The Occupy Wall Street protesters -- themselves no stranger to eviction after being ousted from parks and public plazas across the country -- launched a campaign against foreclosures Tuesday with demonstrations in cities across the country.

Protesters gathered on Deb and Ron Austin's front lawn in Northeast Portland, vowing to stand with the couple when they face eviction in March. Deb Austin said she's willing to be arrested rather than leave voluntarily.

"Ours is not just a house in some community. This is our home," she said. "We belong here, and we're not leaving."

Austin said the couple fell behind on mortgage payments last year after both she and her husband were diagnosed with cancer and her husband temporarily lost a second job. When they started making payments again in January, the bank had already initiated foreclosure proceedings.

"I didn't know what to do, so I just did nothing," she said. They are now seeking a second mortgage modification. She said they had taken on more debt than they should have, but that the bank had enabled and even encouraged it.

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In Atlanta, protesters held a boisterous rally at a county courthouse and used whistles and sirens to disrupt an auction of seized houses. In New York, they marched through a residential neighborhood in Brooklyn carrying signs that read "Foreclose on banks, not people." Los Angeles protesters rallied around a family of five who plans to reclaim the home they lost six months ago in foreclosure.

"It's pretty clear that the fight is against the banks, and the Occupy movement is about occupying spaces. So occupying a space that should belong to homeowners but belongs to the banks seems like the logical next step for the Occupy movement," said Jeff Ordower, one of the organizers of Occupy Homes.

Meanwhile, the attorneys general in California and Nevada announced a joint investigation of mortgage bank abuses, including allegations the banks rubber-stamped foreclosures without reviewing documents as required by law.

"The mortgage crisis is a man-made disaster that has taken a heavy toll on the country, but it saved its worst for California and Nevada,"

said in a

. "The mortgage crisis is a law enforcement matter, and we will prosecute to hold accountable those who are responsible and also protect the homeowners who are targeted for fraud."

The two states earlier pulled out of talks between the banks and others seeking a nationwide settlement. They are among the country's hardest-hit in the foreclosure crisis.

One in 180 houses in Nevada had a foreclosure filing in October, according foreclosure listings website

, the highest rate in the country. For No. 2 California, the figure was one in every 243 homes.

Occupy Wall Street protesters, forced out of the parks they had taken over, have also begun occupying vacant bank-owned homes taken in foreclosure.

Portland police

. Two were arrested after they declined to answer questions, but the rest were allowed to gather their belongings and leave.

In Seattle, protesters took over a formerly boarded-up duplex last month. They painted the bare wood sidings with green, black and red paint, and strung up a banner that says "Occupy Everything - No Banks No Landlords."

Seattle police spokesman Sgt. Sean Whitcomb said his department sees squatting in private properties as the same violation of trespassing Occupy Seattle made when it camped in a downtown park.

"It's no different than when people were trespassing (in the park)," Whitcomb said. "We went nights and days, letting people camp in the park. We relied on education and outreach, rather than enforcing the law to the letter."

Atlanta protesters took a more aggressive approach in trying to disrupt the home auction. The auction went on but the whistles and sirens made it difficult for the auctioneers to communicate, said Occupy Atlanta spokesman Tim Franzen.

"We don't know how many homes we saved for one more month during the holiday season," he said. "It was kind of a Christmas gift to the people."

Portland police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson said he's aware that the movement called for people to occupy foreclosed homes, but said it's difficult to distinguish between the people who would squat in homes as a political statement and those that do it for shelter.

"The vacant property issue is of concern in cities nationwide," Simpson said. "We'll treat them all as trespassers."

-- Staff and Wire Reports