Atlanta, GA; Elk Grove, CA Neighborhoods Among Many Dealing With Crime, Public Safety Concerns That Follow Foreclosures

The Associated Press reports:

• Eighty-five bungalows dot the cul-de-sac that joins West Ontario Avenue and East Ontario Avenue in Atlanta. Twenty-two are vacant, victims of mortgage fraud and foreclosure. Now house fires, prostitution, vandals and burglaries terrorize the residents left in this historic neighborhood called Westview Village. [...] "They've seen a lot of prostitution in the area, vagrants wandering in and out of the empty houses and drug activity," said Officer Dakarta Richardson of the Atlanta Police Department. "Some people that I talked to are afraid to walk out of their homes at night."

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• In the Franklin Reserve neighborhood of Elk Grove, Calif., full of subdivisions with half-million dollar homes, homeowners are fighting inner-city problems like gangs, drugs, theft and graffiti. During the boom, the suburb just south of Sacramento sprouted 10,000 homes in four years, attracting investors from the San Francisco area. Now many houses stand empty, weeds overtaking lawns, signs lining the street: "Bank Repo," "For Rent," "No trespassing -- bank owned property." A typical home's value has dropped from about $570,000 to the low $400,000s.

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• The homeowners sometimes have no options but to accept any renters they can get, said Norm Schriever, a local real estate and loan agent. "You get some bad renters in there and the weeds start growing and a few windows are broken and it starts descending into a feeling of chaos," he said.

• Thieves also have looted some empty homes, stripping them of electrical appliances or valuable copper wiring and pipes that can be sold as scrap, he said. Banks aren't watching foreclosed properties closely, said Modesto, Calif., Police Chief Roy Wasden. "As it gets colder, (squatters) will start building fires in these structures and it's quite dangerous," he said.

• Franklin Reserve resident Susan McDonald said two of the homes on her block were turned into indoor marijuana farms. Both caught fire last summer after the pot growers tapped into the city's electric grid with faulty wiring.

For more, see Empty Houses Home to Crime As Loans Fail (Neighborhoods Suffer As Crime Follows Foreclosures Into Vacant Houses).

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