Posted on 01/27/2008 5:03:23 PM PST by traumer
The streets are empty. Trash rustles down the road past rusted barbecues, abandoned furniture, sagging homes and gardens turned to weed.
This is Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland and a town ravaged by the subprime mortgage crisis roiling the United States.
Faded "for sale" signs sit in front of deserted houses. The residents are gone, either in search of new jobs after the factories shut down, or in shame after being evicted for missing their mortgage payments.
A red, white and blue American flag flies over windows and doors which have been boarded up to keep the drug dealers away.
Thieves have stripped many homes of the plumbing, the doors, the windows, the aluminum siding.
The police station parking lot is full. The officers, who have seen their numbers triple since 2006, are coming back from their rounds. They speak of installing alarms in some of the homes claimed by squatters.
At 9422 Chagrin Street, a hand-scrawled sign attached to a window indicates someone lives there: "Please Used."
After three rings of the bell, Sarah Evans, 60, opens the door with a mixture of curiosity and alarm.
She says she is one of the last people left on the street. And she is on the verge of losing this two-bedroom house in which she has lived for more than 30 years because she simply cannot afford her monthly payments.
It is a complicated story. She refinanced in 2003, but did not realize the document she signed included provisions to radically increase the interest rate.
She stopped making payments in 2006 and shows her unpaid bills totaling 24,000 dollars.
Her bank is in the midst of eviction procedures.
"When folks buy a home they expect to die in it, I guess," she said as she stood outside in the cold. "I had my American Dream but it became a nightmare."
Her words are echoed by the angry barks of the guard dogs pacing behind a chain link fence two houses away that was installed by the new owner: a bank.
The massive parking lot of the Eagle Fresh supermarket is empty.
Behind her till, Myra Bibldwit lifts her head when a bell signals the entrance of a customer.
"Not many folks come anymore. We're used to it," said the 24-year-old cashier, one of the few in the neighborhood who managed to hold onto her job.
In the five hours since she started working today she has served just 10 customers. "Maybe you will buy something," she says with a smile.
Then comes customer number 12.
Laura Johnston, 50, says that her street -- about 10 minutes away by car -- was alive two years ago. Today, half the houses are abandoned.
"Folks could not afford their payments. They were asked to pay loans which doubled. They could not afford it, some lost their job. Lenders were greedy. They threw them out of their homes," she told AFP.
"I'm very upset. I missed my friend Helen. She disappeared overnight. She did not even say goodbye."
There are plenty of cases like Helen. They are called the neighbors who disappear in the night.
For county treasurer Jim Rokakis, the greed of the banks is to blame for this man-made disaster.
"All you needed was a pulse to buy a house. Some loans were written with no money down, no proof of buyer's incomes. They did not even check what people were saying. Most of those folks were jobless," he said in an interview.
"Shaker Heights was the perfect storm: poor folks, unemployed and a desire to get a piece of the American Dream."
Well for the guy who had no feet, undoubtedly.
That is what I was thinking. This is not the Shaker Heights I know!
Shaker Heights is/was very stable and a desired place to live with long standing grand old homes.
Something about this article doesn’t seem right. Might be worth a ‘fact checking’ trip.
Shaker used to be
Tax Amount (Semi-Annual): $1,829
That was on a $54,000 (sale price from bank) house.
The Shaker Heights I knew 30 years ago was a middle to upper middle class Jewish community. Not all Jewish of course but many Jewish families there. I'm amazed
To it's credit the neighborhood is trying to respond, but in their naivety they are targetting "violence" instead of targetting predators.
Actually, it's my old home town of Maple Heights that's been getting all the foreclosure attention. It's been the subject of NY Times and Economist stories lately. Those stories also missed a major point, how MH's city fathers lost well over a thousand manufacturing jobs...using apathy in one case and hostility about "pollution" in another.
-Eric
Myself, I'd blame what's happening on the unions and years of government over-regulation forcing industry south before I'd blame mortgage lenders.
I drove through Shaker Hts a few days ago. What is in this article might exist here & there (like where I live) but overall I saw a lot of very high end homes (as well as modest) in great condition & the normal amount of for sale signs.
Seems like a little sensationalism here implying the entire community is shot.
There is a lot of pride in Shaker Hts which has had it share of difficulty in going from an elitist & wealthy city to semi slum at borders near east Cleveland & then the past couple decades a true attempt to put itself in a positive light & clean up the “problems”
In my area that’s a bargain.
lol...gosh...someone finally got it. : )
I have 2 homes across the street from me up for foreclosure. Both owners make good money and can well afford the payments but choose not to and are simply walking away from them to move south
Whenever I think of East St Louis, "Vacation" immediately comes to mind:
Ellen: This is so dangerous! We have no business being in an area like this!
Clark: This is a part of America we never get to see.
Ellen: That's good!
Clark: No, that's bad. We can't close our eyes to the plight of the cities. Kids, are you noticing all this plight? This will just make us appreciate what we have.
*Gun Shots*
Clark: Roll 'em up!
“I hope a Cleveland area freeper can give us the true skinny “
I may just have to take a drive over there later! I went to a private school in Shaker Heights. When I was a little kid, S.H. was where you went to see the amazing mansions along Shaker Blvd. It was where you lived if you were rich. All those old money people now live in Gates Mills, Pepperpike and further east. However, there are smaller homes on the side streets that were built in the 30s and 40s. These smaller homes must be the problem. I say smaller, but still very, very nice homes. They’d probably go for 1/2 a mil if they were in Cali!
The demographics of the city have been changing for the last 30 years, as more minorities moved in from Cleveland, East Cleveland, etc..
Mrs Dearolddad and I went through the whole loan disclosure routine with the lawyers at closing and we paid cash.
People refinance their homes without even reading the terms of the mortgage?
How did they buy homes in the first place?
Is this story even true?
I thought Shaker Heights was one of the most exclusive areas to live in the Cleveland area. At least it was back in the late 60’s and early 70’s.
“Chagrin Street” - apparently named very aptly.
Clark: “Excuse me, um, homes? Can you tell me how to get back on the expressway?”
Ghetto Dude: “F*** yo momma!”
Clark: “Thank you very much.”
It’s “OK” now. Some parts are quite nice, others not so much. This story is sensationalist to the nth degree though. There are a few blocks of Shaker Heights, right at the border with the City of Cleveland, that somewhat resemble this article, but most of it is well-maintained and in quite good condition.
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