Talk Bronx New York

Foreclosures affect Bronx homeowners 

Devon Honeyghan spent $25,000 renovating the kitchen of his Bronx house in preparation for selling it and moving to Georgia.

But two “For Sale” signs and an abandoned house standing all in a row across the street have him doubting he will make any of his money back.

Honeyghan, a 42-year-old livery cab driver, lives in Wakefield, the working-class northeast Bronx neighborhood hit hardest by the mortgage foreclosure crisis.

Statistics released this month by the Center for Responsible Lending show the value of nearly 400,000 homes in the Bronx has dropped $4.9 billion because of surrounding foreclosed homes.

The foreclosure crisis began with missed mortgage payments and first-time owners losing their homes. It later hit banks and the financial industry, but its most recent victims are the neighbors who live on streets with abandoned homes.

Honeyghan, who bought his new house in Georgia at the market’s peak, is so desperate to sell his Bronx home that he offered to buy the abandoned house across the street, which has become an eyesore and is filled with stray cats. He could not because it is locked in a divorce case.

“I just don’t see myself getting my money back,” he said. “I was going to spend $10,000 on the bathroom, but it’s not worth it.”

Carmen Rosa, district manager of Community Board 12, says most foreclosed homes in the neighborhood have not deteriorated - just yet - but residents fear what is to come.

“You see the signs up - ‘For Sale, For Sale, For Sale’ - on every street,” Rosa said.

“At our board meetings, residents are very concerned about the impact the foreclosures will have on the value of their homes,” she said, “but they are also concerned if someone walks away from their home that people will break in and they will have to become watchdogs. There is a social impact, too.”

Paul Founsette, 54, a contractor who lives on Ely St. in Wakefield, for example, sweeps the sidewalk and driveway of the two-story brick house across from his. It was foreclosed and has been vacant for more than a year. The “For Sale” sign seems to have given up too, toppled over in the driveway.

“If it’s not clean, it’s going to blow across,” Founsette said. “It just looks bad for everyone. It’s a rough time.”

Two blocks from Founsette is a foreclosed home with an overflowing mailbox and a truck with blown-out tires abandoned out front.

And, posted on telephone poles on every corner throughout the neighborhood are flyers from land sharks calling out to those at their lowest point of desperation - “Wanted - Houses and Land, Bought All Cash, Top $$$.”

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Bronx Residents’ Crime, Safety Concerns Lead Quality of Life Survey

A citywide survey has everyone raving about their ‘hoods, but Bronxites are apparently not so happy in theirs - when it comes to crime and safety.

The quality of life survey by the Citizens Committee for New York City found issues Bronx residents also rated as most important - but of the lowest quality - were clean sidewalks, streets and open spaces; clean air; public officials’ responsiveness to neighborhood needs; quiet neighborhoods and good public schools.

They were most satisfied with proximity to public transportation as well as shops, restaurants, parks and playgrounds. They were also happy with the borough’s diversity and having neighbors they get along with.

The survey questioned 340 Bronxites. While statistically a low sample, the Citizens Committee said it sought a broad range of respondents - in parks, on street corners, outside the Bronx Public Library and on the Grand Concourse.

“I think it is significant that everywhere else in the city beside the Bronx considers their neighborhoods relatively safe,” said Jemilah Magnusson, spokeswoman for the Citizens Committee, a nonprofit group that promotes civic engagement. “Even if it is just perception.”

John Robert, district manager of Community Board 2 in Hunts Point-Longwood, said he thinks the results are representative.

“All of the outer boroughs suffer from the stepchild thing, but we’re maybe the third stepchild,” he said. “The Bronx is on the back burner.”

Residents elsewhere gave their boroughs a fair-to-excellent rating on safety. Bronxites gave the borough’s safety a lower rating of poor to good. Read more..

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Email Updates On Sex Offenders Proposed

State Sen. Jeff Klein, D-Bronx, and Assemblyman Rory Lancman, D-Queens, today called on the state to adopt a two-year-old proposal to require the state to alert parents and neighbors by email when a sex offender moves into their zip code.

The Democratic lawmakers say that New York City has an average of 14.9 moderate and high-risk sex offenders live in each zip code. Of the 3,260 known sex offenders residing in New York City, 133 live in Staten Island, 683 live in Brooklyn, 232 live in Manhattan, 531 live in the Bronx, and 204 in Queens.

The most—104 sex offenders—live in the 11207 zip code, which in Brooklyn’s East New York section.

In Westchester, the zip code 10701 in Yonkers has the most—44 offenders, followed by 34 in 10550 in Mount Vernon. In Westchester, an average of 2.8 level 2 and 3 sex offenders reside in each zip code, according to a report released by the lawmakers.

SOURCE: LoHudBlogs.com

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Operation Protect Your Home To Save NYC Home Owners Facing Foreclosure 

Like so many others, 69-year-old George Mascia fears he is on the brink of losing his home because of the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

“Let these bankers see these people, what they have done to them,” says Mascia. “Angry ain’t the word for it, you don’t know how angry I am.”

