Foreclosure Crisis Affects One In Every 10 Children: Report

The foreclosure crisis could end up directly affecting as many as 8.3 million children, according to a report out this week from the advocacy group First Focus. That's a little more than one in every 10 children in the country.

First Focus says it arrived at this figure by adding up all the children in homes that have already entered foreclosure, all the homes at immediate risk of foreclosure and all the rental properties that have been foreclosed on or appear to be at risk. The report, which was authored by a scholar from Brookings, calls its 8.3 million estimate "relatively conservative."

Foreclosures tend to put families in motion, often sending parents to new towns and children to new schools, which can result in emotional and behavioral problems for kids, according to USA Today. First Focus suggests that the stress of foreclosure can also impact parenting styles for the worst -- a plausible conclusion, given that foreclosure-related stress has been linked with depression, anxiety and compulsive behavior in adults.

And the problem goes beyond foreclosure, with more than 16 million children in poverty as of 2010, and recession-related anxiety making ripples in kids' behavior even among the middle and upper middle class.

The report is a reminder of how many families are struggling to maintain a basic level of economic security this election year -- despite the modest economic recovery taking hold.

Unemployment remains high, basic expenses are still out of reach for many, and some analysts believe a new wave of foreclosures is on the horizon, thanks to the multibillion-dollar mortgage settlement that was recently reached with some of the country's largest banks. That settlement will allow some homeowners to deal with their debts, but could also speed the foreclosure process. Some banks had slowed down their foreclosure efforts awaiting the resolution of the mortgage deal.

While some lenders have shown a growing willingness to explore alternatives to foreclosure, like conducting short sales or allowing tenants to stay on as renters, foreclosure remains a wide-scale phenomenon.

Comments

[Salty too]

09:01 AM on 04/19/2012

Use the kids. Good plan.

[Darrion Beckles]

08:48 AM on 04/19/2012

In a country where they arrest six year olds for having temper tantrums, do you really think this is going to get better? On the contrary.

[5timesband]

08:45 AM on 04/19/2012

the headline should read, "Fiscally irresponsible parents have a negative affect on their children"

[belladio]

08:41 AM on 04/19/2012

Do the banks care?

Not at all.

Vipers.

[Salty too]

08:58 AM on 04/19/2012

Why should they?

[blingbling65943]

09:08 AM on 04/19/2012

Ask Jesus. 

His opinions on the banks are pretty clear

[belladio]

09:11 AM on 04/19/2012

Civics

[Brian1111]

08:40 AM on 04/19/2012

Only 3% of the TARP money actually made it to the homeowners that need it. Well done Obama. Good oversight on our taxpayer money

[anticommie77]

08:19 AM on 04/19/2012

Oh, let me guess. The way to help kids is to allow their parents to steal the house from the actual homeowner. (The stockholders who own the homes.)

Hey kid, make your life better, steal!

Way to raise them. One day when they are grown up and steal from you, you will probably wonder why.

[Salty too]

08:48 AM on 04/19/2012

F & F

[blingbling65943]

09:01 AM on 04/19/2012

Grow up. 

Here is one small example of what is going on in America - Link  

Part of being an adult and a responsible member of society is being informed. And you don't have a stinken' clue what is going on

[anticommie77]

01:23 PM on 04/19/2012

Some fool at a bank got in a pissing match with a homeowner, and you think that is important compared to the bankruptcy of America? WHO DOES NOT HAVE A CLUE?

1st - Most important - we are driving our children (and ourselves for that matter) into bankruptcy. Get a clue to what is going on, will you!

2nd - Based on all credible reporting, the vast majority of foreclosures are valid (despite a few idiots that do stuff like you are pointing out). That is the reality. Accept it and get a clue.

[Niko Alexopoulos]

08:13 AM on 04/19/2012

It is funny and sad at the same time that the 95% of the people are the modern day slaves. The 5% are the ones like of the Georges Scouros of he world that buy and sell governments. In the old days kings kept people uneducated so they did not know better but to be slaves. Today it is the same thing. People do not realize the level of deception the few have created through the banking system. The fraud goes levels beyond the robbo signing, or produce the note, or TILA or HOEPA violation issues. The banks created instruments that were designed to never perform,(be paid back), they knew it and they bet against them via a way of insuring them, EX AIG. They actually took out insurance on loans they no longer owned, since they had bundled them into securities and had sold them off to trusts. Then they have the audacity to try and foreclose. If you think about it, it is insurance fraud more than mortgage fraud. Here is the kicker: Most people have given up their homes because they listen to BIG GOV and BIG BANK about how they are going to help them, (as I said before keep the peasants uneducated). As far as I am concern they only chance any homeowner has, is to go through the legal system and then even that option is difficult.
Wake up.

http://www.whatisforeclosureprocess.com/

[Italianamerican]

08:12 AM on 04/19/2012

Maybe Obama sshould pardon his old mortgage partner, Tony Rezco, apparently he knows how to get people a great deal on their house.

