More Newton Foreclosures!

Every week or so, the Newton Patch posts an article on foreclosures in the City. I believe the intent is to showcase real estate properties that people might be able to pick up on the cheap. I suppose the good news is that no more than two or three show up on a weekly basis. 

However, the lesson that I'm taking away from it is that there are still quite a few people in our city that are going through some significant economic hard times.  The math on this is not clean.  But if we assume one or two new foreclosed homes per week, that's on the neighborhood of 50 to 100 families a year are unable to make their payments and are kicked out of their homes.

That's an awful lot of our families and our neighbors.  Especially when we’ve been less impacted than other communities and we’ve been in an economic recovery over the past 2 to 3 years.  Yes, foreclosures are down quite a bit since their peak in 2010, but according to The Warren Group, Massachusetts is still reporting about 300 per month statewide (as of July last year)

I don't really have any particular point to make in this blog. But, it did strike me as unusual that the recurring listing of foreclosures is posted as an opportunity, rather than reporting of a personal tragedy.

If nothing else, I think it's worthwhile to keep our minds open (as well as our eyes and ears) to the fact that not everyone in this incredibly luck and affluent city is lucky and affluent. We are a diverse city, and we should take steps to make sure that we remain so.

I do also think that it's an opportunity for us to continue to talk about what we mean by affordable housing. While it should include the Affordable Housing concepts we are legally bound to under state law, we should also be looking for ways to keep the City affordable to families just starting out, and across the economic spectrum.  Certainly the people that have lost their homes here are not necessarily the folks that we think of traditionally as candidates for affordable housing.

I guess it’s also worth remembering whenever we see the foreclosure listings that for an event or two, or an economic downswing, or a layoff, a good number of us could very easily be in the same situation.

Chris Steele is a husband and a father of 2 children in the Newton Public School system.  He is also an economic and community development consultant as well as an activist and volunteer.  You can contact him at steelch@yahoo.com