forclosures

The current foreclosure crisis is affecting the entire housing market, including rental properties. Dependent on their landlord to inform them of a foreclosure, renters are most at risk of being evicted with little notice. With lower incomes and fewer resources, their options after an eviction are often limited.


"Homeless rolls grow, worry local agencies"
Needs may be greater than resources
By SHIRA SCHOENBERGMonitor staff
October 19, 2008
A lot of people are a paycheck away from becoming homeless, homeless advocates say. But John Patten wasn't.
After he lost his job, Patten received unemployment payments for 13 weeks. He had skills to fall back on - as a carpenter, electrician, plumber, machinist and automotive technician. He had a network of previous bosses and colleagues. The need to support his wife and their 3-year-old daughter gave him all the incentive he needed to look for work. It took several missed paychecks before Patten became homeless.
"When everything's stacked against you and you do whatever you possibly can, use every resource available to you, where do you go from there?" Patten said.
Patten, 30, is one of a growing number of the "newly homeless" in Concord and across the state. As the economy worsens, service providers and homeless advocates say they are seeing an influx of families facing foreclosures, evictions or unemployment who need services, often for the first time in their lives. As opposed to the "chronically homeless" who have lived without regular shelter for years and know how to use the system, the newly homeless can be left adrift, reliant on city and state services and struggling to navigate an unfamiliar network of resources. More and more often, they are families. And with winter coming, providers worry that their resources are quickly becoming inadequate to meet the need.
"The sad, sad, sad thing is that we don't have the capacity to help the number of folks that need it," said Maureen Beauregard, president of Families in Transition, which has 16 apartments with supportive services in Concord for those at risk of becoming homeless. "Unfortunately, people call Families in Transition, we say we don't have openings, perhaps you can go to a shelter or to the city. But all those services are overwhelmed." Families in trouble
Patten's descent into homelessness began with a default budget - one of many that voters across the state passed last spring in an attempt to stem rising taxes. For three years, Patten held a job in buildings and grounds for the Weare School District. As a supervisor, he earned $12.44 an hour, enough to rent a Weare apartment. His wife stayed home with their daughter.
Last spring, Patten's position was cut. He collected unemployment and looked for a job. "I looked everywhere," he said. "It went from good to okay to worse in a few months."
He worked as a grounds manager at the apartment complex where he lived until the complex was sold. He filled out more than 500 handwritten job applications and thousands more online. He contacted his former boss and others at the school district. He went to temp agencies. No one was hiring. "Now that the economy stinks, it's impossible to find any kind of decent employment," Patten said.
Although New Hampshire's unemployment rate remains below the national average - about 4.1 percent compared with 6.1 percent nationally - state experts say that those in the housing and automotive industries, like Patten, have been hit hardest.
Three months ago, Patten and his family moved into the Friends Emergency Shelter in Concord. "It was difficult," Patten said. "I never witnessed, never knew anyone in this type of situation. It was difficult to accept the fact that this was above and beyond my own control, not from bad choices."
Since then, Patten has found three jobs, paying $8 to $10 an hour - and lost them all, due to downsizing and budget cuts.
Many families face similarly difficult economic times, in Concord and statewide. Concord's human services department has seen applications jump by 15 percent over last year, and the average voucher issued has risen from $300 to nearly $350. About 90 percent of the department's assistance goes to rent, said Human Services Director Jacqueline Whatmough. "I've been here since 2001, and it's the worst I've seen by all accounts," she said.
The Friendly Kitchen, a Concord soup kitchen, used to feed an average of 65 people an evening. In recent months, the kitchen has served an average of 85 a night, said manager Jennifer Lombardo, including more families and young people. The food pantry at First Congregational Church has been serving more than 4,000 meals a month to more than 800 people - approximately double the rate of last year, according to the Rev. David Keller.
