%26#8220;It%26#8217;s Richard from the bank,%26#8221; a voice answered. %26#8220;Your landlord has lost the house.%26#8221;Many renters may believe that they have avoided the chaos of the subprime loan crisis and the mortgage meltdown simply by renting and not buying, but they may not be as insulated as they think. Buildings with tenants are going into foreclosure as well.%26#8220;This is a growing problem nationwide,%26#8221; said Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody%26#8217;s Economy.com, a research company. %26#8220;Landlords of all stripes could potentially get caught up in this very severe downturn.%26#8221; %26#8220;I suspect that it%26#8217;s going to be more of a problem for lower- to middle-income markets,%26#8221; Mr. Zandi added. Ms. Dookhoo said her landlord had told her that %26#8220;he wasn%26#8217;t ready to buy a house at that point in his life. He just got sidetracked by the bank and told all these wonderful stories,%26#8221; about how he could afford a mortgage. Eventually, his debts caught up to him and the house slipped into foreclosure. %26#8220;It didn%26#8217;t work out for him, unfortunately,%26#8221; she said. It has not worked out terribly well for Ms. Dookhoo, either. Her lease expired last year, so when the property manager appointed by the bank asked her to move out, she started looking. Now, she and her two children have to find a new place to live in New York%26#8217;s expensive and saturated housing market. The property manager who came knocking on Ms. Dookhoo%26#8217;s door has not been forthcoming about which bank he represents. But since he is giving her some time to look for a new apartment, she decided not to push the issue. He has also said that he would give her a little money for her moving expenses %26#151; an offer known in the industry as %26#8220;cash for keys.%26#8221; %26#8220;I%26#8217;ve got to leave, it%26#8217;s their house now,%26#8221; she said.In New York, a city of renters despite the recent condominium boom, tenants are particularly at risk. According to census figures for 2006, the most recent year for which data was available, an estimated 65.6 percent of New York City housing was renter occupied, as opposed to 32.7 percent nationwide. %26#8220;The effects of the subprime crisis and the housing-price crisis are just different in New York than in many parts of the country,%26#8221; said Vicki Been, the director of the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University, citing factors like strong home prices and low homeownership rates. %26#8220;The crisis is unfolding more slowly and, I think, it is affecting many more renter households than it is elsewhere in the country.%26#8221;In 1993, during the last big wave of foreclosures in New York City, nearly 6,200 buildings (residential, commercial and mixed-use) began the foreclosure process. In 2007, the Furman Center estimated that at least 38,000 people facing a foreclosure in New York City were renters. The center, analyzing data in New York City from housing court and the county registrar, estimates that foreclosure proceedings were begun on nearly 15,000 residential or mixed-use buildings last year alone %26#151; a majority of them small buildings with just a few units, and almost all of them in the boroughs outside of Manhattan. (The center counts a total of about 900,000 buildings with residential space in the 5 boroughs and some 3.2 million units of housing.)%26#8220;The national discussion about foreclosures has largely focused on owners,%26#8221; Ms. Been said. %26#8220;There%26#8217;s a whole group here that is not being talked about:%26#8221; renters. Foreclosures can have an impact on tenants in lots of ways, but there are two sets of problems that most will face. The first and most daunting is eviction. The second is a loss of services, which can mean anything from having to fix your own clogged pipes to losing heat in the winter. Luis Matute moved into a two-bedroom railroad apartment at the top of a walk-up in Bushwick, Brooklyn, 13 years ago. Five years later, Nelva Muy joined him when they were married. Now, the couple, who are from Ecuador, and their 6-year-old son, Jinson, live in the same apartment, which has become plagued with cracks and leaks. Two years ago, the person who collected the rent every month stopped showing up. Mr. Matute and Ms. Muy have not paid rent since, though they have been saving their rent money of $575 a month. Michael Grinthal, a lawyer at South Brooklyn Legal Services%26#8217; housing unit, said that putting rent money in a bank account is a good way for tenants to protect themselves from lawsuits or eviction if a court decides that the landlord or new owner is entitled to unpaid back rent. In a sense, however, Mr. Matute and Ms. Muy are getting what they pay for.Since their landlord disappeared, they have grappled with everything from a crumbling roof to lapsed utility bills. They have pitched in with their neighbors to pay some of the bills and make repairs to try to keep their apartments livable. %26#8220;I did the best I could,%26#8221; Mr. Matute said.%26#8220;We do everything in the building,%26#8221; Ms. Muy added. (They both spoke in Spanish, through an interpreter.)Despite their efforts, worsening conditions landed their home on the city%26#8217;s list of the 200 worst residential buildings in the five boroughs, which was released last November. 1 2 Next Page %26#x00bb;
Tags: chard, condominium, downturn, egan, household, money, nock, pairs, rth, universi
Copyright © 2008 Family News Home. All Rights Reserved.