Boarded and Vacant, the Foreclosed Houses are Waiting and Waiting
Posted on May 27, 2009
Filed Under Foreclosure Homes | Leave a Comment
Boarded and vacant the foreclosed houses are waiting and waiting for Fate to decide. Will Man or Nature take over? Robbie Johnson is 61 years old. She does not like what she views from the porch of her rented house in Newark. She shifted two months ago waiting for an opening in the housing complex for seniors. She is sorry for have shifted here and rues her decision.
The swathe from Seymour Avenue in the Clinton Hill region had once boasted of the highest number of ownership units in Newark. But today Johnson has only to turn her head to see half a dozen vacant houses – empty and eerie. There are sounds of raucous teenage parties as rats scurry around adding to the mayhem. The sight of the vacant houses not only affects physical health with its pile of trash, rodents and termites but also mental stability as fear stalks the locality with anti-socials getting the upper hand making best use of the vacant lots. On Seymour Avenue nearly 60 houses are in foreclosure from 2005 as per a survey conducted by The New York Times.
Kathe Newman of Urban Planning and Policy Development at Rutgers University said, “Seymour Avenue probably looks the worst.” Newark officials are trying to save this and other similar blocks. The ownership rate here is 23% – one of the lowest in the country. Foreclosures are making matters worse. Even some of the more stable localities with high rates of ownership – Clinton Hill, Vailsburg and other residential neighbourhoods that had mushroomed during the 1990 building boom are not spared the present foreclosure scourge. From July 2008 the city has been utilizing federal money of $3.4 million, rolling in from the Housing and Economic Recovery Act. The programme is being conducted with the help of non-profit groups to purchase, refurbish and then resell the foreclosed units.
The new owners would be expected to attend classes dealing with house ownership. They will be warned about mortgage rescue fraudsters. In March the local residents moved through Newark pulling down signs reading “We Buy Houses”. Invariably these had been put up by swindlers. The city will also try to get a share of $2 billion from funds released from the $787 billion stimulus package of the Obama administration. The latter will be disbursed through HUD for expansion of the programme so as to help the neighbouring localities.
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