In the Middle of Mounting Foreclosures Volunteers are Trying to Keep Hope Alive

November 6th, 2009 | Tags: Foreclosures

In the middle of foreclosures, volunteers are helping people

In the middle of escalating foreclosures groups of volunteers are trying to keep hope alive among the victims. One of the volunteers is Dorrett Martin working with Jamaica Plain housing advocacy group. She drives through her familiar Mattapan Square having lived here for a quarter of a century. Today her job is to meet strangers. She is accompanied by her friend Sandra Douglas. Her work is checking on the addresses listed as foreclosed properties. The pair stops at the marked doors and rings the bell.

When the owner is told that they have come from City Life to help foreclosure victims they are made welcome.

During weekends through the past one year the volunteers from City Life have been canvassing together with another organization named No One Leaves. They have spread themselves out into the foreclosure infested regions of Boston. Each week they call on 40 or 50 addresses to inform the occupants, whether tenants or owners, that they need not despair as help is available from various advocacy groups and legal bodies.

In 2008 there were 1,200 foreclosures in Boston. From January to August 2009 there have been 584 foreclosure postings according to Warren Group. On top of this 1,646 foreclosure petitions – it being the first move in the process – were filed from January to August 2009. The indication is that the troubles are far from over.

The worst hit localities have been Hyde Park, Dorchester, East Boston, Roxbury and Mattapan. One sixth of the population resides here. Dorchester was responsible for about half the foreclosures of Boston in each of the previous three years.

Volunteers of City Life are particularly empathetic as many have undergone the pain of foreclosures themselves. Dorrett Martin had lost her job quite some time ago. She had purchased her multi-family house in 1984 and brought up her four children from here. Last spring it was foreclosed. Sandra Douglas is her renter. She had moved in about two decades ago. The two were always close but adversity brought them closer with the friendship spilling over to their children. They are continuing to live in the house but under the cloud of eviction. Martin did not know if there were any rights but she was keen to help Sandy.

Those tenants who are aware of their rights can often buy time before shifting out. Some have wrested monetary compensation especially if the landlord allows the house to run to seed.

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