COLLATERAL
DAMAGE
from the bank. He says he can win
a civil judgment worth far more
than $5,000.
Housing lawyers say this is a familiar story. New owners are often
eager to put homes they purchase
out of foreclosure back on the market for sale, especially now that
home prices are rising in many
places. That gives them a financial
incentive to see that the property
is vacated as soon as possible, so
that it can be marketed again.
To this end, paperwork often
goes missing. Banks claim that
notifications that owners are supposed to deliver are never received.
“This is a very common dispute,” said Fernando Gaytan, a
senior attorney at the Legal Aid
Foundation of Los Angeles. “Financially strapped tenants are often
faced with the allegation that they
didn’t supply documents on time.”
And when renters go looking for
assistance, there are few places
to turn. Gaytan said there simply
isn’t enough free legal assistance
to meet the high demand.
When the eviction happens, it
is often traumatic, he said. “It can
rattle a family to its very core.”
RESEARCHERS HAVE FOUND that
homeowners in foreclosure or de-
HUFFINGTON
09.22.13
fault situations face greatly elevated risks of illness and depression.
A 2009 study in the American
Journal of Public Health, for example, found that people undergoing foreclosure counseling at
a housing agency in Philadelphia
had higher rates of depression,
hypertension and heart disease.
A related study found the depression rate among senior citizens
in foreclosure situations was eight
times that of typical Americans.
Researchers have found
that homeowners in
foreclosure or default
situations face greatly
elevated risks of illness
and depression.
Mogelberg was an Army Rangers soldier who served in Kuwait
during the first Gulf War. He often
feels crippling pain in his extremities — symptoms, he suspects, of
Gulf War syndrome. The symptoms have been worse since he
was evicted, he says. Mentally,
he seems barely able to cope at
times. Especially when it comes to
more bad news.
It’s late afternoon in a hotel
parking lot. Mogelberg is bending