SEATTLE - As curious onlookers stared, housing protesters created a scene at Washington Mutual's headquarters in downtown Seattle.

The demonstrators, aligned with a community action group called ACORN, claimed WaMu isn't doing enough to help cash-strapped families save their homes.

It's a classic case of the little guy vs. corporate America.

As the protesters marched into Washington Mutual's lobby, the didn't exactly get the red carpet treatment.

"We find out that low-income people are not welcome in your establishment," ACORN President John Weber Jones told Washington Mutual's senior vice president as the group filled the lobby.

The WaMu executive senior vice president greeted the crowd and instead of blocking the lobby, offered to meet one on one with customers who need help with their mortages.

But ACORN's president wanted more.

"We want the same commitment that you have to do redo those loans as you took to building the power of Washington Mutual," he told bank officials.

Washington Mutual's Reza Aghamirzadeh said, "We've been in active dialogue with ACORN as recent as yesterday we were on the phone, and we will continue to have a dialogue to come up with solutions."

As the demonstration continued, it drew a lot of curious stares from onlookers. Julio Santos is one Washington Mutual customer who joined the protest, because he's about to lose his house.

"See the thing is, our income hasn't really gone higher but everything has gone higher," Santos said. "Seventy percent of my income is going into my mortgage."

Santos is not alone in his predicament.

Donna Dziak of the advocacy group Solid Ground says, "What we're finding is folks that have fairly steady employment but no safety net available to them."

She and other experts say that homeowners should keep about three months worth of salary in a savings account in case they are hurt or ill and can't work.

In the meantime, the city of Seattle is working on a proposal to give some families in need of that safety net about $5,000 to help them keep their homes. The Seattle City Council is tsking up the issue on Monday.

And Washington Mutual did make good on their promise to take Julio Santos and a few others at the protest upstairs to meet with their experts to see if they can help them avoid foreclosure.