According to Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness briefing paper “Foreclosures and Homelessness: Understanding the Connection” (January 2013), 30.5% of those (16 million) rendered homeless due to mortgage crisis-era foreclosures currently live in alternative rented or owned housing. (See development attached)

Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act: What Real Estate Professionals Must Know When Tenants Live in Foreclosed Property

Posted on April 30, 2013 by homelessnesslaw

Rental property foreclosures remain a national epidemic, affecting millions of people across the country including three million children. Renters are often kept in the dark about the foreclosure status of their homes, and they may not learn that their housing is in jeopardy until they are served with an eviction notice. The Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act (“PTFA”) provides important protections to renters in foreclosed properties, requiring new owners to allow any bona fide renters to remain in their homes for the full duration of their lease agreements or for a minimum of 90 days with notice, whichever is longer.

Although the PTFA has been in place since 2009, violations of the law continue. The Law Center has addressed this ongoing problem by collecting information about PTFA violations from tenants and tenant advocates across the country and then working with the named violators to change the way they do business. We believe that working in collaboration to bring new owners and their agents into voluntary compliance with the PTFA is an effective strategy that benefits everyone involved, and our success in building these strategic partnerships suggests we’re right.

One shining example of this collaborative work is with the National Association of Realtors (NAR), an organization whose members represent nearly half of all real estate agents working nationwide. Real estate agents are often the first points of contact for tenants living in foreclosed properties, and it is not uncommon for their communication to be the only information that a renter is given about their housing options. Consequently, the information that a real estate agent provides to a renter is of the utmost importance – it must be accurate, clear, and given in good faith.

See more at: http://homelessnesslaw.org/2013/04/podcast-protecting-tenants-at-foreclosure-act-what-real-estate-professionals-must-know-when-tenants-live-in-foreclosed-property/#sthash.LiNc1l47.dpuf

The Economist described the issue this way: No part of the financial crisis has received so much attention, with so little to show for it, as the tidal wave of home foreclosures sweeping over America. Government programmes have been ineffectual, and private efforts not much better. Up to 9 million homes may enter foreclosure over the 2009–2011 period, versus one million in a typical year.[]Economist – Can’t Pay or Won’t Pay At roughly U.S. $50,000 per foreclosure according to a 2006 study by the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank, 9 million foreclosures represents $450 billion in losses.[]NYT-Times Topics-Foreclosures

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By Travis Waldron on Apr 19, 2012 at 9:30 am

Millions of Americans have been slammed by the decline in housing prices and the foreclosure crisis that followed the 2008 financial collapse, but a new report from First Focus and the Brookings Institution shows that there is one group of victims that has largely been ignored. According to the report, more than 8.3 million children are directly affected by the ongoing crisis, as single-family homes and rental properties continue to enter foreclosure.

Children have been “the invisible victims” of the crisis, but 2.3 million have already been directly affected by foreclosure. An estimated six million are in high-risk foreclosure situations, as the chart below shows:

Between 12 and 19 percent of children are in at-risk situations in California, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona, and more than half a million children have gone through foreclosure in California alone. In six other states — Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, and Rhode Island — between 8 and 10 percent of children are at-risk. But even these estimates are “conservative,” the report says, as it examined mortgage data from 2004-2008 and is based on loan status as of February 2011. The actual numbers could be much higher.

The number of children living in poverty, exacerbated by the effects of the Great Recession, reached 15.7 million in 2011, and the number of homeless children has risen 33 percent in the last three years. The foreclosure crisis has contributed to that, placing children at a higher risk of entering poverty, and as the U.S. Census noted, “Children who live in poverty…are more likely than their peers to have cognitive and behavioral difficulties, to complete fewer years of education, and, as they grow up, to experience more years of unemployment.”

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National Coalition for the Homeless

2201 P Street, NW Tel. 202-462-4822

Washington, DC 20037-1033 Fax. 202-462-4823

http://www.nationalhomeless.org Email. info@nationalhomeless.org

Foreclosure to Homelessness: The Forgotten Victims of the Subprime Crisis

Published by the National Coalition for the Homeless, June 2009

Overview of the Issue

In late 2008 and early 2009, the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH), in collaboration with six other non-for-profit organizations1, conducted an e-mail survey of organizations providing direct service to homeless populations. The survey’s primary aim was to establish whether or not communities were seeing an increase in homelessness due to the foreclosure crisis. The following are some of the more salient findings, culled from the full June 2009 report, Foreclosure to Homelessness: the Forgotten Victims of the Subprime Crisis, which resulted from this survey and related research.

• 178 responses were gathered from organizations providing direct services to the Homeless population.

• An average of 10% of their clients became homeless as a result of foreclosure to homes.

• 79% of respondents stated that at least some of their clients were homeless as a result of foreclosure to homes.

