We know foreclosures in Illinois have jumped 25 percent
since the subprime housing market collapsed last year, affecting
homeowners all across the state. But what about people who choose to
rent? Are they insulated from the mortgage meltdown? Chicago Reporter says many aren't:
Since the nation’s worst housing foreclosure crisis began two years ago, the octopus-like tentacles of the global home mortgage industry have orchestrated the repossession of thousands of small apartment buildings in Cook County, affecting thousands of renters who live there.
In many cases, the evictions have been legal. In others they’re not because mortgagees — a bank or company that collects mortgage payments — fail to give tenants ample notice or an opportunity to contest the eviction in court. In some cases, like Tabitha’s, the evictions are illegal because there is no court order against the tenants themselves.
Although it's unclear exactly how many people have been impacted in Chicago -- 3,551 two- to six-unit apartment buildings were foreclosed upon in Cook County during 2006 and 2007, two-thirds of which were located in majority-black neighborhoods -- it's a problem in communities across the nation.
In New York City, for example, the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University estimated that at least 38,000 people facing a foreclosure in 2007 were renters. And even though renters have no control over their building's finances, they are directly impacted in a variety of ways:
These evictions mar a tenant’s rental history. Tenants in foreclosed buildings don’t usually get their security deposits back, said Bartlett, the executive director of the Chicagobased Metropolitan Tenants Organization, an advocacy group that organizes tenants around housing affordability and availability issues. In some cases, the renter has little time to find new housing and ends up homeless or having to share housing with relatives or another family.
For more information on renter rights, swing by the website of the Metropolitan Tenants Organization, an advocacy group that organizes tenants around housing affordability and availability issues.
Image used under a Creative Commons license by Flickr user crowbert.
