Almeda County on the coast in California has just announced what some of us always suspected. During a survey of two hardest-hit Oakland suburbs in conjunction with housing rights group Causa Justa / Just Cause, they found that foreclosure victims are twice more likely to experience stress and suffer from medical problems. The same applies to tenants in foreclosed buildings. I for one cannot say that I am surprised.

Shortened Life Expectancy

Previous work by Almeda officials had already established that areas with the highest repossession rates have a median lifespan that is 10 years less than their more fortunate neighbors. Direct causes of this are likely high unemployment, crime and other socio / economic factors. One in four homes in Oakland has been served a default notice. The California Endowment, a privately owned foundation that promotes health care paid for the research.

“The report really highlights much of what we know about communities that are already overburdened by poor health outcomes,” Deputy Director of the Almeda County Public Health Department Sandra Witt commented.

Impact on Health

According to the survey, residents in Oakland who went through foreclosure or recently lost their homes in other ways were twice as likely both to state that their physical or mental health had declined in the two years that followed, and to claim that they had suffered anxiety, stress or depression in the past month.

Increased Community Crime and Grime

The people living in these hardest-hit areas also reported higher crime levels that followed on the use of abandoned homes for crime. Having to move meant changing schools as well as houses – children particularly battled to leave old friends behind.

“This kind of financial distress leads to intense levels of stress, which, in turn, makes it not at all surprising to find people who are suffering emotional and, in some cases, physical consequences,” Paul Leonard, Director of the California Office for the Center for Responsible Lending commented. Pointing out that the Almeda County report includes anecdotal evidence as well, he added, “This provides some really concrete evidence that foreclosures have many different kinds of negative impacts on borrowers and communities.”

Tenants Affected as Well

The report confirms that tenants are also hard hit, especially as they have no idea about the owners financial status until they either receive notice of utility cut-offs, or a bank official calls around.

“When people think of the foreclosure crisis, they tend to think of the homeowners,” Responsible Lending’s Gabe Treves told me. “Tenants are absolutely the innocent victims of the foreclosure crisis,” he added sadly.

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