• There were 342,038 foreclosure filings on US properties in April 2009, a 32%

increase compared with foreclosures in April 2008.

• 6 million jobs have been lost since the recession began.

• Unemployment reached 9.4% in May 2009 – that is 14.5 million unemployed

Americans, among which 27% have been unable to find a job even after 27 weeks of searching.

• In a survey of people who faced foreclosure, 49% of respondents said medical problems played a role in their foreclosure.

1 the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH), National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (NAEHCY), National Health Care for the Homeless Council (NHCHC), National Law

Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP), National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), and the National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness(NPACH).

Post-Eviction Situation of the Newly Homeless:

• 58% of the newly homeless have not attempted to access legal assistance, even less so in the Northeast and South, 66% and 70%, respectively.

• Some common post-eviction living situations of the surveyed organizations’ clients were: with family and friends (86%), in emergency shelters (61%), in hotels and motels (26%), on the streets (21%), and outside but not on the streets (18%).2

Services provided to address the needs of individuals affected by foreclosure in areas where surveys were taken:

• Counseling to prevent foreclosure: 72%

• Free or pro-bono legal assistance: 50%

• Cash assistance: 49%

• Relocation assistance: 18%

• Communities buying properties for use by persons with limited incomes: 15%

• Other: 10%

The foreclosure crisis for rental properties:

• 70% of extremely low income, or ELI (those living on 0 -30% of the Area Median

Income), participants admitted to spending 50% of their income on rent. Spending 30% of income on rent is typically considered affordable.

• In 2008, 1 in 5 foreclosure properties were rentals.

• For every 100 ELI renters, there are 63 units of affordable housing in any given state.

• Roughly 40% of families facing eviction due to foreclosure are renters

• According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), some 40%

of those who experience home-foreclosure are renters.

The impact of health care on homelessness:

• The number of adults over age 50 in homeless shelters and clinics is increasing due to economic issues.

• It is estimated that people experiencing homelessness live 30 years less than their housed peers.

2 These figures add up to more than 100% because respondents were asked to give the 3 most common living situations of their clients.

Youth homelessness:

• Youth homelessness continues to rise.

• Between the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 school years, 459 school districts identified an increase of at least 25% in the number of homeless students.

• Causes for there increases include: rising transportation costs, inadequate staff to identify and correct the problem, over-crowded shelters, reduction in other

community services, and greater severity of need.

Foreclosure crisis in rural America

• Rural states show significantly greater numbers of foreclosures.

• Because rural foreclosures are incorporated into overall foreclosure statistics, the problem is largely overlooked.

Recommendations for Action:

• Affordable and adopted healthcare programs

• Legal assistance programs

• Prevention of youth homelessness by implementing more federal support

• Better interpretation of data (i.e. Consideration of the rural foreclosure issue separately)

• An appropriate definition of rural homelessness

• Better emergency support

Hope for the future:

• The new Administration and Congress have implemented laws in order to avoid foreclosures. The Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009 is a good start.

• The government has also invested 1.5 billion dollars to reduce homelessness, $1 billion of which will go to rehabilitating affordable housing and improving key public facilities through the Community Development Block Grant Program.

Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act: What Real Estate Professionals Must Know When Tenants Live in Foreclosed Property

Posted on April 30, 2013 by homelessnesslaw

Rental property foreclosures remain a national epidemic, affecting millions of people across the country including three million children. Renters are often kept in the dark about the foreclosure status of their homes, and they may not learn that their housing is in jeopardy until they are served with an eviction notice. The Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act (“PTFA”) provides important protections to renters in foreclosed properties, requiring new owners to allow any bona fide renters to remain in their homes for the full duration of their lease agreements or for a minimum of 90 days with notice, whichever is longer.

Although the PTFA has been in place since 2009, violations of the law continue. The Law Center has addressed this ongoing problem by collecting information about PTFA violations from tenants and tenant advocates across the country and then working with the named violators to change the way they do business. We believe that working in collaboration to bring new owners and their agents into voluntary compliance with the PTFA is an effective strategy that benefits everyone involved, and our success in building these strategic partnerships suggests we’re right.

One shining example of this collaborative work is with the National Association of Realtors (NAR), an organization whose members represent nearly half of all real estate agents working nationwide. Real estate agents are often the first points of contact for tenants living in foreclosed properties, and it is not uncommon for their communication to be the only information that a renter is given about their housing options. Consequently, the information that a real estate agent provides to a renter is of the utmost importance – it must be accurate, clear, and given in good faith.

See more at: http://homelessnesslaw.org/2013/04/podcast-protecting-tenants-at-foreclosure-act-what-real-estate-professionals-must-know-when-tenants-live-in-foreclosed-property/#sthash.LiNc1l47.dpuf

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