Sunday, February 17, 2008

Squatters occupy foreclosed homes

Even for homeowners who have weathered the subprime mortgage debacle, the epidemic of foreclosures in Jamaica, South Ozone Park and Rochdale has created another major headache.

Foreclosures in Jamaica now home to squatters, druggies - making ghost town

Friendly streets once populated by predominantly black, working-class families in starter homes are now haunted by drug dealers and squatters.

Vacant, litter-strewn yards have become the norm for residential blocks like 118th Ave. and 152nd St., the epicenter of the foreclosure crisis in Queens.


Photo from Daily News

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Foreclosed properties are owned by someone, namely the banks. They are responsible such as any property would be held to in this city,to maintain and secure it properly. The city should fine the new owner for known crime issues, unsafe and deterimental to health conditions and foreclose and auction the propertt off at fire prices to city residents only.

In the interim the city should arrest tresspassers and drug possession. The responsibility of the City is to insure remaining residents are safe and maintain order on these blocks. These conditions left unabated can spread like weeds and become the South Bronx of the early 70's.

Anonymous said...

How about that home in Elmhurst that the Courier talked about in their breathless series about immigrants a few months ago.

A bunch of guys just moved into a house. Any comments on what this does do a neighborhood?

Nope, the paper was focused on their 'plight.' Let us ring our hands that a tweeding opportunity for the clubhouse might be lost!

Oh how I wish stuff like this happens in eastern Queens, right next door to Vicky!!

Anonymous said...

Yo, bub....yer dreamin'.

THE BANKS AND THE CITY
should take the responsibility to secure, protect
and defend these abandoned sites?
Ha, ha, ha. (cough, cough)....
all of this laughing is gonna make me fart!

Just maybe the banks/brokerage firms (etc.)
were the ones who were responsible for LURING
working class minority "investors"into the
"you can live beyond your means" trap
in the first place.

True....
YOU SHOULD BE AWARE of the mortgage responsibilities you signed onto in the first place.
Every dummy knows that!

Like....WHAT YOU BORROW TODAY,
YOU EVENTUALLY HAVE TO PAY BACK!
That's always been the cardinal rule
way back since the cave days!

Even folks who resort to going to a loan shark
KNOW that he'll break your legs
if you don't come up with the dough and the "vig" that you owe him.

He won't kill you for your transgression because
you can't continue to get money off a dead man.

But maybe THE BANKS had a back drawer plan
in the first place. Wadda ya think?

Let's hypothesize for a moment.

These downscale, low income nabes,
which are inhabited primarily by working class
people of color, have long been
the apple of someone's eye
to target for "URABAN RENEWAL".

And, traditionally that's always meant ,
as the old phrase goes, "Black removal".

Now you can't institute eminent domain proceedings on such a huge swath of land
without outspoken civic leaders shouting out
and kicking some serious ass.

Yet, with more subtle means available
to the banking/real estate/political partnership,
this can be deftly accomplished in a wink
with no outcry from the displaced residents.

Now I ask you folks,
isn't that what has just happened.....
the clearing, or hollowing out, of neighborhoods
such as South Jamaica, Corona etc.
for the development of upscale "luxury" housing?

Well....if it quacks like a duck, maybe it is a duck!

It seems to me and anyone with decent eyesight
can see that A FEW conglomerates
are now in the position of holding onto
some VERY LARGE contiguous tracts of land!

Now, they wait awhile,
until these druggies, squatters, gangsters
complete the process of destroying whats left
and "poof" federal aid and eminent domain
come to the rescue.

And nobody bitches about it
because the nabe has become a dangerous "eyesore".

H-m-m-m,
and a lot of these new property owners
get to walk away very rich men.....
with the added value that the
pesky working class trash (in their eyes)
are transported elsewhere to become
somebody else's problem!

"Neat"...... huh? !!!

Anonymous said...

Many, many white people have had their homes forclosed on. This is not a black issue. It is happening to all races and all income brackets.