Bankruptcies and Foreclosures Hit Chicago’s North Shore
“Beth Chavez and her husband always paid their mortgage on time, with each working two, even three jobs to keep their Highwood [Illinois] home.” In an article from an October 2009, Chicago Tribune, reporter Lisa Black, examines the new phenomenon of record numbers of bankruptcies and foreclosures that are affecting Chicago’s pricey Cook and Lake County suburbs.
The Interfaith Housing Center of the Northern Suburbs services hundreds of families who, due to severe economic times, are navigating the unfamiliar waters of financial chaos. The center, which opened in 1972, used to deal primarily with “low-income and minority residents who had fallen prey to predatory lenders,” according to executive director, Gail Schechter. Schechter says that many homeowners “’are as vulnerable to eviction as renters. It’s even worse because their credit is ruined and they may lose any equity [in their homes].’”
The requests that the housing agency currently sees are usually a result of unemployment. In the fiscal year ending June 2009, the center noted 320 foreclosure complaints compared with 118 in the previous fiscal year and only 28 in fiscal year 2007. Foreclosures in north suburban Cook County rocketed 388% between 2005 and 2008.
The further north one goes into Chicago’s suburbs, the fewer the resources for low-income counseling. According to David Northern, executive director of the federally funded Lake County Housing Authority and Jasmine Brewer, Interfaith’s director of housing counseling, nonprofit resources are completely overwhelmed with calls for help. These agencies try to help overwhelmed homeowners gather needed paperwork when asking lenders to refinance or modify house payments. Although new laws are giving homeowners additional flexibility, such as allowing interest rates as low as two percent, foreclosures are on the rise.
One Winnetka resident, whose work as a real estate agent dried up along with the economy, called the center inquiring about federally subsidized Section 8 housing. Her husband had also lost his job, forcing the couple to declare bankruptcy.
Obviously, home foreclosures and bankruptcies are no longer affecting only low-income families. They are huge issues that are affecting everyone.
For information on filing for personal bankruptcy protection, please call Legal Helpers toll-free today at 800-260-1402 to speak with a qualified and compassionate bankruptcy attorney.
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