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A good article that appeared in Examiner.com
Click here for the original story

Foreclosure is a painful, emotional and life changing event. Foreclosure can be emotionally charged with feelings ranging from grief to anger and guilt. In addition to the emotional hardships foreclosure brings questions about where to go financially. With over one million homes currently in foreclosure many people across the nation are feeling the same as homeowners here in Columbus.

Allow yourself to grieve but don’t pass blame

The first priority after a foreclosure is addressing the emotional effects. Many homeowners describe feelings similar to when a loved one dies. They often feel a sense of loss and failure. Blaming oneself or a spouse only prolongs the feelings.

Talk to children about what is happening Reassure children that the family will be fine and that it wasn’t their fault. Children feel a myriad of emotions. Some may seem irrational to an adult, but to a small, confused child they are very real. Allow children to speak openly about their feelings.
Find a pastor, friend or councilor to speak to If the feelings are to much to deal with alone don’t be afraid to speak with someone. Talking openly about feelings will help the healing process.
Make a plan to build a positive credit history. If the foreclosure is part of a bankruptcy this step is even more important. The old adage was seven years to rebuild your credit score. Credit has changed since then and many people find themselves purchasing homes and getting loans in as little as three years from a bankruptcy or foreclosure.

Review credit reports

Pull credit reports from all three of the major credit bureaus around four months from the time the foreclosure is finalized in the courts and review these reports annually. Make sure all the information has been reported correctly.

Pay bills of time

Most importantly will be making your rent payments on time. This will effect the purchase of another home. Having a positive rental history will let banks know that you have pulled your finances together.
Reestablish lines of credit.

It seems absurd to say that you need debt to rebuild credit but it’s true. If the foreclosure was part of a bankruptcy this is even more important. Establishing small credit cards and then paying on them in a timely manor shows a willingness to accept the responsibility of debt and further isolates the bankruptcy or foreclosure as an isolated event.

Create a budget.

Record every purchase and bill paid in a thirty day period. Review those numbers and eliminate those items that were not essential. Things like magazine subscriptions or trips to the movies can be cut from a budget very easily and the money saved can go towards remaining debt or into savings for a down payment on a future home. It may seem like insurances like life insurance or renters insurance are not necessities but they are. Maintain your insurance but look for discounts, like bundling them all together with one company. Once the essential items have been identified create a budget and stick to it.
Create a goal statement

List out all the remaining debt with the smallest amounts first. Write at the bottom of the paper what your goals are in one year, two years and so on. Work on paying the remaining debt off smallest to largest. Seeing these items get crossed off your list will create positive emotions and help foster hope in a household.

Speak with a mortgage broker

If your goal is to purchase another home then sitting down with a mortgage professional is a necessity. Many mortgage brokers are more than happy to sit down with someone and talk about where they are and what they need to do for a future home purchase. Be open and honest with them about the situation and what your goals are. They can help by outlining the steps needed to get approved. FHA requires a minimum of three years from the time of foreclosure before a borrower can apply for another loan. After three years a borrower is also considered a first time homebuyer and can qualify for many state specific programs and tax credits.

Be patient

Rebuilding credit does take time. Don’t be fooled into scams that claim to get a foreclosure erased from a credit report. Often the programs ask for a fee upfront and then never deliver what they promised, or they cause more damage to the credit score. Use the time instead to regain a strong financial footing.
. . .
Author: Carolyn Deer

School districts challenged to provide aid to pupils
By KATHLYN CLORE
Herald Correspondent
Updated: 06/14/2009 01:26:46 AM PDT

Click photo to enlargeEsther Bueno prepares a meal for her children in their motel room in… (VERN FISHER/The Herald)«123»Bouquets of shiny helium balloons emblazoned with “Happy Graduation!” float across the bedroom.
Mom’s silver Dodge Durango is parked in front, its windows painted with red and yellow hearts, stars and celebratory messages.

It is graduation weekend on the Peninsula and Esther Bueno, 36, and her four children have a lot to celebrate.

Selena Bueno, 14, will begin at Marina High School in the fall. Esther, 12, will begin at Los Arboles Middle School. Their 16-year-old sister Margarita will be a junior at Seaside High School.

Best of all, the girls’ older brother, Rudy Trevino, 18, has graduated from Salinas Adult School.

It is a reason to celebrate, which is a welcome change. The family has been living in a Seaside motel room the past few weeks and have been homeless for about five months.

See the complete story here

Check out the original article here.

In a strange twist, foreclosure children are now often simply referred to as ‘homeless.’
by Sasha Aslanian, Minnesota Public Radio

June 11, 2009
St. Paul, Minn. — Public schools are awaiting word on federal stimulus funding to help homeless children.

Elizabeth Hinz, district liaison for homeless and highly mobile students for Minneapolis Public Schools, says the State Department of Education is determining how to allocate the money to school districts.

“There will be some help, but it’s not going to cover all the needs and it doesn’t necessarily get people on an even footing to move forward with their lives, it’s more of an emergency nature,” she said.

Hinz said she expects the money in Minneapolis to go toward extended-day programming for homeless children and youth.

Minneapolis saw a 30 percent increase in homeless children this school year, largely because of the foreclosure crisis, Hinz said. Last year the district reported more than 5,500 homeless or highly mobile students.

The poor suffer more than anyone. Article seen on Alternet.org Read the full version here.

By Michelle Chen, ColorLines. Posted May 26, 2009.

