Foreclosures Dominate Conference Of Mayors

January 16th, 2008

At the City Hall in Trenton a large map is spread out on the table covered with black dots – pockmarks of foreclosures. The owners are burdened with high interest charges but they do not want to come forward. The problem before the city fathers is to see that these dots do not spread.

The port city has so far struggled with drugs, crime, and unemployment linked urban woes. Now this new menace has cropped up. Mayor Palmer has been in office for four terms and is the first black to do so in this city having a black majority of about 85,000 people.

The city fell into the sub-prime trap and many people moved into their own houses with these loans. Now it seems they will have to move out. In 2007 about 600 units went into foreclosure. In 2006 the figure was 421. It seems that in 2008 the figures will further increase. In December 260 properties were already in the danger zone.

The US Conference of Mayors is concerned about the total foreclosure crisis. Palmer is the president and another meeting is scheduled to be held towards the end of January. The mayors are of the opinion that the Bush plan is not potent enough to solve the problem. Mayor DeStefano of New Haven, Connecticut (where foreclosures went up by 80% in 2007) described the Bush plan as anemic. There seems to be nobody around to help the house owners.

The executive director of the mayor’s conference said that the problem of foreclosures is going to be one of top priority like AIDS during the 1980’s. At that time a weak federal response had made them come forward to face the problem alone.

Palmer had for a long time been focusing on affordable housing arrangements for those with modest incomes. He suggested the setting of a new row of houses in the Battle Monument region that was once a shady neglected zone. It was where the Battle of Trenton had been fought in 1776. Palmer is apprehensive that even these areas where mortgages are still strong foreclosures are sneaking in. Houses are being barricaded as crimes increase in proportion to falling real estate markets. Vandals are stripping unoccupied houses of pipes and fittings. Piles of garbage and overgrown grass have added to the nuisance. The big question is – who will clear the mess?