Little has been reported about the entire scope of how the foreclosure crisis is impacting people in all different ways. Yes, we know that the banks are hurting and don't want to be property owners. What we don't always really realize or think about are those families that are being displaced and uprooted by the impacts of foreclosures. This has been true for owner occupied units, but more now we are starting to see the large impact it is having on those that rent as well.
The Pioneer Press had this story:
Gary Benson is the perfect renter. He's never been late on a payment. He keeps his St. Paul house and yard clean. He spends his own money making repairs. But perfect isn't good enough. His family soon will be forced to move out — not for anything he did wrong, but because his landlord didn't pay the mortgage. The house must be sold, and real estate agents say it's easier to sell rental property if all tenants are gone.
"There is no sense in kicking us out. This would be another abandoned house," said Benson, 31, standing amid cardboard boxes in his living room. "If we left, you would have meth heads breaking in and stealing copper pipes," he said. "That is the last thing St. Paul needs."
Benson and his wife, Cynthia, are part of a new wrinkle in Minnesota's housing crisis. Most federal and state bailouts are aimed at homeowner foreclosures — yet the number of landlord foreclosures has been soaring as well. And when landlords go broke, innocent renters get evicted.
It seems this crisis is far from over.
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