The Human Toll Of The Foreclosure Crisis

July 1st, 2008

The human toll of the foreclosure crisis is something beyond the maze of numbers and percentages. In Queens no yardstick can measure the agony. Entire city blocks are being engulfed by foreclosures shattering the day-to-day lives of families.

Foreclosures are concentrated in Queens in an intense way – the highest in New York City. South Jamaica is the ground zero of the foreclosure crisis. No street has escaped its wrath.

Foreclosures are affecting families badly. Some are out on the streets. Others are squabbling over splits. Utilities and essentials have become hard to define while the empty houses have become a paradise for rats.

Five years ago the scene was quite different with the onrush of the sub-prime gold rush. Nobody thought that the foreclosure drought would follow.

Each individual has a different sad story to tell. The house of Peter Rollison had been his home for nearly more than half a century. It was a wonderful place to grow up in – no doors had to be locked and there were peaches on the backyard tree. In 2005 suddenly the value of the house began to increase. Rollison fell into a trap that ended up in his losing the house in 2006.

During the first six months of 2006 there were nine foreclosures in the blocks. One followed another in rhythmical order. It took sometime for the locals to sit up to the situation. Debroah Lockhard who ran a translation bureau in the area noticed sometime in July 2006, a man walking out of the neighbouring empty house with washing machine. It gave her a start – an eerie feeling that something was wrong. Upon being questioned the fellow gave evasive answers that did not wring true. Eventually the city authorities had to mow down the house. Then one by one other houses around her fell into foreclosure. With foreclosures the mice population also began too multiply. She had to invest in a cat to survive in such surroundings.

Ronnie Sawyer came under the foreclosure cloud sometime around Thanksgiving in 2006. He jumped into action without delay. First he parleyed with Washington Mutual for amicable adjustments. But when Wells Fargo took over he again fell behind in payments. But in November 2006 a settlement was worked out. He had bought the house in 2001 for $219,000 and had problems maintaining it with is work at Kennedy Airport.

The never-ending stories go on and on with foreclosures being the villain of the piece.