Tenants In 17-Unit Complex Face Foreclosure Eviction; Offered $1,000 To Leave Or Face The Boot

In Grand Rapids, Michigan, The Grand Rapids Press reports:

• A group of Northeast Side renters were shocked this week when they were given eight days to move out of their homes after a mortgage company foreclosed on their building. Housing advocates say the case, a growing problem, demonstrates what little protection renters have in another side to the national mortgage crisis. Renters in 17 duplex-style apartments [...] received notice Monday to vacate their homes by July 16, the tenants said.

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• Residents on Monday were offered $1,000 reimbursement if they signed before Wednesday a paper agreeing to move by July 16. But some residents said money after the fact would not help those who had no money or ability to move in eight days.

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• Some of the residents are young mothers with children and no transportation, others are working single women, some are families and all could be homeless, advocates say, through no fault of their own. "The clients I work with are living paycheck to paycheck. It really puts the tenants in a tough position and makes the working poor struggle that much harder," said Legal Aid of Western Michigan attorney Cavan Berry. The organization is investigating.

For more, see Foreclosure leaves tenants on the street.

For story update, see Evictions on hold at foreclosed apartment units (7-16-08).

For other posts involving the problems tenants face in rented homes in foreclosure, go here, go here, go here, go here, go here, and go here. equity skimming unwittingly digamma