"The need at this level is increasing in ways that are alarming," Keller said. "The economy pushes downwards, and what happens to the people at the bottom? We used to say you're a paycheck away from being homeless. Now you're a flat tire away from being homeless."
Local shelters and service agencies are already seeing an increase in the number of people seeking help, as well as a change in the population.
Through June, the most recent data available, the state's homeless population has consistently been made up of about 32 percent families, according to Maureen Ryan, administrator of the state Bureau of Homeless and Housing Services.
But anecdotally, the number of families is growing. Often, these are single parents or large families facing foreclosure or eviction. In previous years, the state's homeless hotline, run by the Community Services Council of New Hampshire, averaged seven to 10 calls a day from individuals. Now it averages 10 calls a day, mostly from families.
Deziarae Lapierre, 20, who grew up in Franklin, comes from one of those families. Lapierre's mother is disabled and in debt, and gets $300 a month in disability payments. Lapierre's brother, who is in school, receives $99 a month in child support from his father. Lapierre has been looking for a job unsuccessfully since she graduated from high school. She lost her mother's Social Security benefits when she turned 18.
"That's not enough to feed three mouths, clothe them and take care of rent," Lapierre said.
About two months ago, she and her mother fought, and her mother kicked her out. She has been living in a tent ever since.
"I hope it gets better, but it's only a matter of time that people who are near homeless become homeless," Lapierre said.
Spike in foreclosures
Those who work with the homeless say that rising rents and increasing numbers of foreclosures and evictions are among the biggest problems. Joia Hughes, who runs homeless outreach programs for the Community Action Program for Belknap-Merrimack Counties, said she recently saw a family with six children facing foreclosure after their father lost his job. Sometimes, renters suffer from foreclosures too, when landlords can't pay the mortgage.
"There's a lack of affordable housing, and people are in apartments they can't afford," Hughes said. "When the economy starts to go down, they might have been scraping by, now they can't make ends meet."
Concord has seen 49 foreclosures between January and September, compared with just nine during that time in 2006, said city Finance Director Jim Howard. Rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Concord averaged $1,036 as of April, according to the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority - a figure that has risen steadily since the mid-1990s.
Beauregard said it is the "worker bees," the people working in retail downtown or at the Steeplegate Mall, who are having trouble. "Even if rents go down to $800 a month, if you're making $20,000 a year, it's hard to pay $800 plus utilities," she said. "There's been a decline in the amount of (federal) housing subsidy that goes out to poorer families, and you really need subsidy to pay rent."
Rent has become the sticking point for William Rider, 31, a welder and painter who used to make up to $30 an hour. The last couple of years, Rider has found it tougher and tougher to find steady work. His skills, he said, "are not high demand" anymore. He has gone to Labor Ready, and has even filled out an application for McDonald's - to no avail. Six months ago, he gave up his $800 a month one-bedroom apartment and moved into a tent.
"You go from the best thing in the world to nothing, sitting in a soup kitchen," Rider said, eating dinner at The Friendly Kitchen.
Meanwhile, costs of food, gas and heating oil are also rising. Lapierre said her boyfriend's food stamps are not enough to get through the month.
Seeking shelter
Patten was lucky: Friends Emergency Shelter had a vacancy when he called. Pauline Lambert, 29, who lives in a tent in Concord, has been less fortunate.
"The shelters are full every time I call," Lambert said.
One shelter Lambert has called is the Edna McKenna House in Concord, which houses 21 single men and seven women. Shelter Director Lorrie Dale said she turns away five to 10 people a day, and women's beds are rarely available.
Dale said residents stay longer than they used to. "Three to six months is turning into six to nine months," Dale said.
Beth, 47, who works as a housekeeper, recalled the struggle she faced to get a bed at McKenna House. Dale would not let residents give their last names for fear of employment discrimination. Beth, who is from Sunapee, had been working at a pizza shop, and her boyfriend was a subcontractor. They were evicted after a dispute over a loan, sold all their possessions and used the money to buy tents. The weather got cold, the boyfriend was wanted for child support payments, and the couple got drunk and argued, she said.
