May 28, 2008
DAVID ROEDER

The Woodstock Institute, cruncher of foreclosure numbers in the Chicago area, has provided a glimpse at how the mortgage lending crisis is hitting renters. When a lender forecloses on a landlord, buildings often fall into disrepair. The renters often don't know what's going on until the utilities get shut off or they are served with eviction notices.

Of the nearly 14,000 foreclosures filed in Chicago last year, some 35 percent involved two- to six-unit apartment buildings, the institute said. Those buildings, often owner-occupied, provide much of what passes as affordable housing these days.

The Woodstock Institute, cruncher of foreclosure numbers in the Chicago area, has provided a glimpse at how the mortgage lending crisis is hitting renters.

In some neighborhoods, the majority of foreclosures involve small apartment buildings, the institute said. It found that the two- to six-unit buildings accounted for almost 87 percent of foreclosures in West Garfield Park last year. North Lawndale, the Lower West Side, East Garfield Park and New City had more than 70 percent of their foreclosures in those buildings.

The institute reports that 12 lenders are involved in at least 75 percent of all city foreclosures. The Lawyers' Committee for Better Housing used that data to check this year's eviction records in Cook County Circuit Court.

It found that these are the lenders most active in eviction of renters: Deutsche Bank, Bank of New York, Wells Fargo & Co. and LaSalle Bank.

Without efforts to keep the units in foreclosed buildings rented, the institute warned that the loan crisis will diminish the supply of affordable apartments and destabilize communities.