The Air Force vet, who still holds down a job, says in 2005 he was in desperate need of money to pay off medical bills so he took a second mortgage on his home in Throggs Neck. He says he was quick to sign, without reading the fine print about interest rates that go up over time.

“I went from a $2,400 mortgage up to $3,500 mortgage. One thousand dollars in a jump!” says Mascia. “And it’s going to raise every six months one percent, up to 13 and a half percent.”

State Senator Jeff Klein says his office has received numerous complaints about adjustable rate mortgages from homeowners who are in danger of foreclosure. The mortgages start out with low interest rates, but can balloon to levels that a lot people just can’t afford.

“I’ve met so many people who really lost their part of the American dream – home ownership – and that is wrong,” says Klein.

So how serious is the problem in New York City?

According to a report from Klein’s office, in just a year from July of 2006 to July of 2007 there were 14,561 foreclosure filings in the city. Most of them were in Queens and Brooklyn, but the Bronx had 1,684, with the neighborhoods of Wakefield and Baychester hit the hardest.

“I’ve been pressuring these banks for quite some time, but they are finally stepping up to the plate and they are willing help people modify their mortgages,” says Klein.

This Saturday, Klein and others officials are sponsoring a forum called “Operation Protect Your Home.”

It will be held at Cardinal Spellman High school from noon until 8 p.m. Dozens of banks, lending institutions, and housing counselors are scheduled to attend to help owners who are in jeopardy.

Although this huge gathering is set up to help people protect their homes, bottom line, there are no guarantees.

“They took advantage of innocent people is what they did – people like myself,” says Mascia.

For more information on this Saturday’s forum, call Klein’s office at 1-800-718-2039 or log onto his website at nyssenate34.com.

SOURCE: NY1

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Graffiti Not Something We Want in The Bronx! Says Residents..

Despite hundreds of millions of dollars in economic development and rising property values in the Bronx, complaints of graffiti in the borough increased by 58% last year, costing business owners and taxpayers thousands of dollars.

Bronx police are responding with greater enforcement, cuffing 780 people for graffiti crimes last year, second only to Brooklyn in arrests citywide, according to the NYPD’s comprehensive year-end GraffitiStat report, obtained by Bronx Boro News.

Police say graffiti has not necessarily increased, but that people are more vigilant and the NYPD’s reporting system now requires cops to file an incident report for each graffiti complaint.

But the new reporting system does not account for the consistently steep increase in complaints over the past three years. Bronx residents filed 1,416 complaints in 2007 compared with 892 in 2006, and 338 in 2004.

In response, community leaders, politicians and the district attorney’s office all say they are developing creative solutions to attack the problem — including more arrests, harsher sentences and holding building owners responsible for cleaning up graffiti as soon as it happens.

“It’s in my face, there’s no way to ignore it,” said Fernando Tirado, district manager of Community Board 7 in Kingsbridge, which had the most graffiti complaints — 191 — in the Bronx. “Business owners become exasperated from the amount of work they have to do just to maintain their property.”

“It sends a horrible, horrible message,” said state Sen. Jeff Klein, who runs a graffiti hotline and cleaning service through his office.

“It shows that the community is in disrepair, on the decline.”

Klein (D-Bronx, Westchester) echoed what many, from the district attorney’s office to local shop owners, say - graffiti needs to be cleaned up quickly.

Frank Fitts, community council president for the 45th Precinct, which had the most - 311 - graffiti complaints in the borough, said he tells residents to report graffiti even after the painters are gone, so the city has a record of it.

Arrests of those caught in the act and kids with graffiti paraphernalia in school were up by 61% last year over 2006, from 484 to 780.

But police say that no matter how many officers there are, graffiti is simply a difficult crime to stop.

“It’s not so much understaffing. It’s a crime you really have to be lucky to catch the kids, it’s done so fast,” said Officer Vic DiPierro, community affairs officer of the 49th Precinct. “Kids can tag up a store gate in seconds.”

The district attorney’s office held a summit meeting with transit officials last week on how to prosecute graffiti vandals not initially caught in the act.

Earlier this month, the office prosecuted a teen who was arrested with a camera filled with photos of works he admitted creating.

Punishment for first time offenses includes community service or restitution to property owners.

In the past, the community service may have included sweeping streets, but under an experimental program in Bronx Criminal Court, called Bronx Community Solutions, offenders specifically have to clean up graffiti. Repeat offenders face jail time.

Wilfredo (Bio) Feliciano, a former street graffiti artist turned professional mural artist, argued criminal convictions are not the answer.

“For these kids, this is the way of letting the world know, to say, I exist,” he said.

“If they would use half of the money in finding outlets for people, you’ll maybe cut that number of complaints in half.”

Klein “wholeheartedly” disagrees.

“I would like to see more arrests being made,” he said.

“It’s a crime. There’s a very small percentage of vandals that eventually become artists. You see the garbage scrawled on buildings, it’s not art.”

SOURCE: NYDailyNews.com

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