Foreclosures Cast Shadow On The Vulnerable Young

Shelby is a bubbling sixteen year old. But like many others in her age group foreclosures are casting a shadow on the vulnerable young. Understanding the plight of her mother and knowing that their home will soon break with the bank foreclosing on it, she is coming face to face with a financial reality that most children of her age do not experience. Watching her mother cry, a sense of frustration swells up inside her. She ventured forth into the big bad world, got a server’s job in a nursing home. There is tension in the house. She admits to blaming her mother, knowing it has not been her fault.

Some have to surrender pets and this has a traumatic psychological effect on the young. The foreclosure victims either shift to the house of friends and relatives or end up in homeless shelters. Phillip Lovell of First Focus that focuses on problems of families and children moan the fact that the foreclosure crisis is “taking away the innocence of our kids.” Children being children take their homes for granted. They do not realize that the house, which is the home, can be taken away by irreverent, indifferent, uncaring third parties. It has long-term impacts affecting the education, behaviour and overall health of the young. Mostly impacted are the children from low and middle-income families.

Researchers have just begun to study the effect of the foreclosure crisis on the country’s future generation. Their findings are grim. It is estimated about 2 million children will be directly impacted by the foreclosure crisis. This is according to a First Focus report released in April. The number is on the lower side because the families of renters and those who are facing foreclosures from prime mortgages have not been included.

Apart from behaviour problems the children might end up with learning deficiencies – especially in mathematics and reading. Health problems will multiply with the families being unable to keep up with health insurance schemes. There will be emotional issues like a sense of shame, persistent anxiety and the like. Earlier studies of First Focus show that 77% of the children who frequently move are more likely to be afflicted by various problems, than those who do not.

Further study shows that children who are not at the age of expressing emotions are also, if not more, likely to be affected. As a result motor skill developments will be delayed.

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