Mark Harris is a Gulf War veteran who lost his home to foreclosure. When the financial crisis hit, Mark’s small trucking operation began losing its clients, abruptly plunging him into debt and foreclosure. Desperate to keep his home, Mark worked with banks, lawyers, and government agencies to get his life and credit back on track. Despite months of hard work and an improvement in his business, the banks still denied him any refinancing opportunity and proceeded with foreclosure. The county sheriffs surrounded his home one morning with their guns drawn and proceeded to evict him and empty all of his possessions onto the front lawn.
Simona Lynch-Davis did everything right. She got a college degree as a medical assistant, found a job, fell in love, got married, and began to raise her young daughter. However, only six months into her marriage, Simona found out her husband was addicted to crack cocaine. His expensive habit had disastrous consequences for the whole family, forcing Simona and her daughter into homelessness. Now divorced, Simona works at an organization providing professional training to the homeless, even though she and her daughter remain homeless themselves.
Fast Facts about Home Foreclosures and Homelessness:
- Nearly six million families lost their homes to foreclosure since the financial crisis began in 2008.[i] Many of these foreclosures were fraudulent due to “robosigning,” the systematic falsification of legal documents by banks who could not prove the chain of title but instituted foreclosure proceedings anyway. Despite government efforts to push the banks to modify these mortgages, only about 85,000 homeowners were able to stay in their homes due to the modifications.[ii]
- Although the majority of families who lost their homes to foreclosure were non-Hispanic or white, Black and Latino families were disproportionately affected by the foreclosure crisis.[iii]
- The nation’s biggest banks wrongfully foreclosed on more than 700 military members during the housing crisis.[iv]
- According to the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, veterans are the most likely group to experience long-term, chronic homelessness.[v] In 2013, homeless veterans accounted for over 12 percent of all homeless adults.[vi] There are over 57,000 homeless veterans on any given night in the U.S. Of these, nearly 5,000 are female.[vii] Approximately 1.4 million additional veterans are considered at risk of homelessness due to poverty, lack of support networks, and dismal living conditions in overcrowded or substandard housing.[viii]
- About one third of the homeless are families. In 2010, 75% of these families were headed by single women with children; 92% of homeless women report experiencing physical and/or sexual assault.[ix]
Discussion Questions about Home Foreclosures and Homelessness:
- How has the narrative of the American Dream, specifically the emphasis on rugged individualism, shaped public perception of the homeowners who lost their homes during the foreclosure crisis? How might this narrative shift blame away from the banks?
- How effective was the $700 billion taxpayer-funded bank bailout for millions of homeowners whose homes are still underwater or undergoing foreclosure? What else can be done to help struggling homeowners now and in the future?
- What has happened to the millions of Americans who lost homes during the foreclosure crisis? What effect has the crisis had on the state of inequality and mobility in the U.S.?
- Do you know anyone affected by the housing crisis? Has your perception of the widely-held dream of the “house with a white-picket fence” changed?
- Why do single mothers and veterans suffer such high rates of homelessness? What does this phenomenon say about the American Dream?
- “Just because you have a college education […] does not necessarily mean you can’t be homeless,” say Simona Lynch-Davis. “This can happen to anyone.” A few decades ago, it would be unthinkable that a college-educated, employed mother like Simona could become homeless. What has changed to make cases like hers more common now?
[i] http://www.corelogic.com/about-us/news/corelogic-reports-55,000-completed-foreclosures-in-september-2015.aspx
[ii] http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/03/20/3417092/foreclosure-fraud-settlement-complete/
[iii] http://www.responsiblelending.org/mortgage-lending/research-analysis/foreclosures-by-race-and-ethnicity.pdf
[iv] http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/03/03/banks-find-more-wrongful-foreclosures-among-military-members/?_r=0
[v] https://www.usich.gov/resources/uploads/asset_library/BkgrdPap_Veterans.pdf
[vi] https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/ahar-2013-part1.pdf
[vii] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-quigley/ten-facts-about-homelessn_b_5977946.html
[viii] http://nchv.org/index.php/news/media/background_and_statistics/ – faq