Beth started looking for help, but "I got turned down by every shelter I called."
She ran to the Bradford police station Sept. 25. "The Bradford officer spent two hours looking on the internet," Beth said. "Other shelters had answering machines. They said refer back to the police department. He said 'Who do you think I am?' " Finally, at McKenna House, a person picked up and took Beth in.
The 37 state-sponsored shelters serve an average of 720 people a night, according to Ryan of the Bureau of Homeless and Housing Services. An information and referral specialist at the state's homeless hotline said last week that there were approximately five free beds in the state.
"We're already unable to find shelter beds anywhere," Whatmough said. "We're hearing from all kinds of people with emergencies, and this isn't even winter yet." If Whatmough cannot place a person in a shelter, the city must pay for a motel. For the past four fiscal years combined, Concord paid $237 in motel costs. This year, it paid $1,626 in the first quarter.
Keller said that even when beds become available, it may be difficult for residents of one city to move to a shelter elsewhere. "You've gone homeless in Concord, your doctor's in Concord, your job's in Concord, getting a shelter in Dover isn't really going to help you," Keller said.
The state's homeless hotline can refer people to resources, as can local welfare offices and the Community Action Program. A new revolving loan fund has been set up through the Bureau of Homeless and Housing Services to help provide first month's rent and a security deposit to those who are homeless and have an income.
Looking ahead
With winter coming, the biggest worries for many are heat and hot water. "Our concern is if utilities are shut off this winter," Hughes said. "You may have a home, but if you don't have heat or electricity, you really can't stay."
Although it is too early to know the impact of heating oil costs, Whatmough said that in fiscal year 2007, the Concord Human Services Department had just two requests for oil, with a delivery charge of under $250. In fiscal year 2008, which ended in June, the city got 15 requests, costing around $300 for delivery. This year, that same delivery will cost $560, she said. She also worries that the elderly, who are particularly vulnerable, will be embarrassed to apply for assistance even if they need it.
The service agencies themselves are also facing tighter budgets. Whatmough's budget for this year is $388,000, a $10,000 increase over last year. But she worries that it may not be enough - she spent 26.7 percent of her budget in the first quarter. If her budget runs out, she will have to dip into a city contingency fund.
Shelters such as McKenna House are being hurt because donors have been affected by the economy.
Ryan said that during the last recession, in 2001-'02, New Hampshire saw an 8 percent increase in residents using shelters. This year, she expects a similar or greater increase. And with a large budget deficit looming, she does not anticipate that additional state funding will be available for shelters.
For many, the emergency shelters at First Congregational Church and South Congregational Church in Concord are lifesavers. The shelters open in mid-December and can host 30 people a night, with more squeezed in if necessary. Most tend to be those who have been homeless for years, Keller said.
At Friends Emergency Shelter and McKenna House, residents do chores and community service and are given resources to help with apartment hunting or job hunting. At the church, Keller said, there are no support services or expectations for residents, just a warm place to sleep. Anyone is welcome - including those with substance abuse problems or mental illness. "We start with the premise we don't want anyone to die in the winter time outside," Keller said.
For newly homeless families, Keller said, the church may not be the best place. "If a family shows up, we're going to put them up for the night, then we'll get on the phone the next day to see whether there's a place more appropriate than crashing in a Sunday school room," he said.
For Patten, this story may have a happy ending. Tomorrow, he starts a new job doing building and grounds maintenance for the state liquor stores, at $11.85 an hour. When he gets his first paycheck in two weeks, he and his wife will start looking for an apartment. He hopes to reapply for some professional certifications. One day, when he has enough saved, he wants to buy his own home.
Patten is optimistic for himself, but he has little hope for the country's overall economic situation. "Everyone's trying to fight through it just to survive."
And Patten now knows other homeless people. He sees those in the shelter, struggling in the same way that he has. He worries about the others.