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NEWS & LETTERS, April - May 2008Foreclosures in real lifeDetroit, Mich.--Stories of families forced out of their homes due to mortgage foreclosures are everywhere, in newspapers, magazines, TV news reports, barber shops and in individual conversations. You know it's bad and tragic, but it has a different impact when it hits your own neighborhood. I live in one of the better neighborhoods in Detroit, mostly two-story brick homes, with occasional bungalows, built mostly in the l920s and 30s. It has been a stable neighborhood since it was first established, and is definitely a middle-class area that is evident from the general appearance of the well-maintained homes. A couple of years ago houses were selling in the $150,000-$200,000 range, and people lined up to buy them. But no more. My shock came last month, when a truck driver hauling a large dumpster stopped me when I was taking a walk and asked if anyone lived in a house two doors away from mine. I told him that a man and his sister lived there, but that they weren't always around. This was on a Friday afternoon, and he said he was parking the dumpster there on the street and would be taking everything in the house away on Monday. The same thing had happened a week before to my next door neighbor, who had moved away a month earlier. A dumpster was filled with furniture taken from the house and hauled away. I immediately went home, wrote on a sheet of paper of the impending calamity and put it on their front door. Unfortunately, no one returned to that house that weekend, and all of the furniture in the house was hauled away on Monday. Two days later, I saw a full dumpster pull out of a driveway across the street from me. I don't know what they do with the furniture, if they try to sell it or simply dump it somewhere. The dumpsters had thousands of dollars worth of furniture in them, and I don't know if the people who had lived in the houses knew what was happening to them. I discovered that eight of 27 houses on my block were empty. There is another disturbing development as a result of the empty houses. People are breaking in and stealing everything. One empty house across the street from me was broken into and the people took all wiring, plumbing, appliances, sinks, faucets, kitchen cabinets--and even the furnace. As one neighbor said, "You can watch during the day, but they come and steal everything at night when you're asleep." For many in this area the so-called American dream has indeed turned into the worst nightmare. In one respect, it is surprising that more houses around here haven't been looted, and it may well be just a matter of time before more are hit. The unemployment rate in Detroit is so horrendous, that many people are more than desperate. In some large areas of the city, the unemployment rate is as high as 50%--and it's going to get worse. --Homeowner |
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