In South East Queens Foreclosures are Traumatizing Residents

Posted on May 19, 2009
Filed Under Foreclosure Homes | Leave a Comment

On the one hand are the eerie vacant houses and on the other homes about to be lost – all told in southeast Queens foreclosures are traumatizing residents and leading to anxiety.

This is not surprising considering that here one out of every 34 homes is in foreclosure. Invariably it is feared that crime will increase while friends and family members are exiting from this place. The social fabric of the community is being torn apart said Barbara Brown, the chairperson of Eastern Queens Alliance.

Over 50 residents of the borough participated in a forum in Springfield Gardens. Many of them spoke at this event and voiced their concern about the vacant houses being centres of illegal movements. Moreover these foreclosed houses are causing the value of other houses to fall.

James Sanders (Democrat) a city councilperson and representative of the state Senator Malcolm Smith (Democrat) as well as Jennifer Manley, the Director of Community Affairs of Queens were all present together with four housing experts.

Brown said, “Our community was targeted for sub-prime mortgages and there are still predators out there. They’re calling people’s homes everyday. We wanted to [arm] people with information so they know what scams are out there and avoid them.”

Brown stressed on the importance of holding the forum in southeast Queens because it had been especially badly mauled by the foreclosure crisis – the rate being 1:34 in Jamaica and 1:100 in southeast Queens. She added, “Foreclosures represent the death of the American dream to many communities. In my own community, you can go block by block and say here’s where the American dream died for these people.”

The residents were warned by Gladys Giles of HUD to be wary of touting foreclosure rescue companies who do the soliciting over mail or come directly knocking on doors.

Michael Hickey of Center for New York City Neighborhoods said that those who are facing foreclosure should see if they are eligible for Home Affordable Modification. The latter is a plan launched by the federal government aiming to reduce the monthly mortgage payments of those who are at risk from foreclosures.

Those attending the forum expressed their concern that they were losing the value of their houses. One such sufferer, Iris Allen, said that the value of her house had gone down by $85,000 since June. She blamed the banks for not providing the borrowers with related details about the loan and took advantage of their naivety.

Search Repo Homes

• New Mexico repo homes
• Massachusetts repo homes
• Wisconsin repo homes
• Delaware repo homes
• Louisiana repo homes

Popularity: 4% [?]

Related Tags

Nobody landed on this page from a search engine, yet!

Comments