Foreclosures Destroying Neighborhoods In Boston

October 11th, 2007

Mary Marra, executive director of Bread & Roses Housing, a nonprofit developer of affordable housing said ‘‘I thought nothing could be as bad as the’ 90s”. Her reason in saying that was mainly the foreclosure crash that had taken place in the 90’s after which Lawrence became known as New England’s “arson capital”. The local economy has only just began to recover from this foreclosure crash but right now DeJesus, Portorreal, and Chalas, Boston communities, are three faces of the foreclosure crisis sweeping the north side of Lawrence, a crisis that is uprooting families and bringing back memories of the 90’s.

DeJesus has been struggling to move his family into an apartment because of the mortgage payments that is haunting him for the last two years.

Portorreal is another case study where his neighbors had to vacate because of mortgage payments and Chalas at the same time is cutting down the hours of employees as foreclosures are dragging down the housing markets that support his business.

Lawrence’s north side is one of many communities, often poor and minority, that were flooded in the late stages of the boom with subprime mortgages, typically high cost adjustable rate loans for borrowers with credit problems. Now what is happening is that the poorest section is suffering from the predatory lending that was accompanied during the recent housing boom.

Most people succumbed to the lure of easy money, and bought homes beyond their modest incomes. Now, which ever street you might pick you will definitely find a house or two where homeowners are in foreclosure or they are desperately trying to sell off before it becomes too late.

Even at the At Ebenezer Christian Church, church members approach Pastor Victor Jarvis and ask him to pray for them so that they can sell off the house as they are losing it.

For generations, Lawrence’s immigrant workers climbed the socioeconomic ladder by moving up these hills through which Lawrence’s north side stretches. The Tower is to the west and Prospect is to the east. It descends from either side to the Spicket River and it becomes poorer and more crowded as it loses elevation.

The impact is felt beyond worried homeowners and their families. Many of these properties are two- and three-family homes with tenants who often must move once the owner loses the building to foreclosure. That is the pathetic state the neighborhood is in.