Our friends at the Community Economic Development Association of Michigan  started the Michigan Foreclosure Task Force in 2007 to address foreclosure problems in Michigan.  The task force is focused on reducing the number of foreclosures, keeping families (both homeowners and renters) in their homes and softening the impact of foreclosures on communities.

The task force informs us that in the past four years, Michigan has ranked in the:

• Top 10 states for numbers of foreclosures;
• Top five states for a decline in property values (estimated at a more than 25% average loss in property value);
• Top five states for mortgage fraud and foreclosure rescue scams; and
• Top five states for percent of homes “underwater”—owing more on their mortgage than their home is currently worth (estimated to be more than 35%).

The task force just released a toolkit to help Michigan residents address issues related to foreclosure in their communities. The Community Foreclosure Response Toolkit  is intended to be used by elected officials, neighborhood groups and individuals facing foreclosure.

Along with providing information such as how to prevent mortgage disclosure  and tax foreclosure, it includes links to useful data, such as foreclosure in Michigan by county.

There’s some good work being done in Michigan to address the foreclosure crisis. If you have friends who work in real estate, social services, zoning or neighborhood economic development, pass this resource on to them.

– Peter Ruark

Michigan foreclosure activity is down 30 percent between February 2010 and February 2011, according to a Foreclosure Market Report released by RealtyTrac. Nationally, February 2011 had the lowest foreclosure activity in three years. This is great news, right?

Think again. Experts argue that this sudden decrease in foreclosure activity is largely due to the recent scandal surrounding the way many mortgage lenders conduct their foreclosure filing process. Lenders have temporarily suspended a large number of foreclosures in order to overhaul their filing processes. 

Even though foreclosure activity is down and will likely continue to decrease in the upcoming months, the numbers do not accurately reflect the high number of homeowners who are struggling to stay afloat.

An astounding 136,000 properties in Michigan, or 1 in every 33 housing units, received a foreclosure filing in 2010 alone. Experts are uncertain whether the number of foreclosure filings will ever return to the record breaking numbers of 2010, but they note that many homeowners are still struggling to pay their mortgages and are at a high risk of eventually losing their homes. RealtyTrac estimates that over 4 million homes nationwide have seriously delinquent mortgages.

Sometimes the numbers don’t paint the full picture. The foreclosure crisis has already affected thousands of homeowners and many more are still at risk. Now is not the time to forget about them.

– Audrey Dowell

There are more than 100,000 people experiencing homelessness in Michigan. Because of this, they all too often forgo the little things that most of us take for granted, like warm clothing and hair cuts.  You can do something to help. 

Project Connect is an effort to help those who are at risk for, or currently experiencing homelessness. For the past five years, Project Connect has been offering a variety of important services at events held throughout the state. These services include such practical things as assistance with filling out job applications and government forms,  to the provision of much needed medical care.

In 2009-2010, Project Connect offered services to more than 14,000 people at over 50 events throughout the state. More than 3,200 citizens volunteered their time at these events to reach out to those who have difficulty obtaining life’s basic necessities.

This year, a number of Project Connect events have already been scheduled and volunteers are welcome and needed. In Charlotte on Thursday, for example, volunteers will staff the Eaton County Project Homeless Connect.

To find out more information about when Project Connect events are scheduled in your community, go to the Michigan Campaign to End Homelessness website. Your help can make a difference in the lives of our most vulnerable citizens, and help assure all the residents of our great state a brighter future!

– Audrey Dowell

January 21st, 2011 Posted to Blog: Factually Speaking,Events,Human Services | Comments (1)

Each year, as I sit down to look back and write about what the year has brought Michigan residents in terms of income, health insurance, housing, and poverty, it gets harder and harder. This year was no exception. As we all know, even with the unemployment rate dropping in recent months, Michigan residents especially those of color are still hurting. And the numbers back it up. This year’s retrospective on what the economy has brought low-income families this holiday season, “Michigan’s Economy Continues to Cause Pain: Communities of Color Take a Harder Hit” shows that not only has unemployment remained high, but income is in a near freefall and poverty keeps going up. It also found that more families are spending an ever-increasing share of their income on housing and bankruptcies are on the rise.

In 2009, Michigan’s unemployment rate averaged 13.3 percent, the poverty rate was 16.2 percent, and median household income ranked 35th in the nation, which is now 10 percent below the national median. And for communities of color, the story is even worse:
•    The unemployment rate for African Americans in 2009 was 21 percent and was 16.6 percent for Hispanic/Latinos. For whites it was 12.2 percent.
•    Median household income fell 10.5 percent for all Michigan residents between 2005 and 2009, but for communities of color, who already have significantly lower earnings than whites, income fell 14.4 percent for African Americans and 13.9 percent for Hispanic/Latinos.
•    The poverty rate for African Americans is more than double that for whites and the rate for Hispanic/Latinos is nearly double that of whites.
•    Nearly 25 percent of all Hispanic/Latinos and 15.7 percent of African Americans were without health insurance in 2009. For whites, this was 11 percent and the state average was just over 12 percent.

Unfortunately, even as more people are turning to public support to get by day to day, the  state budget does not recognize this. The fiscal year 2011 budget does not account for the slowly rising cash assistance caseload, which has been creeping up over the last couple years.

As Gov. -elect Snyder and the new Legislature prepare to take office in January, they need to pay attention to the challenges that many in Michigan still face.  Upcoming policy and budget decisions should be viewed as an opportunity to help Michigan residents, not a chance to make further cuts.   An approach that takes into account the years of cuts that have already occurred and also preserves the programs many Michigan residents rely on, will be the best approach.

This week I attended my first meeting with the Michigan Campaign to End Homelessness.   This is not a new initiative,  but the League is new to the Campaign’s State Implementation Group.

Being a part of this Campaign seems like a natural fit for the League as we work to help vulnerable families and populations around the state.  I went into the meeting knowing little about the Campaign, but learned a lot.

There are more than 86,000 homeless people in Michigan, the size of a large city.  Over one-third of the homeless are working poor and nearly 60 percent are female heads of households.

I didn’t know that Michigan is the only state addressing homelessness on a statewide basis.  Every community in our state has a 10-year plan to end homelessness.  These local efforts are coordinated and supported at the state level.

The Campaign’s goal is to end homelessness by 2016.  Certainly a formidable goal.  But I’m learning that there are lots of folks in communities working diligently on this goal.  They include service agencies, faith-based organizations, government entities, local leaders and business leaders.

If you go to the Campaign’s website, you can find the 10-year plan to end homelessness for your community.  I hope you’ll take a look.  In the end, no one should have to sleep on the streets, in a box or in a car.

April 1st, 2010 Posted to Blog: Factually Speaking,Human Services | Comments (1)