Children Foreclosures Victims

April 29th, 2008 | Tags: Foreclosure Victims

In this adult world the children are the mute silent victims of foreclosures – quietly suffering but unable to do anything. Eleven year old Matthew Antico is just one of the many. Instead of going to school he is helping his mother and siblings to pack bags and baggage. The children are leaving behind the walls full of their scribbling. It is a house full of childhood memories. Overnight childhood laughter is being snatched from them. What Matthew hates most is the idea of losing friends and the even more daunting task of making new ones. We all know about this trauma. In Manatee County 400 children have been rendered homeless because of foreclosures. More youngsters are being affected. There are about 1,700 homeless pupils in Cleveland public schools – the figure being more than what it was a year ago. In Minneapolis the number is 5,600 – it being 1,000 more than the figures of the previous year.

Project Heart has been launched to deal with homeless families on the west coast of Florida. Deb Bailey runs it. She comments that what we are witnessing is not even the tip of the iceberg. Project Heart is partly financed by Manatee School District. The aim to equip children to tackle the effects of foreclosures. Roger Dearing of Manatee District School said that this period of grief followed by anger leads to the question in the mind of the child – ‘why me’.

Matthew and his family moved to the tiny house of a friend far removed from his school. Project Heart worked hard to see that Matthew did not lose his old school and associations. It is vital for the mental health of the child who has gone through the travails of foreclosure. However, in this particular case Matthew seems to have overcome the trauma and is doing well in his studies. It is faith in God and family closeness that steered him through this. For an apartment of their own the family would need $2,000. It is as much out of their reach as is the old foreclosed house that was their home.

Not everybody is lucky to be as mentally strong as Matthew. In the majority of cases the child victims of foreclosure remain deeply scarred. This leads to problems in adolescent children. There is a deep seated desire to take revenge on a society that failed them – snatched away their childhood.