The Cold Sting of Foreclosures is Adding to Miseries

February 10th, 2009 | Tags: Foreclosure Victims

The cold sting of foreclosures is adding to miseries. Nothing is certain how long this winter of foreclosure will continue.

On Long Island, the morning is freezing cold. Its two counties of Nassau and Suffolk are well administered. The residents are educated, stable and affluent. But even here the foreclosure cold is stinging. The shelters are overflowing while there are long queues before food pantries that are running out of stock. Over 500 sought shelter during the last week of December. Most of them were families with children.

Nassau’s director of Housing and Homeless Services Connie Lassandro said that the demand had increased by about 30% to 40% from 2007. More and more foreclosure victims are coming forth – especially the elderly looking confused, cold and bewildered. There is a sense of shame and indignity.

The private organizations that reach out with help are also overburdened with work. The director of Community Resources for the Long Island Council of Churches Alric Kennedy said that previously rent and mortgage help was given but they ran out of funds last October. It sent the people to other bodies and they too exhausted all their money. More people are rushing to the emergency food outlets. On an average day, 40 to 60 people turn up in Freeport, Nassau. In Riverhead 100 seek assistance. They want food, cooking oil, diapers and baby formula. These are not the typical homeless vagabonds. Some of them were donors a couple of years ago. Kennedy said, “People who gave us food are now asking us to help them.”

The people have not only lost their houses but also their jobs and the pain is spirally to touch all sections of the economy. Workplace Project has been working for the rights of immigrant workers for a long time in Hempstead. It has reported a sharp rise in unpaid wages. Contractors are snipping costs by evading payrolls and depending on unlisted work force so as to avoid complaints.

Domestic worker are seeing cuts in their wages by as much as half. Their employers are reducing hours of work and telling them to report to clean the house every alternate week.

The undocumented workers do not have any government organization to turn to for help. Charitable organizations are partly making up for this vacuum. One of them is the Huntington Interfaith Homeless Initiative that gives help mainly to Hispanic immigrants by way of providing sleeping arrangements. The other alternative for this hapless lot would have been the open skies suffering the bite of winter.