Foreclosure Crisis Negatively Impacts New Veterans

Posted in Foreclosure Crisis, November 20th, 2008 |

The foreclosure crisis has negatively impacted new veterans in a bad way.

The story of Andrew Spurlock is one of the many. After being thrown off a roof in Iran his career in the army as a veteran infantryman came to an end. Forgetting the past and the pain of the back injury he chalked out a new life for himself in a new house with a job as a police officer and the blessings of more children.

Today at 29 Spurlock and his wife are the parents of three children. They had hoped that the transition from Iraq to life in Apopka in Florida would be smooth. But the promise of a good future proved to be false – as is the case with many veterans.

First the job in Orange County at the Sheriff’s office failed because he was told that enough time had not been spent for his decompressing after returning from two combat tours. Taken on the wrong foot he realistically settled for a job of pizza delivery. Meanwhile it took a year and a half for Spurlock’s disability claim to pass through. With no other options they turned to their credit cards to finance mortgage dues. The family debt began to spike. A good proportion of it was for meeting medical expenses for all of them including his wife and kids. Foreclosure soon began to come nearer and nearer.

While there is little respite for the ordinary American from the foreclosure crisis, the new veterans seem to be worse hit than the others. They are being slapped three times – war injury, unemployment coupled with waiting for disability benefits and foreclosures. Veteran organizations claim that this is causing many to be pushed over the edge.

It is difficult to measure the reality in numbers because no statistics are available separating the veterans from the non-veterans. Recently however the Department of Veteran Affairs have been asked how badly their members have been impacted particularly by the ongoing foreclosure crisis. The army too has begun to track similar requests. The reports coming in are gloomy. The new veterans are suffering mentally and physically from the problem of foreclosures. Their numbers have sharply risen.

Bill Nelson of USA Cares said, “The demand curve has gone almost straight up this year.” The organization is a non-profit body that offers financial assistance to military personnel and veterans. Nelson adds that the situation has become particularly bad during the “last twelve months”.