Curious About Foreclosures In Mass.
CBS
Foreclosure signs are a sign of the times and you see them in nearly every neighborhood.
While parts of our economy have recovered, there are still a lot of people losing their homes, and many of them in that situation are angry and frustrated.
Cheryl Platts of Worcester Declared her Curiosity:
"What's being done to help people losing their homes to foreclosure to find new affordable housing? I fear we'll be living in our truck."
Platts was laid off and her husband is making $12 an hour. Right now they're living in a Worcester home that was once theirs, but not anymore. Six weeks ago it was auctioned off to their lender. Now when they check the mail, they are just waiting to see the eviction notice.
Like many others in their situation, the Platts have no idea where they will go next.
"What we can afford is about $500 a month, and in Massachusetts that's almost impossible," Cheryl Platt pointed out.
"We have elected officials. You call them up and no one has an answer for you," Cheryl said. "You're like 'where am I supposed to go?' and they say 'I don't know. Somewhere where it's cheaper to live and there's more jobs', which I haven't found in the United States yet."
Driving through the city of Worcester foreclosed properties are not hard to spot. Some are obviously empty, others boarded up.
So what's the answer?
Grace Ross of the Mass. Alliance Against Predatory Lending has an answer.
"What we want to see is the lenders taking rent from people," Ross said. "They don't have anything else to do with these buildings."
She is pushing a bill at the statehouse that would require banks to take rent from people who are foreclosed on, at least until the home is sold.
"They start getting rent which will give them money, and we stop having people ending up in shelters."
In the meantime, Cheryl Platts checks apartment listings and sends out resumes (about 1,700 so far), and wonders how long she will be welcome at a home that's no longer hers.
There's a controversial question on affordable housing on the ballot next November. It would repeal Massachusetts' affordable housing law.
Supporters of that repeal think the law needs to be reformed. Opponents say, if it passes, thousands of planned affordable housing units would never actually get built.
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