How Residents Can Fight Foreclosures in Their Neighborhoods

By: Ellen Frick, Outreach Coordinator, NHS of Baltimore

I recently attended the NeighborWorks Community Leadership Institute (CLI) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The CLI brought together neighborhood residents and community leaders from all over the United States. The underlying theme was: “together, we can rebuild, renew, and sustain”. In other words, everyone can play a part in making their neighborhood a better place to live both now and in the future.

One of the workshops I attended during the weekend was entitled “Engaging Our Communities to Deal with Foreclosures”. The class did not focus so much on foreclosure prevention or loss mitigation, but rather what neighborhoods can do in the face of foreclosures that have already happened. While foreclosure prevention is extremely important, sometimes foreclosure is inevitable- and entire neighborhoods are affected.

In neighborhoods that are hard hit with foreclosures, property conditions and values decrease. These areas may be targeted with loss mitigation scams, social cohesion between neighbors can weaken, and residents’ confidence levels may erode. This list is not all-encompassing, as foreclosure can affect neighborhoods in numerous ways. By thinking about the impacts listed above, one begins to see how widespread the effects of foreclosure can be. Read more about the community impacts on Stable Communities.org.

Residents can play a key role in improving neighborhoods that have experienced foreclosure. Further, neighbors who combat the effects of foreclosure are also playing a part in preventing further foreclosure from happening. Educating others in your neighborhood about the foreclosure problem, organizing a neighborhood clean up, and marketing the neighborhood’s for sale properties are all roles that residents can be a part of. Check out more ways to get involved in foreclosure response at Foreclosure Response.org. Policy Link also has a great toolkit with resources on “Reclaiming Foreclosed Properties for Community Benefit”. Don’t be afraid to start small- try picking up a few pieces of trash on the street or introducing yourself to neighbors.