Land Bank for Cook County Residents Suferring from Foreclosure

Foreclosure is the inevitable reality for anyone who is underwater on their mortgage loan or cannot afford to pay their monthly bill due too many expenses, such as medical bills. In Illinois’s Cook County, this has become a reality for people who thought they would be homeowners for many years. Right now, there are about 77,000 pending foreclosures in this county alone and 139,000 pending across the entire state.

Predatory lending has become a reality in many parts of the country, unfortunately. Mortgage services will do this out of greed and make it harder for people to pay off their mortgage loans. This is a common occurrence among marginalized groups, such as homosexual individuals and minorities.

Too many people are receiving bad loans and not enough people are being approved for good loans. Not enough people are educated about what kinds of home loans they should purchase either, which makes it easier for lenders to take advantage of unassuming homeowners.

However, there are definitely ways for homeowners in this county to help them through the difficulty of foreclosure. There are programs out there, like HAMP, which can help homeowners receive funding so they don’t lose their houses.

In Cook County alone, there are local organizations designed to give homeowners suffering through foreclosure, or other homeowners, support. For instance, the Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago provides housing counselors to those individuals that need advice or emotional support.

Another great thing that can help Cook County residents survive the blight of foreclosure is the new land bank being instituted in the county. The Cook County Board agreed to do this in order to do something about all the decaying, abandoned properties that are a direct result of the foreclosure crisis.

The land bank takes in these properties and tries to get them back into use as either housing, green space or storefronts. This will be a way for struggling communities to gain more revenue and improve their infrastructure. It will be a bit difficult to set up but it should provide more opportunities for homeownership or job growth in these poor communities.