” Rosalina Collazo, of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, shouted into a microphone.

The group also called for state legislation that would bar evictions except for “just cause,” which would not include property sales.

When a rental property is foreclosed because the owner did not make mortgage payments, banks routinely evict the tenants even if they are paying their rent.

Yesterday’s rally, held under a driving rain in the late-afternoon darkness, attracted about 50 activists to the sidewalk in front of 804 Potters Ave., a three-family house that was foreclosed on Oct. 27. Tenants received letters early last month from a law firm representing the unidentified bank that owns the house, offering them money to leave. But at least two of the three families do not want to leave.

None has yet received an eviction order, according to Sara Mersha, of DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality), one of the events’ sponsors. Speakers promised that the group would return and physically block any efforts to force families out of this or any other foreclosed home.

Pedro Rodriguez, one of the tenants at 804 Potters Ave., said he lived with his mother and four children. His wife is still in the Dominican Republic, which he left years ago. Speaking in Spanish with Mersha translating, he told a Journal reporter that he has lived in the apartment for 11 months and doesn’t want to leave because it would be hard on his family.

Steve Fischbach, of Rhode Island Legal Services, said tenant evictions because of foreclosures are happening regularly; one bank, he said, issued 20 eviction notices in one day. “They think it’s good business practice to clean out the house,” he said. But vacant houses are subject to vandalism which lowers their value, he said.

The group called for a “Bill of Rights” for tenants and homeowners giving tenants the right to know what is going on with their homes and to stay there –– with utilities and maintenance continuing –– if they pay rent.

According to the foreclosure notice published in The Journal and city tax records, 804 Potters Ave. was purchased in 2006 by Miguel A. Campos for $251,500. According to the coalition, when the house was sold in 2001, it went for only $85,500. The group said that the entire purchase price in 2006 was financed with an adjustable-rate loan.

ffreyer@projo.com