Communities Reeling from Foreclosure Crisis

"Foreclosures are not only affecting the people who are losing their homes. They are changing entire communities. With fewer homeowners, local businesses and schools are seeing fewer customers and students. City governments are not receiving revenue, and abandoned houses are becoming sites for criminal activities.

Local governments are finding themselves in a vicious cycle: the more they lose revenue due to foreclosures, the more crime increases, which requires cities to provide more services, which they can’t because of the dent in revenues from foreclosures.

[D]ozens of complaints [come] every week from residents in West Phoenix about abandoned houses. For Sale signs and overgrown lawns have made vacant homes more attractive to copper thieves and even human smugglers, who use these properties as stash houses."