All over the country, "Home, Sweet Home" isn't sweet any more. Through no fault of their own, thousands of people who live in apartments that are being foreclosed on, are left out in the cold. Although many have paid timely rents, owners, property managers and others have managed to keep from paying the mortgage on their property, sending apartments around the nation into foreclosure.

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Forgotten and ignored in the long line of horror stories about foreclosure are the tens of thousand of apartment dwellers who live in foreclosure hellholes, where landlords and apartment complex owners play games, lie, steal food out of the mouths of babies and leave desperate apartment residents living in unsafe, unsanitary, Third World hellholes.

A social work student in Texas relates the story of how she spent Thanksgiving in what is supposed to be the richest country in the world. Her family lives in an apartment complex, whose management company apparently skipped out with the mortgage payment, failing to pay sewage and a host of utility bills.

The owner allegedly filled his apartment complexes with Katrina survivors, pocketed a skad of Section 8 voucher money, then neglected to pay utility bills, maintenance or upkeep, not to mention the mortgage. The upshot of the deal is that people are living in an apartment complex, which has sporadic water and sewage service, leaving residents to buy garbage cans and fill them up with water, just in case the water goes off again.

In her blog entry, the student wrote:

This company has been doing this all over Texas for years. When Katrina first occurred, the owner filled nice apartments with hurricane victims carrying Section 8 vouchers and stopped paying to bills. He has cheated residents and management alike, promising them deposits and reimbursements that never come. One past resident nicknamed him the "Slumlord of the South" in a forum. He has become a master at taking advantage of people who are either ignorant of their rights or do not have the resources to fight for them. (blog entry)

 

All over the country, “Home, Sweet Home” isn’t sweet any more. Through no fault of their own, thousands of people who live in apartments that are being foreclosed on, and are left out in the cold--literally filling up the nation's homeless shelters to overflowing. Although many have paid timely rents, owners, property managers and others have managed to keep from paying the mortgage on their property, sending apartments around the nation into foreclosure.

In the Twin Cities, it has become a major problem. One reporter writes:

When landlords face foreclosures, tenants often lose their housing. Rights and leases can extend for months after a sale, but many families are scrambling and some are finding themselves homeless. (Star-tribune on line, “Wave of Foreclosures Hits Renters”, 10-29-2007

In the Minneapolis-St. Paul area alone, the newspaper reports that

Metrowide numbers are hard to come by, but at least 2,500 tenant households are expected to be disrupted by foreclosures in Hennepin County alone this year, according to a county task force. Hennepin accounted for about 27 percent of the state's foreclosures over the last two years. (Ibid)

Foreclosure is driving homelessness across the nation, leaving the nation’s charities scrambling to find homes for tens of thousands of families from coast to coast. And, more frightening than anything else is the fact that the massive wave of foreclosures expected because of the resetting of adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) has not even hit yet.

 

Home renters, apartment renters, condo renters are all in the same boat when it comes to foreclosure. When the property is foreclosed on, out the door they go in many cases. Many are upset about the injustice of it all, but they’re still headed out in the street, along with tens of thousands of people who rented property which has now been foreclosed.

‘“I don't think it's fair for us," said Carlos Lopez, a south Scottsdale resident, who said his property owner is forcing him to move out of the home he rents because of foreclosure.’ Fair or not, Lopez and other renters from Puget Sound to Miami are getting kicked out of their rental apartments or houses because the landlord failed to pay the mortgage.

Record foreclosures have people scared--scared to sign a new lease. Lopez told his interviewer that, he didn’t think it was fair that he and his family had to move, and he’s not alone. Many renters are caught between a rock and a hard place—they’ve paid rent and expensive deposits, and not have to start all over again because the owner of the property failed to pay the mortgage.

