Foreclosures And God

May 26th, 2008 | Tags: Foreclosures

The link between foreclosures and God should not be hard to find. People in trouble always pray for divine help. And God never fails. Rev. Jeffry Dillion asked a straightforward question to his parishioners – “Do sub-prime mortgages scare you?”

The Roman Catholic Parish not far from JFK International Airport, Queens, organized a workshop after Sunday Mass, to help people terrorized by foreclosures. Pastors around the country are going all out to help their flocks under the threat of eviction and stain from foreclosures. A call seems to have come from God to care for the poor. Coffee and doughnuts were served at Christ the King Church while participants filled out financial forms for appointments with counselors of ACORN. The workshops are conducted both in English and Spanish and occasionally in Creole. Last February the Bishop of Brooklyn, Nicholas DiMarzio had held a foreclosure prevention forum with the assistance of Senator Charles Schumer (D- NY), housing bodies and banking personnel.

Across the country lenders foreclosed on 650,000 borrowers, during the first quarter of 2008. It is double the numbers of the previous year according to RealtyTrac, California. In New York City there were over 6,000 foreclosure postings during this quarter – this is excluding 14,000 foreclosures registered across the state. It calculates to a 40% increase over the previous year. About a third of the foreclosures were concentrated in the minority pockets of Brooklyn and Queens. Responding to the crisis, 10 churches in Queens and Brooklyn have started workshops for counseling and advice. Anyone who comes, irrespective of being a church member or not, will be offered help. In USA, Alexandria based Catholic Charities geared up its umbrella organizations to start running programmes in line with those being conducted in New York. It claims to have already helped 4,000 house owners in about dozen communities stretching from Atlanta to Santa Rosa, California.

Other religious groups have also started to take action to help foreclosure victims. The largest concentrated action has come from the Roman Catholic group. Unfortunately these faith based help steps are just drops in the ocean considering the magnitude of the crisis.

Meanwhile the lawmakers and givers squabble amongst themselves regarding palliative measures. Bush is threatening to veto a bill passed by the House aimed at helping foreclosure victims. Bush supporters claim it is a bail out at the cost of the taxpayers. Meanwhile foreclosure fires are burning and spreading.