Sep 21, 2008 11:24 am US/Pacific
City Renters Fall Victim To Foreclosure Crisis
VAN NUYS
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With the rental market crowded by persons moving out of foreclosed houses, displaced persons are finding it very difficult to obtain replacement housing, city officials said.
AP
People who rent houses or apartments and always pay on time are increasingly finding themselves evicted in increasing numbers, as landlords lose their property to foreclosure, it was reported Sunday.
Some 1,700 apartment units and 9,100 houses have been foreclosed upon within Los Angeles city limits in the past 18 months, triple the normal amount, according to figures from the city's Housing Department quoted by the Daily News.
Worse, 35,000 housing units are currently in default within the city of Los Angeles, and are at risk of being lost by their owners. A large percentage of those homes are occupied by renters who face eviction as their residences are sold.
With the rental market crowded by persons moving out of foreclosed houses, displaced persons are finding it very difficult to obtain replacement housing, city officials said.
That makes the innocent renters being evicted in increasing numbers the real victims of the mortgage meltdown, said one lawyer. "It's the landlord who has not kept up the payments, and it's the renters who suffer," attorney Roger Franklin told the newspaper.
The Fair Housing Council of the San Fernando Valley says it is getting 10 phone calls a day from renters who have paid on time but are being evicted.
And some of the people getting evicted are being abused by mortgage companies or real estate agents working for them, the city has said.
A single father of three has accused Countrywide Financial Corporation of suddenly telling him he had three days to move out of the house he rented or face having the locks changed.
"I was shocked," Ely Quijas told the Daily News. "I have three kids, I don't know what to do."
State law requires a 60-day notice of eviction to a tenant on a month-to-month lease, with payments made on time.
Countrywide has vigorously denied the allegation, and after Quijas complained to the city sent him a 60-day eviction notice.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
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