[tallcoolone47]

08:33 AM on 04/19/2012

funny you should mention that i have a running bet with a buddy of mine that he will pardon Rezco before leaving office.

[tenntileguy]

07:58 AM on 04/19/2012

I WOULDNT VOTE IN THE NEXT ELECTION IF I WAS HELD AT GUN POINT. ID ACTUALLY VOTE FOR SATAN BEFORE THESE 2 CLOWNS

[99er2049er]

07:55 AM on 04/19/2012

Romney has a plan for the foreclosure crisis. Accelerate it. That way the poor people who are struggling to save their homes can be relieved of that burden and become homeless that much quicker.

[5timesband]

08:46 AM on 04/19/2012

actually that is a good plan. The only way the housing market will recover is to get through this foreclosure bubble. Obama has done nothing but delay the process.

[Salty too]

08:49 AM on 04/19/2012

I agree.

[blingbling65943]

09:06 AM on 04/19/2012

Your blind, delusional belief in a mythical Free Market is destroying this country. 

Get a clue what the banks are doing to Homeowners in america. - Link 

Don't think for second, you won't be next

[WOODSTOCKER60]

07:47 AM on 04/19/2012

In October, Mitt Romney basically said let them forclose, the public be damned. Yes, he wanted vulture capitalism to work. Let homes be foreclosed and investors can buy them up cheap and then rent them back to people who used to own them, making boatloads of money in the process. The Bain Way.

As for what to do for the housing industry specifically, and are there things that you can do to encourage housing? One is don’t try and stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom, allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them, fix the homes up and let it turn around and come back up

I WONDER IF THE "UNEMPLOYED" MITT AND HIS BRIDE,ANN "THE HOMEMAKER" HAVE BEEN IMPACTED BY THE HOME FORECLOSURE ISSUE?

[99er2049er]

07:58 AM on 04/19/2012

As someone who recently lost his home of 20 years due to foreclosure and bankruptcy I can tell you how the republicans affected this process.

When the republicans cut my unemployment checks in order to force Obama to adapt the extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, I lost my only lifeline and had to file bankruptcy and my house went into foreclosure. At every turn the republicans tried to cut funding, not help me stay in my home, and put a knife in my back.

Obama did the opposite, he extended my unemployment checks when I was in need of help and helped me stay in my home longer.

I now have the highest paying job of my life and was able to go back to college and complete my degree, and Obama helped me accomplish this, while the republicans kicked me to the curb.

Republicans have zero care for anyone struggling, but they have no problem dishing out billions upon billions to the wealthy, oil companies, and corporations.

Obama 2012

[WOODSTOCKER60]

08:05 AM on 04/19/2012

TODAYS REPUBLICANS ARE THE "MIRROR IMAGES OF THE NASTY,WEALTHY,GREEDY KOCH BROTHERS"..

,,,,,,,,,.HANG TOUGH..."WE SHALL,,,.OVERCOME"

[frank day]

07:44 AM on 04/19/2012

" Fuc* the children" Mitt

[etebol2003]

08:22 AM on 04/19/2012

lol

[WOODSTOCKER60]

07:43 AM on 04/19/2012

Jan 27, 2012 at 4:30 pm

ThinkProgress reported earlier this week that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) profited from thousands of Florida foreclosures through a Goldman Sachs investment fund.

."RUMMY ASKED ANN IF THIS WAS AN ISSUE...ANN NEVER ANSWERED......SO..I GUESS ITS NO PROBLEM"...

[trespanieli]

07:43 AM on 04/19/2012

Everyone will suffer from this debacle. And that will include the posters who say "Big deal. So what? Those people should have known better than buying a house, even a house they could afford." Everyone but the TBTF banks, that is.

[99er2049er]

07:59 AM on 04/19/2012

I think about statements like this that people shouldn't buy houses they can't afford, but I bought mine 20 years ago, when I had a good job, I even accelerated payments and put away money for a nestegg, but that goes away when you lose your jobs and remain unemployed for lengthy periods during a recession. So none of us other than the millionaires should ever dare to own a home again thanks to the republican thought process.

[isabella22]

08:32 AM on 04/19/2012

If you bought your house 20 years ago and accelerated payments, why did you still owe money on the house? Did you refinance or take out a home equity loan?

[Class Warfare Now]

07:38 AM on 04/19/2012

"The foreclosure crisis could end up directly affecting as many as 8.3 million children"

Right-wingers, Tea Partiers, and Radical Evangelicals don't like abortion. They need plenty of children to feed to their corporate masters.