Problem Of Unwitting Tenants Victimized By Rent-Skimming Landlords Hits The Quad Cities

In East Moline, Illinois, WQAD-TV Channel 8 reports:

• An East Moline family of nine will soon be homeless. That's because their landlord is losing the home. It's a growing trend in the foreclosure crisis. Renters left out in the cold because their landlords can't pay the bills. As Darla Ballard begins to pack, she knows it won't be long before she's out on the street. After spending $1500 on rent, the unemployed single mom is being evicted.

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• [R]ealtor Diane Godwin says it happens more and more around the Quad Cities. She handled 60 foreclosures in 2007. Nearly a third of them involve unsuspecting renters. "If the owners knew that the house was going into foreclosure, then they were pocketing the money they were getting for the rent instead of paying the mortgage," Godwin said. [...] Ballard doesn't know where she'll move her six kids and two grandchildren at the end of March. This is a new kind of foreclosure for renters with nowhere to turn.

For more, see Rental foreclosures hit home around the Q.C.

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