Recently in Foreclosure Crisis Category

Published: July 2, 2008

FIRST PLACE, 2009 Best of Ohio Journalism Awards, Society of Professional Journalists (Print Newspapers, Circ. over 100,000)

Richard Cayman started as an account executive in late 2004, just as mortgage lender Novastar Financial was about to give back more than 30 percent returns to investors. The subprime lending spree had shifted into high gear.

Broken.pdf

Published: Aug. 1, 2007

To consumer advocates like Lisa Rice, the only conclusion was that many of the foreclosures were a result of predatory lending. Ohio's consumer protection laws, which did nothing to fend off unscrupulous mortgage brokers and lenders, needed to change, they told elected officials. But Rice says they were told repeatedly that the real problems were the sagging economy and unwary borrowers.

In Plain Sight.pdf

Published: July 25, 2007

Federal regulators and lawmakers have yet to show signs of seriously spanking the mortgage banks behind the subprime lending fiasco, so another grassroots organization has sued 14 of the country's biggest lenders for "institutionalized systemic racism" against its membership. Earlier this month, the NAACP filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court, citing study after study showing blacks receiving higher-interest, even predatory, subprime loans much more often than their white counterparts.

Subprime Times.pdf

Published: July 11, 2007

For every foreclosure plight Ed Kramer and his firm, Housing Advocates Inc., took on, he learned that 20 others, with claims just as good, had lost their homes because of a predatory loan. There was no way to represent everyone in need. Kramer's law practice had only a handful of attorneys; resources were stretched thin.

The problem wasn't going away. Something needed to change.  

Sue the Bastards.pdf

Published: July 29, 2007

Following the scent of blight, the drug boys spread out. As Barbara Anderson's dead-end block emptied - nearly half the 20 homes were foreclosed and abandoned - she could watch from her front door as they plied their trade. Other newcomers stripped the vacant homes of siding, leaving them as though they'd weathered hundreds of Cleveland winters. Squatters moved in.

Anderson remembers saying to a friend, "Somebody's gonna own these streets. And we just have to decide: Who's it gonna be?"

Stealing Home.pdf

Published: June 21, 2007

Five years ago, Barbara Anderson didn't know what predatory lending was. As her elderly neighbors vanished from Slavic Village one by one, she chalked it up to hard luck.

But in time the pattern became impossible to miss. Homes were abandoned and boarded up with too much speed and frequency. Few were ever reoccupied, unless you counted the drug-boy squatters and the urban scavengers who stripped away the copper pipes and aluminum siding. Then the trucks started rolling through - day, night, didn't matter - dumping dirt and debris into empty lots, as if no one had ever lived nearby or ever would.

Credit Where Its Due.pdf

Published: January 4, 2006

A home-improvement contract agent by trade, Ponsky has been sued repeatedly and charged with building and housing code violations and theft over his 20-year career. Most of the cases he can't recall, he says. When prodded, he remembers a few, then blames someone else -- an ex-partner, a subcontractor, both. Sometimes his response is simply, "I don't know."

Some of those whom Ponsky blames point right back at him. But this doesn't seem to bother Ponsky, who's made a handsome living from his various schemes involving home repairs and mortgages, mostly in lower-income neighborhoods of Cleveland.

Home Despair Business.pdf