Southwest News-Herald: Durbin Views Foreclosures In Marquette Manor

Durbin Views Foreclosures In Marquette Manor

Southwest News-Herald

By Dermot Connolly

The home foreclosure crisis brought Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to Marquette Manor on Wednesday, where he took a walking tour along the 6400 and 6500 blocks of South Talman Avenue, which are dotted with boarded-up homes.

Durbin, who was invited to the area by the Southwest Organizing Project, chatted with residents and then gave a brief press conference in front of one home on the 6500 block that has been boarded for two years.

The senator noted that his mother was born in Lithuania, so he was familiar with the neighborhood near Marquette Park when it was a largely Lithuanian community.

“I know it as a hard-working community, and it still is. We are concerned about this housing crisis. It is a crisis. That is the reality of the situation and, sadly, this is ground zero,” said Durbin.

He referred to maps of four ZIP codes on the Southwest Side, 60629, 60632, 60638 and 60652, that the Southwest Organizing Project provided, illustrating statistics collected from the Foreclosure Report of Chicago.

According to the maps, it appears that at least one foreclosure was initiated on nearly every block from 87th to 55th streets, between Cicero and Western avenues, from January 2008 to this past June.

Michael Reardon, a director of Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, pointed out how the boarded-up homes are interspersed among many well-kept homes, pointing out how it makes life difficult for the homeowners who are trying to maintain their homes.

Durbin hailed groups such as SWOP and Neighborhood Housing Services, which are providing counseling to people in danger of losing their homes.

He said some banks also are also trying to help, but more need to get involved.

“What we're asking them to do is show us they are really committed to these neighborhoods,” Durbin said.

Durbin said he wants to bring federal officials to the Southwest Side to see the crisis up close, and get banking officials to sit down and talk about solving the problem.

He suggested that he is planning to draw up legislation that would allow people making good-faith efforts to work out a payment plan with the mortgage holders to stay in their homes as renters.

“That would benefit everyone,” he said. “People would not be put out on the street, the residents would keep up the property, and the banks would be getting something. No one wants all these vacant homes.

“Many of these banks got money from the federal Treasury last year. I don't think this is asking too much of them.”

The senator pointed out that at least two of the boarded-up homes on Talman are owned by Deutsche Bank, a German bank, so there is little interest in keeping up the property for the sake of the neighborhood.

Martha Rincon, who lives in Gage Park, about a mile north of the press conference site, told how she has been trying to renegotiate her mortgage loan with Bank of America for almost a year.

“I have lived in that home for 20 years. My sons were raised there and we want to stay. But every time they ask me to fill out paperwork, they ask for more,” said Rincon, a cafeteria worker at the University of Chicago.

She said she would welcome the opportunity to even rent her property if she was allowed.

According to SWOP statistics, Deutsche Bank owns 350 of the homes in the four local ZIP codes that began foreclosure proceedings in 2008, second only to US Bank, which has 404. The others in the top five are Wells Fargo with 263, JP Morgan Chase with 248, and Bank of America with 240.

Norita Gray, who moved with her family to a home a few blocks west of Talman last year, brought her four children over to see Durbin.

“It is good that he came here. There are a lot of blocks like this,” said her son, Pontraille, 13, who took photos of the senator.

Mother and son agreed that the vacant homes can become dangerous places for children to be around, especially if gangs break in and take them over, as often happens.

“I want the best for my children. I am afraid to let the kids outside,” said Norita Gray.

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