Banks don’t want to be landlords and they’re throwing people out into the streets rather than hiring property managers to run foreclosed properties. The Boston Globe reports that, “Hundreds of tenants in foreclosed buildings have been evicted or are facing eviction by mortgage companies that do not want to be landlords.”(Globe, 10-21-07)

 

In Massachusetts, as many as 1400 families have been evicted from apartments as of mid-August, according to a Federal Reserve report quoted by the Globe. That’s 1400 in Massachusetts, 2500 in the Twin Cities. By now, more than 4,000 families have been evicted from apartments in two states, putting at least 12,000 people into the streets because of apartment foreclosure.

According to the posters of one financial blog, it’s a buyer beware market these days and renters need to check out prospective landlords. It used to be the landlord checked you out, to see if you were financial stable, had ever been evicted, arrested for drugs, etc. Now, the shoe is on the other foot, according to several housing advocates.

Your landlord’s business practices, his failure to pay his bills could become your worse nightmare, especially in those high rent cities which require monstrous security deposits.

In a worse case scenario, if your landlord’s property, your home goes in to foreclosure, lots of nasty financial things might come your way.

You may end up losing your security deposit, and your last month's rent, and you may be forced to evacuate the apartment with very little notice, unless you are careful to take the right steps. Therefore let the renter beware, and research the status of the space he/she/they are about to occupy. Is the landlord solvent? Are the mortgage payments up to date? Have the property taxes been paid? These questions can be answered more easily than a renter may think. (Kiplinger.com)

In the meantime, watch and keep on your toes. If it looks like your landlord is going under. Make sure you know what your rights are and be prepared. Housing advocates say, at this moment, much of the rental foreclosure problems are concentrated in the inner cities of the nation, mainly in areas with high concentrations of ethnic minorities, people of color and immigrants—in short, the most vulnerable economic population in the nation.

In Cincinnati, the same tune is being played. Apartment complexes being auctioned off in foreclosure fire sales, renters’ lives turned upside down. A local reporter interviewed an Ohio attorney and discovered the problem is massive.

Legal Aid Society lawyer Nick DiNardo says, “It’s a huge and growing problem. We’re getting more calls from renters about foreclosure than ever before, several a week – dozens in a month.” (WCPO television)

A financial industry news letter reports that renters are left out in the cold on several fronts. They may not know the landlord is in financial trouble, or that the property is going into foreclosure. They may not be prepared to move if evicted by the bank or new owners.

Even if the renter's lease isn't up for another six months, renters may get only 30 to 60 days to vacate the premises once evicted, because in most states a foreclosure makes a lease obsolete. Because the lease signed by the renter is no longer in effect, the lender or new owner also isn't obligated to perform any maintenance tasks or continue any other amenities the renter may be used to, with the exception of keeping on basic utilities such as electricity and water. (“Foreclosures Can Leave You Homeless”, bankrate.com)

Tamara E. Holmes, the author of the bankrate.com piece notes that each state has separate laws on foreclosure, eviction and renters rights. She recommends that renters:

Know your state and local laws. "There are many local rent-protection ordinances that are in place that protect renters," says Sullivan. Some jurisdictions, for example, may require that renters have more time to vacate the premises, while others may have specific regulations regarding the foreclosure process. For example, in Connecticut, unless you are named as a defendant in a foreclosure suit, a lender can't evict you after the foreclosure. You can access information pertaining to your state's rental ordinances through the HUD Web site. If you don't want to sort through all of the legalese, contact a housing counseling office in your state, also accessible through HUD. (Ibid)

What is the nation coming to when the housing market is so unstable, when the housing and apartment industry are so rotten that people are literally too afraid to sign a new lease, fearful of another forclosure-based eviction? 

Authors Website: http://www.lulu.com/davis4000_2000

Authors Bio:

Wanna be member of the anti-word police, author, columnist, activist and muckraker extraordinaire. Author of:

Land, Legacy and Lynching: Building the Future for Black America

Urban Asylum: Politics, Lunatics and the Refrigerator Woman

Contributing editor: (works in progress)

Red, Black, Brown & Green: Ethnic People and the Move to Economic Self-Suficiency

Screaming Doors (novel)

Screaming Doors