Municipalities Badly Affected By Foreclosures
Posted on July 23, 2008
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It is not just the people who are losing their houses but the local municipalities are being badly affected by foreclosures.
Lansing is one of the many municipalities suffering from foreclosures. It had to include in its budget the cost of trimming unkempt gardens of vacant repossessed houses. The bill amounted to $20,000. Lansing Village authorities try to find out who are the current owners of the houses and then send them the bill or place a lien on the unit. But tracking and billing too add to bills.
Ed Paesel the executive director of South Suburban Mayors & Managers Association bemoans that the problems arising over foreclosures are spilling over to all the municipalities in the area.
The most acute part of the foreclosure drama is when the people are evicted from houses that have been their homes. But after that another chapter unfolds. The village is saddled with unoccupied units where wild nature creeps in – weeds, anti social beasts and related issues. Above all tax collection dwindles.
In the previous year Lansing reported 201 foreclosure postings according to the findings of Woodstock Institute. The exact numbers for this year are as yet not available but there is no doubt that foreclosures have increased. Dan Podgorsky, the President of Lansing Village commented, “We are seeing the same thing everybody else is seeing, an increase in the number of foreclosures” leading to vacant houses in the village. The village authorities are “trying to get a handle on the number of houses and locations” to the best of their efforts.
The most important part is the tracking the houses and seeing to it that these do not become dangerous pockets of disease and felony. The obvious signs are junk mail piled on the front porches and tall grass on the gardens.
The city of Calumet is spending a lot of money boarding up the empty houses and servicing the lawns. Eric Schneider the Director of Calumet City Communications said that there are nearly 560 foreclosed houses in the city out of a total of 17,000 residential as well as commercial units. He sighed saying “It definitely weighs on the city”.
Many of the banks attend to abandoned properties but when they fail the grass takes over. The municipalities now have to step in. The neighbourhood has to be kept safe and clean. It is for the welfare of the entire community.
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