Last fall, Yolanda James and her three children were lost in their own city. After foreclosure had forced them from their South Los Angeles apartment, they ran into closed doors at every turn. Aid agencies offered referrals to other offices, but no relief, and neither the shelter system nor the city’s high-priced housing market had room for them. James burned through her welfare money to pay for motel rooms and later resorted to sleeping with her children in their car.

“I was, like, two or three different people at one time,” she recalled. “I had to get on the grind, to hustle, to make sure my kids–when they get out of school, I could feed them, or I could take them somewhere to shower and bathe for the next day.”

Like others in Los Angeles’s Black community, James, who is 34, had some ties to public resources: a rent subsidy voucher under the federal Section 8 program, a monthly food stamp allowance and hard-fought experience with the social service system, having worked as an advocate with a local anti-poverty group. Still, she wasn’t prepared when the foreclosure wave hit her apartment building. Caught between a delinquent landlord and the bank, James, her 12-year-old son and her two teenage daughters lost their apartment and fell straight through the holes in the city’s tattered safety net.

James finally landed an apartment in November 2008 before her housing voucher expired. She said she feels safe for now but is still shaken by homelessness. “I’ve been a single parent for so long. I’ve always had a place,” she said. “I just felt like I was totally wiped out. Like, ‘What the hell happened? I’m not in control of anything.’”

With foreclosures and job losses dragging down the whole economy, low-income families of color are plunging into an even deeper hole. While the mortgage meltdown has devastated Black and Latino homeowners, some of the hardest-hit foreclosure victims did not even own the homes they lost. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, about 20 percent of properties facing foreclosure in 2008 were rentals, and rental foreclosures are especially prevalent in poor communities and communities of color. In many states, the situation is complicated by a lack of legal protections for tenants against sudden eviction.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness has predicted that at the current rate, the recession will result in 1.5 million additional homeless people within two years. According to the advocacy group First Focus, nearly two million children will be impacted by subprime foreclosures, including some half a million Latino children and more than 280,000 Black children. In a national survey of school systems, several hundred districts reported a surge in homeless children last fall compared to the previous school year.

As seen in an Associated Press article.

By ANNE WALLACE ALLEN
Like the Great Depression, this economic downturn is wrenching lives out of shape.
But unlike 90 years ago, hunger isn’t the main problem, and neither is the kind of homelessness that sent thousands of middle-class Americans into tent cities during the Depression. This time the toll is far less obvious: children are grappling with more stress at home, and low-income families, already highly mobile, are being forced to pull up stakes and move more often.
“It’s huge,” said Ana Leon, the school counselor at Wilton Manors Elementary in Ft. Lauderdale, who said mobility had increased significantly this year at her 600-student, mostly low-income school.
Many Wilton Manors students are migrants whose families are returning to live in Central and South America because there’s no work. Others are construction workers leaving Florida’s collapsed housing market to look for jobs in Texas.
Educators and demographers say frequent moves can lower school performance and increase chances that students will drop out of school. It also makes it more difficult to provide appropriate resources to children who have learning disabilities and behavioral issues.

As seen in an Associated Press article.

Written by Clayton Henkel
(RALEIGH)- As lawmakers continue to whittle away at a state budget plan, a group of children’s advocates wants more money earmarked for safe, affordable housing. Action for Children North Carolina says, based on the number of homeowners with mortgage troubles, more than 40,000 children in the state have been directly affected by the foreclosure crisis. Barb Bradley, who serves as CEO of the nonprofit, says children who have been forced to move repeatedly are far less likely to do well in school and graduate. Bradley says lawmakers need to invest $50 million in the NC Housing Trust Fund this year and do more to protect renters by giving them 90-days notice before their property enters into foreclosure.

As seen on The North Carolina News.

A startling twist on the recession’s impact appeared in the Palm Beach Post.

By KATHLEEN CHAPMAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Sunday, May 24, 2009

The sad reports of babies killed by abuse – often by caretakers who shook them in frustration – seemed to be coming in more often, Department of Children and Families Secretary George Sheldon noticed in recent months.

A check of the numbers confirmed that 2008 was an unusually deadly year for Florida children. At least 35 died of traumatic injuries, up from 28 in 2007. And that number is expected to rise because the DCF is waiting for the final causes of death for 82 children.

Read the full story in the Palm Beach Post.

This feature from the Scranton-Times demonstrates that often the real victims of foreclosure have no blame whatsoever. Millions of families are renters and as such they are not included in the well known estimate of 2-million children expected to be affected by foreclosure.

BY LAURA LEGERE (STAFF WRITER)
Published: May 24, 2009

Tammy Devine learned she was evicted from her Old Forge apartment on a Friday in April when workers cleaning out another home on her lot showed her ejection papers that she should have received months before.

Her landlord, Herschel Engel, had failed to make mortgage payments on the three buildings on the property: a rented home, the remains of a house that burned in August and Ms. Devine’s apartment tucked above a garage on the back of the lot.

Within a week, she and her fianc� had packed and moved to a new apartment, where they started out $625 in debt to the landlord for a security deposit they can’t afford to pay.

Court records show Mr. Engel had not owned the Old Forge property since Oct. 7 – two weeks after Ms. Devine moved in – when it was bought back at sheriff’s sale by Deutsche Bank National Trust Co., the trustee for the mortgage company that owned the loan. Ms. Devine had been paying Mr. Engel $475 in rent every month until the day in April when she called the post office and begged a clerk to stop her money order.

“I was paying rent to a man who didn’t deserve to be paid,” she said.

Click here for the full story from the Scranton-Times.